A Fighter From History That Troubles Ali Like Norton?

The very best post-exile version of Muhammad - 1972-74 in my opinion - beats Lennox. Would have been some fight though. After Lennox got established in the Kronk set up,he was pretty damn awesome. Great heavyweight for us Brits.

 

Tunney
Conn
Charles
Walcott
M Spinks

 

Alexander Zolkin

 

From that list, Holmes, Evander and Vitali all give Ali big problems

 

There's a lot of them, and I know he's been listed, but let me say this one is underrated -- Larry Holmes. Why's he underrated? To Ali, Holmes was a sparring partner. But, to Holmes, Ali was *THE* guy he studied in-ring to advance his craft; Holmes didn't treat it as a job, he treated it as a way to learn while getting paid for it. Holmes no doubt spent a lot more time paying attention to how Ali would do things, analyzing it after, thinking of how to work around it after, etc. I think this gives Holmes an advantage here, assuming we're using post-exile Ali. If we're using pre-exile Ali, forget about it, Holmes ain't winning that.

Ok, for obvious ones that might causes issues Fury due to the size and herky/jerky movements, Spinks due to his herky jerky movements, Usyk due to his overall skill level, Witherspoon, maybe Archie Moore, Mike Tyson and Jack Dempsey (neither is quite a type that Ali fought), Evander Holyfield...

 

Usyk

 

Charles but eventually Ali's physical advantages turn things his way. Usyk maybe. I'm not sure about M. Spinks and I'm not sure where people are getting that heavyweight M. Spinks is a match for Ali speed-wise. Not sure about Holyfield either.

Honestly I think prime Ali vs. prime Holmes, if someone could get a genie to make it happen, would be a stinker of a fight. They're too much alike and I don't think either could hurt the other.

 

If Norton could there is a very good chance of guys like Moore, Charles, Conn outboxing him, he was more athlete then boxer but a smart one it’s just those guys had the chin to keep the game running but those are close. Louis beats Ali everyday in a similar way as Norton… I’ve never saw people dispute that with anything but… “Billy Conn” who might be one of the greatest pure boxers of all time of which Ali wasn’t close to lol. The list for guys be capable of potentially beating Ali is longer then most would care to believe.

 

It’s the king of boxing Joe Louis… 8/10s he outboxes Ali and it’s probably 30-70 if he KOs him each time, he was the best there ever was. Great man and great champion who deserved better.

 

OK, but at least that is a potential GOAT on GOAT fight, and that is not how I read this question.

Somewhere in history, there must have been another fighter who was around Norton's level, who simply had Ali's number.

You have to think that such a fighter existed at some point, but who was it?

 

Ah, I might’ve misunderstood. I don’t rate Mr Norton very highly, suppose if you consider him an ATG you’ve got a bigger pool to draw from I see him a bit better then a Douglas type, he was a good contender with a great stylistic advantage. Maybe this is heresy… CW Dwight Qawi if he can keep the wheels from falling off, take the shots and had the night of his life he could steal a contested win? Micheal Spinks at HW didn’t do much more or less then Norton, he had the skills and Ali was less technically inclined then Mr Holmes he might be able to take advantage of the gaps with good timing and a cool head? Douglas himself would be interesting, Golota… Byrd… Povetkin is someone I wouldn’t bet against.