Analysing Muhammad Ali's in-Ring ability.

Let's do a little film study on arguably the greatest Heavyweight who ever lived. And there's no better place to go to than the Cleveland Williams fight.

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Williams throws a jab, before Ali avoids it by leaning back. Except he kind of doesn't. Sure, he may be leaning back in the literal sense, but what Ali does here is actually much more special. He's slipping the punch, but backwards. Instead of shifting his weight from his rear leg to his front one, and moving his head slightly forward and to the right, he shifts it from his front leg to his rear leg, and moves his head backwards and to his left, all that while on his toes. The coordination needed to do this at his size is insanse. This method of slipping would also be helpful in turning with punches more easily, at least for him, lesser fighters shouldn't do it.

Ali then moves around the ring, left and right, disturbing William's allignment, preventing him from setting up his shots, his hands also changing levels, making Williams cautious as to what Ali's intentions are. 20 seconds in, and Ali feints high and low, tempting Williams to throw a left that misses. 30 seconds in, and Ali feints by going up, down, forward and back. Even his lateral movement is used as a feint, with Williams not knowing whether Ali's either coming or going, or going or coming. Ali was a superb feinter, the upcoming moments being an excellent example, with Ali jabbing to William's mid-section, then feinting down while jabbing upstairs, 3 times in a row, with Williams not being able to do anything. He then feints upwards and goes downstairs, prior to feinting down and throwing a 1-2 upstairs.

Halfway through the round, we see Ali's underrated shot selection. Jabbing downstairs prior to hooking off the jab on William's head. After trying it again, with Williams mostly negating it, Ali catches him with a good check left hook and angles out. We see Ali feinting and jabbing again, switching levels. After hitting Williams with some shots from long range, he once again shows his great shot selection. First, a jab to open up Williams, a second one to exploit the opening, a third one to the body to drop William's guard, a right hand to the exposed head, a left uppercut down the middle to open up William's rising guard, a left hook to the head, and a stinging right hand to finish the combination. All that in 2 seconds. Then we see Ali use his shuffle as a distraction prior to commiting to some body shots, before again switching up levels and throwing a 3 punch combination upstairs. Ali keeps jabbing up and down while also in position to not be hit back. Nice defensive responsibility on his behalf too, when he puts his hands up and blocks an uppercut from Williams after going downstairs, 10 seconds prior to the round's ending.

Ali keeps going up and down with jabs and left hooks in round 2 while feinting. He hits Williams with a picturesque check left hook at 3:38 prior to angling out. 4 minutes in, and Ali keeps Williams guessing with his elusive and active ducking and weaving. You can also see his defensive responsiblity again at 4:20, when he goes into defensive positions after throwing shots. Ali is then setting traps, with Williams blindly following and falling to Ali's traps coming in like prey unaware that it's about to be swalloed whole, with Ali hitting him right after angling out when Williams repositions himself to catch up to him, whether it's with a jab, a 1-2, a 1-1-2, or a 1-2-3 combination, absolutely brilliant stuff. At 5:24, Ali is moving backwards, with his jabs blinding Williams, making him unable to see any follow up shots, and drops him with a right hand that he didn't see coming, while looking like a ballerina wearing Boxing gloves. Ali then opens Williams up with rights and lefts, right before dropping him again with a 2-3-2. Williams gets up, but goes down again from what seems to either be a jab-hook-right combination, or a double hook followed by the right.

Round 3 starts and Ali is slipping unconventionally again, avoiding multiple jabs, and yet still manages to counter with a left despite his disadvantageous position, and angles out. Williams jabs, and Ali pulls back and counters with a right over the top, similarly to how Mayweather would do it in decades to come. Ali shuffles and yet again shows his superb shot selection, exploiting all of William's openings with both hands, dropping him again. Ali is then pummeling him at will, throwing 13 consecutive punches in about 4 seconds, and even throws a nice double left hook in there, akin to his idol, Sugar Ray Robinson, though with obviously less devastating results. Williams jabs, but Ali performes another nasty pull counter, almost dropping him. Williams is a bloody mess, Ali hits him with a few more shots, and the fight is over a few moments later.

I was originally planning on covering multiple Ali fights here to show all of the facets Ali's game had, but honestly, this fight really had everything tied up neatly in just 3 rounds. It showcased Ali's jab, footwork, feints, counter-punching, speed, Ring IQ, combinations, shot selection, his defense, and just how much of a perfect physical specimen and athlete he was at his prime years. I might cover multiple fights on other fighters in the future, though, if I decide to continue this.

 

Yeah, I've seen it before, but it had little to no impact on what I wrote here. It's bound to seem similar at places since we're describing the same fight.