Ali - Ever Out On His Feet?

What was your score & did you ever judge the bout using the system they employed at the time?

 

I have my scorecard posted somewhere I'll show you it in a bit.

 

Not sure about the second half of your question, but I feel like if this had ever happened it would be talked about more, so probably not.

 

Here's my scorecard.


Muhammad Ali vs Joe Frazier 1

1 Ali
2 Ali
3 Frazier
4 Ali
5 Ali
6 Frazier
7 Frazier
8 Frazier
9 Ali
10 Ali
11 Frazier 10-8
12 Frazier
13 Frazier
14 Ali
15 Frazier 10-8

143-140 Frazier in rounds 8-7 Frazier

So i decided to rewatch this fight with the recent bump in this thread, i'm not going to do a big write up. Because more knowledgeable posters than me have already said it better than what i could.

A few things i will say i thought Ali did well early on pot shotting Frazier at distance, now Frazier would land the best punches of the round. And i can see how some people may of scored them rounds for Frazier, but i thought Ali landed the more punches overall and landed some effective hard punches himself to win the early rounds.

The fight for me started to turn around after the 5th round, at this point in the fight i felt like Frazier was able to stop Ali from circling around the ring and trap him on the ropes. And land devasting hooks to the body and head.

To Ali's credit he did steal a few rounds in the 2nd half of the fight, including the 9th round when he got hurt and comeback to have Frazier in really bad trouble at the end of the round. Definitely a stand out round and one of the best rounds in the fight and the only time Frazier looked in real distress.

The 11th round now there's a few talking points about this round, 1 should the knockdown of been scored ? yes a punch did land but Ali did visibly seem to slip on his own accord and not from the punch itself i guess it's debatable. Then we come to later in the round where Frazier did almost put down Ali legitimately. Now i thought Frazier hurt Ali so much in the last 30-40 seconds that he deserved a 10-8 round, and i'm sticking by the score i feel like that's one of the clearest 10-8 rounds you'll see IMO.

To Ali's credit i thought he comeback well and fought well with Frazier in rounds 13 and 14, the 13th round was close with alot of even exchanges. But Frazier put Ali on the ropes and was the effective aggressor so i felt like he deserved to edge this round based on that and again another stand out round in a great fight.

Now you don't need me to tell you about the classic 15th round knockdown, what may surprise you is that for 1:30 seconds of the round i had it a 10-7 round for Frazier as i felt he was that dominant. But Ali did enough in the 2nd half of the round for me not to give Frazier an extra point.

Overall a fantastic fight the classic boxer vs puncher skill vs will, and it is actually a close fight scoring it on a round by round basis rather than the 10 point must system.

 

Joe Frazier Vs Muhammad Ali 1971

1. Ali
2. Ali
3. Ali
4. Draw
5. Frazier
6.Frazier
7. Frazier.
8. Frazier
9. Ali (close round)
10. Ali
11. Frazier
12. Frazier
13. Frazier (close round)
14. Ali
15. Frazier

8-6 (1)

 

Round 2 v Shavers is a sick punch, my God, the average person's neck... still, another take of the shot shows Ali moved backwards and upward, breaking some frce off. Shows how hard Earnie hit

 

I agree with a lot of this - using the scoring of the day I had it down to a single point margin for Frazier, with Ali sweeping all of the opening five stanzas before the tide turned in the sixth. Using the 10-point Must it’s Frazier by two for me, as I did not score the eleventh 10-8 though I can see the argument for it.

I still say it’s more entertaining than Manila. By the last fight both mens skills & energy had visibly eroded.

 

Shows how lazy Ali could be, too. If you’re going to throw the exact same punch five times in a row, be prepared to be taken advantage of. Any 15-year-old kid sparring in a gym would have been taken to task for what Ali did there.

 

Hurt = Yes.
Out on his Feet = No.