Send in your light heavyweight to give prime Ali a tough night at the office

Roy Jones, Michael Spinks and Ezzard Charles could all potentially make Ali have to work for a win. In the end I believe he beats them all though.

 

A few on here might argue about Moorer having more skills than Foster.

 

Yeah I really like the Loughran calls here. I hardly see him winning, simply because Ali is bigger, faster and won't feel anything Loughran throws at him. But he has the ability to cause some issues through his incredible spoiling ability.

if there's any Light Heavy that could potentially out-jab Ali, it's Loughran. Not in the way you'd expect him to, though. His lead hand was a far cry from the modern approach. He wasn't an in and out jabber, he was an in and stay in jabber.

Here's a great analysis on some of the moves Loughran pulled that goes into detail about it:
https://www.fightprimer.com/advanced-striking-20-tommy-loughran-jabby-little-man?rq=tommy loughran

Guy couldn't punch, but he sure as **** knew how to fight.

 

Mike Spinks and Roy Jones.

 

I think a prime Qawi, could give a post Manilla Ali quite a bit of trouble.

 

Foster relied heavily and his long jab vs shorter armed light heavies.

 

He never had to. I probably could have worded that differently.

 

Hello, InMemoryofJakeLamotta.

I would like to offer Sam Langford at 175 pounds.

 

Cheers. Where I am heading is that if Ali really needed to cut off the ring I dare say it wouldn't be much of a challenge. His feet were blindingly fast and combine that with his handspeed and I'd hate to be the smaller guy he felt he needed to hammer.

Perhaps a runner could cruise the distance if he gave up the idea of actually trying to win the fight.

 

He certainly had the capability to do it but would he? I would wager that the subject of cutting off the ring- of Ali cutting off the ring against an opponent- was never once brought up in his entire career. Beyond that, I don't think that particular skill was something he ever considered learning. I don't mean that as a dig at Ali, but he had his way of fighting and it didn't involve him walking guys down.
Would he be able to do it? Over my years here I have often said that I do not consider Ali to be the most skilled, complete fighter many say he is, but his will to win is way up there and that has to be respected. it is also why I didn't say either of those guys would beat Ali, but that he would not look good in winning.

 

He spent most of his time on the front foot against Joe Bugner in Kuala Lumpur

 

I'm guessing that if they didn't take chances and try to win he'd be in cruise mode. He loved being in the ring spotlight and would likely be content to outpoint them. If they were having success and making it competitive (which i highly doubt as he had the speed and timing to catch them if they were too offensive) he'd certainly up the ante. With his foot speed and natural instincts i think he'd have little trouble if he had to go that way. But again, if they fought to spoil and survive it'd be a drawn out exhibition match.

 

Doug Jones.
Yes, he was a lightheavyweight even in his era.
Even fought at a catchweight below the 175 limit.
Much more petite and scrawny than Michael Moorer ever was.
Probably better suited for 175 than Archie Wright was during his reign there.
Did not lose against Ali according to what I saw.