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

It's a shame they wasn't asked to comment after the fight.

 

Tunney was way off...2 to 3 rounds re Dempsey Ali
None of these guys knew foreman was a sissy like Ali said

 

Tunney was obviously old and senile when making that statement.
Now we have more old and senile attempting to defend it.
What planet are some of you on?
Ali would have embarrassed Anyone from that era.

 

Foreman certainly wasn't a sissy when decimating Frazier twice.
Frazier was the type of fighter that neither Dempsey nor Tunney would have stepped in the ring with, let alone Foreman.

 

In actuality dempsey and sharkey respected Ali but tunney saw the mistakes

 

I recall most of the ex champs and contenders predicting that Foreman would win.
In Boxing Illustrated Jerry Quarry and Joe Louis forecast a Foreman ko. Ken Norton's view in the same issue said "Ali by decision. Easily"

 

As far as boxers predictions, there were some boxers who were almost physic in this regard... Incredibly accurate.

 

Sadly, that’s one of his better posts.

 

I'm sure Sharkey said later on that he didn't watch much boxing after his career. I'll maybe dig up that interview later.

 

It's not really hard to see why he'd think that when Ali had gone either way with Frazier and Ken Norton, and Foreman had blasted out Frazier and Norton.

Hindsight is always 20:20/

 

A lot of good information and statistics! And good points as well.. It is totally understandable that Foreman would be such a heavy favorite after what he had done to Frazier and Norton, the two men who had beaten Ali and gave him all he could handle in rematches. But the clues were there - the relatively few rounds of actual fighting, the many easy victories, and the stamina issue brought out in the Peralta fights. Even so, the feeling at the time was that Foreman's power would negate all the shortcomings and have no effect on the outcome. Give George a few hard fights on the way up that would take him the distance and build up his stamina and experience and he would have been a different fighter in Zaire. (I always liked how Sugar Ray Leonard was developed - exposure to different styles and levels of difficulty, but fights he would be expected to win. Each fight a learning experience.) And of course that great intangible - the ability of Ali to get inside the head of his opposition, which worked so well against so many.

 

Yeah, Ali already had put together quite a career at that point, so one should think he deserved a bit more respect. But they probably just plain didn't like him.

Ali showed a lot more respect for Tunney.

 

Thinking Foreman would win is one thing, but they were very dismissive in their comments. Especially Sharkey. He paints Ali as a clown that he would have KO'd as soon as he came to the centre of the ring. All the guys Ali had beat by that time, and the wars with Frazier and Norton, should have afforded him some more respect.

 

Not really.

Most people made similar picks at the time.