Lou Ambers v Lew Jenkins Ike Williams v Jimmy Carter Esteban DeJesus v Saoul Mamby Saoul Mamby v Leroy Haley Ron Lyle v Scott Ledoux John Conteh v Saad Muhammad
Ortiz vs John L 3 Both past their prime more so Ortiz it easily could've gone to either but the younger Sullivan earned it.
As great as Ali was (and I consider him, Louis, and Holmes to be the greatest of heavies), I'm not sure even the 60s Ali would have beat the Frazier of the FOTC. That guy was about as conscientiously heated, determined, viciously unstoppable as any fighter in history imo. I realize many might think that a bit pie-in-the-sky sounding, but that's just my opinion. FOTC might have been the singular most impressive win in heavyweight history, partly due to the outrageously high quality of talent both men brought to the table. I keep reading about how much better the 60s Ali was than the 70s. Well, that is absolutely true for the post-TiM Ali. But for now we'll try and forget he's the only man ever to have stopped George Foreman, and think more of the just-coming-back-off-layoff to roughly the first Norton fight. Ali was effing amazing in his comeback, imo...probably only Holmes and Louis could have defeated him. Take a look at those early 70s fights...only Frazier looked anywhere near as good as Ali did during that time. And let's get real, people, Ali was absolutely smashing during the FOTC (especially the first half); I can't imagine even Holmes or Louis standing up to that at times wildly artistic barrage of punches. Sure, Ali wasn't the best puncher, but if you rewatch that great old fight you can see there wasn't just snap to those punches, Ali had excellent rotation of weight on more than a few of them (but of course almost always with that peculiar restraint he displayed throughout his career; Ali only really bent down and stepped fully into his punches when opponents were mostly out of it, he usually just threw from the hip when it came to power punches). Frazier had to weather more than practically any other champion ever would the full smacking fury of the greatest heavyweight who ever lived in order to win, and anyone can see that in his face. Sure, the Ali of the Williams fight would have most likely unanimously decisioned the pre-FOTC Joe , but there wasn't anywhere near as much decline in Ali's abilities in the 60s through the early 70s as too many people here think imo. He came back and was still faster and hotter than anyone...besides a righteously fed-up, hell-bent-for-committing-mayhem-on-this-dancing-fool-who-dared-call-me-ignorant Frazier. It's almost like all that rage and vicious sense of revenge took everything out of Frazier...he was never anywhere near the same fighter after that, besides all-too-brief glimpses.