Best Performance Over the Hill

Eddie Cotton vs Jose Torres

Tiger vs Benvenuti

kalambay vs Steve Collins

Not a headbutt or clinch in site in any of these fights either.

 

then what the hell was he? that certainly was not the blazing fast 66-67 ali in there!

 

I challenge you. Archie Moores 14th Round classic knockout in a title defense against ATG harold johnson at age 37!

 

Ali may have been past his very best, but I agree with John in that, he wasn't over the Hill. He won an impossible match against a prime Foreaman, then proceded to hold onto the title for an additional 4 years, and 10 title defenses, during the most competitive era in the sport.

This is not " over the hill ", in my book....

 

Ali was over the hill. no one will ever convince me a mid 1970s ali was prime, no way!!! Alis prime was 64-67, ali was still a great fighter in the early 1970s but clearly not prime. he was over the hill physically. 10 title defenses but when you consider he looked god awful/fat in 9 of them, and got gift decisions in some of them.......you could clearly tell he was wayy past it.

 

Ali was 'over the hill' after he beat Foreman IMO. Some might say after the third Frazier fight. You could argue either way I suppose. Post 1975 he was defintely past it and worn to pieces.

 

checkout my post robbi about archie

 

Your definition of "over the hill" is a lot different to mine. Past prime for me isn't over the hill, there's a period i call "fading or faded". Ali was fading and on the steady downward spiral, he wasn't prime but noway was he over the hill in my book

 

I haven't seen the night, but I know the the 'ole mongoose' produced some sublime displays well into his late 30's and even early 40's he was still pulling off some good wins. Did he look like a 37 year old fighting in a 27 year old's body? I'll need to get Archie's book actually.

 

Good choice, but that fight was far too early for Haye. He fought a ridiculous fight as well.

 

Your defintion of over the hill is obviously different from mine, and that's ok. I'm not claiming that either of us are right or wrong.

Here is my reasoning.

The expression over the hill essentially means ( to me ), that one can no longer hack it anymore. They can't perform competitively, and they are basically exempt from the mainstream of things. Being past one's PERSONAL BEST, does not always mean that they are over the hill.

While I agree fully with you, that Ali was not as good as he was during the 1960's, pre-exhile, he was still well within the mainstream of things. In fact, he was still the best at what he did, and during a time when there were a lot of exceptional competitors around.

To recap - Ali was definately past his best when he beat Foreman, but he proved beyond a shadow of a reasonable doubt that he was still the best at what he did, or at least certainly among the best of the crop.

This is not MY definition of over the hill.

See where I'm coming from?

 

I think he sees 'over the hill' the same as being 'shot' We'll need to wait and see what he comes up with.

 

..........."Over the hill" is a bit of a silly term when used to describe Ali. No, he wasn't what he'd been earlier, but he was still very, very good. There is a very definite difference between "aging" and "over the hill."

At least usually; Ali aged incrementally.