[1974] More ex-champs' Ali-Foreman predictions

Just goes to show you how great a win it was for Ali.

 

This is so interesting! Do you have any more of these for other historic fights?

 

Frazier probably suspected that what happened would happen. The ones who had only seen Foreman beat Frazier and Norton probably thought Foreman was invincible, but the ones who had seen him fight Peralta saw something completely different. In those days, all of the fights weren't on Youtube or television so that they could be critiqued and there was no internet and no message board discussion. It would be interesting to find out what the boxers and trainers of 1974 thought about the fight and who they picked to win.

 

Frazier is a warrior

Can't believe how criminally underrated he's become

 

I wonder who Floyd Patterson picked? He did state the day after Muhammad Ali's victory that he wanted to fight Ali for his newly won title. I wonder who Sonny Liston would have picked if he was alive in 1974?

 

You have to put George Foreman in perspective. He had his first amateur fight in January of 1967 and won the Olympics before the end of 1968. In my opinion, heavyweight is the only division in which someone with so little experience could win the gold.
His final amateur record was 22-4, so he had maybe 65 rounds of amateur experience?
Then he turned pro and, with the exception of the Peralta fights, was very carefully matched and he didn't fight too many rounds. The Peralta fight was a mistake and they never matched him with a mover until, I guess, Jimmy Young.
I'm guessing that they figured that the FOTC took enough out of Frazier to make him safe and it worked.
I'm also guessing that they had the same theory about Ali; no freaking way would they have taken that fight if they thought Ali still had legs.
But here's the thing- I'm pretty sure that Foreman had maybe 100, 110 rounds of pro experience when he fought Ali. That's nothing, especially when you consider how few quality rounds of work he actually had. You don't learn much knocking guys down and watching them get up.
So when I read that Ali wasn't too worried about Foreman, I tend to believe it. Foreman was, for the most part, a big strong guy swinging his arms really hard and Ali knew how to fight.

 

Probably. I bet George had that exact thought in his mind when he was planning his comeback, though.

 

How embarrassing are Sharkey and Tunney.

 

Right. I wonder how many boxers picked douglas over Tyson ?
None

 

Still laughing at Tunney saying that Dempsey beats Ali in 1 round.

 

Words just can't describe.