Ali's Training after 1974

For the Mac Foster bout I remember reading in the Ring how he had trained far less then he had been accustomed too and it showed, such a boring 15 rounds, and I swear he trained on ice cream for Alfredo Evangelistica and Jimmy Young.

 

Untrue. Ali trained very hard for his top bouts against Frazier and Norton. Ali was in incredible shape for Frazier in Manilia in 75.

 

Whats untrue? Wvboxer said he trained hard for his major bouts and I only said he trained little for several of the lesser ones.

 

No he did not. He stated after he fought Foreman which was in 74 "he never seemed to be in the shape he was in before".

He fought Frazier in 1975 and he was in great shape. He fought Norton in 1976 and he was in great shape.

 

I've heard he trained by having se*x with about a dozen groupies a day.

 

Ali was out of shape for some of his stay busy fights. I think after Foreman he was getting close to his mid 30`s and perhaps his body was filling out some. So in Manila he was 224 which may have been a good weight for him at that time. You can see him was in outstanding shape by the way he fought. Had he tried to get down to an artificial weight of say 212 or whatever it may not have been right for him at 33 or 35 years old.

 

Well it was 100 plus degrees in that ring and Joe Frazier was pressuring Ali every second of every round. You can actually hear some of those body shots Joe was landing. Had Ali not been in fantastic condition he would have been doubled over by the 7th round. Ali said exactly that in the ring after the fight. It was an uncommonly fast paced fight for Heavyweights.

 

Ali was not 224 for Manilia.

Weigh in was four days prior to fight time. After final preparations and drying out Ali was around 220.

 

After Zaire, Ali seemed to train little for most fights. He was in shape for the rubbers with Frazier and Norton and the rematch with Spinks. For the others he seemed flabby and not in top shape. Especially against Young.

 

He looked pretty fit for Richard Dunn too. His pride was stung for that one because he knew he looked **** in the Young bout. Those two bouts had only three weeks dividing them ! Would never happen nowadays.

 

Ali's second reign was interesting ... on one hand he seemed to clown around a lot , was not always in top shape and was simply in decline .. on the other he still fought a terrific list of contenders ..

Frazier
Young
Norton
Lyle
Shavers
Bugner

That's a serious list .. even tough the Young fight was a bore he was all time fat and still half asleep fought a prime Young even.

I thought he lost to Norton but it was still a competitive fight ..

He did beat Lyle, Shavers, Frazier and Bugner without dispute and that is very good opposition ..

 

Official weights were 224 Ali and 215 Frazier, there wasn't any further weighing and its nothing but guessing as to whether those weights changed by fight time. Having to make weight as a bantamweight we did dry out in the golden gloves to lose an extra pound or whatever was needed but heavies neither need to or do. In the old school of training drying out was thought to make some fighters faster and it just may for some.

 

He could have done with a better trainer and nutrition program.