ALI vs Igor Vysotsky...exhibiton match most people never heard of

Vysotsky was the world's top amateur heavyweight for a short period of time. A dynamic two-fisted puncher, Vystrosky could deliver a KO blow with either hand, from short or long range. Vysotsky was something like a two handed Joe Frazier, not quite as fast, but with a better chin. His main problem was cuts.

 

If not for crisis, I'd have ordered those three exhibitions from one Russian collector I'm trading with, but alas, no money.

 

How much do these tapes go for?

 

For me it'd cost less than $3 for 1 DVD, not counting postage. Like I said, we traded sometimes, 20-30 disks at a time for price 2-3 times lower than he's selling them to others. He "owes" me 30 disks for that price (I sent him my disks, but didn't request him to send me his, while I don't have money to pay for it). He's not sending to other countries (except former-USSR I think).
Igor Vysotsky (72Mb) 00:06:24
Pyotr Zaev (32Mb) 00:02:46
Yevgeny Gorstkov (38Mb) 00:03:20

 

I have the exhibitions. They arent very interesting. Ali takes it very easy on all of his opponents and its pretty obvious they arent even close to his league.

 

Do you have any of the Vystrosky's vs Stevenson matches?

 

I do not think so. Ali did not look good against those 3 fighters. He made excuses that he was not in a good shape, he did not prepare and so on. They showed only the second rounds against Zaev and Gorskov and both against Vysotsky. I did not see any round won by Ali. He lost all 4 they showed.

 

They may or may not be entertaining ,but I dont think you can read sparring sessions ,as a indication of a fighters true abilities.
I saw Ali spar in London ,he worked with three boxers ,his last fight had been his ko of Foreman,and since then he had been living the soft life ,he had a sizable paunch,and was clearly not taking the event seriously,one of the sparring partners was John L Gardner the British and European Champ, he looked good against Ali ,until he got a trifle ambitious ,whereupon Ali let go a couple of swift combos to put him in his place .
Ali was notorious for being lackadaisical in sparring and allowing his partners to look good..No great import should be read into this .imo.

 

klompton said that Ali's opponents were not even close to his league. I cannot agree with this notion based on what I saw on that video. Ali did not show that his opponents were not even close to his league.

Those were not sparring sessions. Neither were those exhibition fights like Tyson v Sanders. When Ali makes comments he is quite serious about those fights. I do not imply that those fighters are better than Ali. I just say Ali did not win a round of those 4 they showed. It is impressive enough that Ali takes on 3 opponents in a row but that’s what I see. I also hear Ali making excuse about his performance. I did not follow Ali's career closely back then. I was too young so that I do not know how Ali was living between fights.

 

Yes, I saw the fight on television. The tape of the fight was shown a few days after the match.

Ali wore headgear for the fight, and for the most part, he looked like he was sparring. I remember Vysotsky looking very aggressive and Ali certainly was covering up on the ropes, but Ali didn't look fazed at all.

The Vysotsky exhibition was Ali's third of the day, after several rounds each with Pyotr Zaev and Evgeny Gortschkov. After the exhibitions, Ali said that the first two Soviet boxers were trying to tire him out so that Vysotsky -- a heavy puncher -- would have a better chance of winning.

I remember also when interviewed about these exhibitions, American journalists made a point of calling the Soviet boxers "professionals", because they were paid, career athletes. Ali quickly corrected them, saying that the Soviets he faced were not on the same level as top American pros. Ali agreed that the Soviets were good, but called them "very, very advanced amateurs, and not professionals."

 

Ali was toying with them and you can clearly see that he is able to hit them at will and is far and away a better fighter when he opens up. If you want to believe that somehow these guys who had never faced Ali's level of competition were somehow in his league then so be it but these guys didnt prove anything to me.