It's common knowledge that ALI was not at peak when he faced Frazier. He had to take the fight in March or risk losing it all together. He had a pending court date on April 8 and did not know the outcome. The general consensus is that ALI is the better fighter. The interesting thing about this question is the tendency to think that Holmes is in his prime while ALI is not. I think, by the time he faced ****ey, Holmes was just slightly past his prime. In fact, it's possible that Holmes might not have been as prepared for another opponent at that time. Holmes was at his peak when he faced ALI in 1980. He was supremely conditioned, physically and mentally, because no one knew what to expect from ALI. Every fighter always brought his A-game against ALI. We all know now that ALI was just a shell of his former self. One other thing to consider is the fact that, as mentioned above, ALI didn't have much time to prepare. He had to take the fight in March or risk losing it. Because of the magnitude of the Frazier fight, people tend to place both ALI and Frazier very high. The truth is that that was Frazier's greatest performance, not ALI's. Naturally, Holmes is not as tenacious as was Frazier. However, ALI did not have to worry about the accuracy he would face against Holmes. Sure, Frazier won but that's because he out-worked ALI. Great as he was, I never once believed that Frazier, Prime would beat ALI Prime. ALI Prime would have won clearly. In the beginning, ALI would have lead on points. Holmes would not cope well with ALI's speed and ALI, despite his toe-to-toe stance with Frazier, would move a bit more against Holmes. He'd have to. By round four, Holmes realizes he must make a fight of it. For the next four rounds, the fight is closer as Holmes gets more physical. Here, Holmes pulls slightly ahead on points. ALI gets his second wind by the 11 round but Holmes keeps up the pace. The fight is very close but Ali guts it out in the last two rounds. Ali W 15 split.
