Ali neglects the body?

Stylistic preference and physical capabilities.

Pre-exile Ali jabs to the body, hides his chin and dances out of range. He was, however, taller and with longer reach than most of his opponents and going to the body effectively means that you need to be closer, thus negating his reach advantage and not allowing him to dance and outbox/outspeed his opponent.

Post-exile, without the leg speed, you don't see him going to the body barring the very rare occasion - some of this might have been also based on hand issues and chances of breaking/hurting them on elbows, but at the same time, well, punching heads gives you a good chance of hurting yourself too.

Just wasn't his go to, really.

 

Ali threw body punches such as against Bugner, but they were not with the intent in any form of that of Frazier.

I think we can sum Ali up as that song of Sinatra's went "I did it my way"

He was not the textbook boxer, floating like a butterfly etc not give the base for body shots, and if my boxing history knowledge is correct, he did mighty fine without a highlight show reel of body punching.

 

Not much about Ali's boxing career was " By the book". He usually leaned away from most opponents offense, than slipped, parried, or blocked .
He usually dropped his jab after he used it.
His chin was usually higher than his shoulder.
He didn't body punch "with purpose ", and seemed to do it just as a distraction to the opponents.
But. He still is the greatest heavyweight to have lived.
In his specific case, so much for " by the book".

 

In his peak years, 1964-1967, Muhammad Ali hardly ever threw body punches to weaken his opponents, he was not a powerful puncher, but a fast heavyweight with stamina, footwork, speed and reflexes.

 

It was very interesting really. Always remember Eddie Futch saying he thought it was a mistake by Ali not to go to the body. Again though....what he did was incredible really.

 

An over simplification: Muhammad, for the most part, was a pure out boxer, especially in his prime. Throwing body shots is not usually a high priority for pure outside boxers.

 

You are right Shay, Usually all out boxers concentrate to the head with jabs, combos and right hands.

 

If you don’t know how to it’s not as big a mistake as trying to.

 

Apparently, Ali primarily showed relative disdain for body punches because they invited greater risk of Ali being punched in the face.

As we know, while Ali was a very quiet and humble man, he did think that he was a tad “pretty” - so a good part of the reasoning behind omitting body shots was to preserve his looks.

With his acutely high guard, Ernie Terrell was begging to be hit in the body. Had Ali paid more attention to Ernie’s body, I think he could’ve got Terrell out of there before final bell.

Even so, I can’t say it wasn’t boxing’s version of eye candy to see Ali sniping laser fast combos to the head over the course of a full 15 rounds. Now that WAS very pretty.

 

Terrell should have been nicknamed “Sominex Kid.” Watching a couple of rounds of him can put me to sleep more than 50 years later.

Few have left such a lasting impact on boxing.

 

If one watches the Williams bout, Ali actually goes to the body quite a bit. I've said this countless times, but Ali's performance against Williams was his best and most underrated performance. I don't think anybody would've beaten him on that night.

 

Speaking of the aforementioned Williams. Williams really did a number on Terrell's body in the rematch. Even with damaged hands, Williams punished Terrell badly with his body blows. Terrell was very fortunate to survive that last round imo. I don't think he would've made 15, or even 12 tbh had the fight went on any longer. That's why I always thought Williams would've won the trilogy bout and with it the WBA championship, had it commenced. Of course fate (and a racist police officer) had other plans.

 

Really when you think about it, he ignored all the fundamentals about boxing. Everything one is taught he was contrary to. He didn't body punch, he didn't hold his hands in a high guard. We're taught to duck and slip but not pull back - he would pull back. We're taught to not throw a lead right - it's a sucker punch - he would throw and land a lead right and avoid the counter. We're taught to sit down on our punches - he would dance around the ring, clearly not sitting down on his shots, yet, the results were there. Years ago I would read Ring Magazine when the writers were still a bunch of Nat Fleischer's old stalwarts who clearly hated Ali - it would just bleed through in their writing. And there was one feature there called 'Ask the Answer Man'. I still remember someone asking, "Do you believe Ali is one of the great heavyweights?" And the 'Answer Man' actually said, "No, because he doesn't hit hard enough." Man, I was just a kid, but I recall saying aloud, "So, he KO's (or stops) Sonny Liston, George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Oscar Bonavena, Jerry Quarry and Cleveland Williams. He stops all your big sluggers, but he's not a great because he doesn't hit hard enough." Y'know, I would love to have a film of myself back then going into this rant. I would really get worked up with some of the things I'd read. Suffice to say fundamentals were not Ali's bag.

 

He was mainly awful to watch wasn’t he. The prob also was that he has tremendous physical equipment and good skills to have put on a lot better show IMO. His style was very negative and fixated on stifling rather than doing.