Ali or Louis; who looks better on film?

All heavyweight fighters have flawed footwork to some extent, and I don't think Ali's was necessarily superb either. At his absolute best he was incredibly graceful and he moved around a lot, but it doesn't always equate to great defensive maneuvering or great balance.
Often he just bounced around all over the place, even guys like Chuvalo and Cooper can land a jab in his face often enough when he's doing that, and he danced himself into the ropes a lot too.
Ali's footwork is as overrated as Louis's is underrated.
But it both cases, it usually "worked for them".

 

i think that ali had the best footwork ever and joe louis had a very slow feet

 

I'll sum it up in one quote !
" He can run, but he can't HIDE". All else is commentary .
Glitz, glamour and rhetoric don't nullify the young Joe Louis's lethal
combinations. Louis catches up to Clay/Ali,sooner or later,guided by his
great mentor "Chappie ",and Sayonara to Ali. Young prime Louis's left jab,
[better than Norton's]and blurring combinations [most lethal in history],
kos Ali. Of that I'm certain.
Of the modern heavyweights after Louis, I give the young Tyson the best chance to ko Louis, only in an early round. His tremendous early punching power,can ko anyone early in a bout. Boxing is all about styles...But I still
pick the best heavyweight of my youth,Joe Louis to prevail....

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HC5sK-UCgY&feature=related[/ame]

 

Ali-Williams


END OF THE ****ING THREAD

 

Ali completely controlled fights with his footwork, controling the movement controls the exchanges, controls the distance, allows himself to land first. Ali did this while Louis largely relied on timing, which is nothing to do with footwork. In essense footwork is not Louis's forte, it is Ali's

You've pulled out a clip that shows Ali getting hit, his defense had its flaws and he can't move like that for 15rounds against a pressure fighter, but his footwork was largely great although maybe a tad inefficent

 

I think Ali's footwork was great.
I think Joe Louis's footwork was great too.
They both dominated their opponents. Ali danced around and landed punches. Louis stalked his man and landed punches.
Louis controlled distance too - you cannot dominate good fighters unless you control the range.

The Chuvalo clip is not a knock on Ali at all, but it shows that he wasn't some will'o'wisp that never got hit in his prime, or who could dance in neat circles and avoid getting cornered. He was open to getting hit, his forte was his punching speed and accuracy that allowed him to return any incoming with two or three times the volume. Yes, he forced his opponent to chase him down, but his defense is a lot of clinching even in his prime - and he takes plenty of shots to the body too.
Watch the Cooper and Mildenberger fights you see the same thing.

Neither Ali or Louis fit the category of poor or average footwork. They were both good/great in that department.
People just seem to be besotted with the beauty and flashyness of Ali's movement.

 

I don't see how anybody could be of the opinion that Louis's footwork was great. it's more of a testament to how good his other attributes were, that he succeeded despite having that weakness.

 

I would say that it depends on what you're looking for. Both guys bring different things in the table. I voted Louis because his technically perfect punches, volleys of knockout punches and punch variety, accuracy, blocking, and counterpunching appeals a lot to me. But you can't doubt Ali's heart, his mobility, his great exploitation of range, and his straight punching.

I just think I can learn a lot more from Joe Louis than I can from Muhammad Ali.

 

Not against certain styles it wasn't. Against movers it runs in to problems, so how could it be perfect. Only Louis gets this treatment, people don't go around extolling the virtues of the Kessler's or Tsyzu's in regards to their footwork.


Perfect is Robinson, Ali, Pep.

 

Yes he perfectly cut off the ring, and had perfect balance for all those KDs, and the variety of angles just meant you couldn't tell what he was going to do next :nut

 

No footwork is foolproof against all styles. That's what makes boxing interesting. Ali, Robinson, and Pep could be cut down in the ring and swarmed successfully as well. If Frazier's corner had been a little less compassionate and Ali's a little less ambitious, might we not see him being 1-2 against Frazier? Did we not see Cooper, Mildenberger, and Chuvalo get at his body and head(albeit not that well).

Nobody is invincible. It seems that Joe always gets **** for his mediocre or past prime performances but people write Ali's off. Consider that Louis fought at a quicker pace in his title run as well.

If you really want your competition to look good, it seems smart that you should struggle with them a bit no?