Mildenberger was a decent southpaw challenger but the outcome of this fight was never truly in question. He landed some decent punches early on but that was all. Incredibly, this was Ali's second fight in the span of a month. He was very busy during 1966 and 1967.
It's amazing that, between Mildenberger and Schulz, Germany produced no heavyweight title challengers. Between Mildenberger and Schmeling, only Hein Ten Hoff even came close. Yet, today, Germany is increasingly the centre of world boxing. Regardless of what you can say about German judges, their fans are true boxing troopers!
Ali was puzzled by Karl, but never bothered. He won the fight with relative ease, and quite one-sidedly. Just had a hard time solving the southpaw riddle. To be fair, world class lefty pro's were like Bigfoot at heavyweight; Nobody saw enough of them to write the book!
howard cosell comments after 25 secs of the fight - i thought the champ would come right at mildenberger more than what he has thus far atsch notice ali constantly moved and danced for 12 rounds. the southpaw stance did puzzle him a bit early on and mildenberger's jab was good and quick but i only gave him maybe one or two rounds outta 12. after ali's floors him in the 5th it's his fight.
How many rounds do you think Mildenberger won, and do you feel Ali had to switch up tactics a bit even though he had the height and reach advantage by a good margin?
Mildenberger was a lot tougher opponent than most expected. I recall watching this fight live. I was eleven years old,and I still recall one of the newspaper headlines,the next day. "IT'S ALI BUT MILDENBERGER MAKES CASSIUS SWEAT" It was a nice touch from Muhammad in reimbursing the referee's lost cash the next day.
round 4 was mildenberger's best round and you could maybe give him rounds 3 and 7. ali floored him 3 times in rounds 5,8 and 10 and it was stopped in 12. all those posters who write that 60s ali couldn't dance for every round should watch this fight.
in the 60s he danced - now watching the comeback ali v bonavena - he danced for the first round and that was it. he stood flatfooted and traded for the rest of the fight taking many punches. no movement at all compared to his best. what a complete difference in fighting styles.
