Cassius Clay 1964 v Muhammad Ali 1974

That is ****ing tripe, though. Bad as Clay looked in that fight there is no way you can give Jones the majority of the rounds. And saying he was robbed... That goes to show which incredible dimensions most things about Ali get.

This is a pure example of the defintion close but clear win IMO.

 

The tiebreaker here is speed. Which goes to 1964 by UD.

 

It certainly wasn't a dominating perfomance by Ali after watching the tapes and it's not out of the ordinary to believe this decision was handed to him. Ali started a lot of the exchanges in the fight, but Douj Jones finished them.

 

In some places it's not out of the ordinary not to believe in evolution, but it's still stupid.

Why would it "be handed to him"? No, it wasn't a dominant perfomance by any means, but a robbery...? For me, that's just silly.

 

funny, i was reading angelo dundee's book earlier this week and he was talking about the doug jones fight. apparently, angelo was receiveing a lot of flak from guys at the gym about young clay not keeping his hands up, and this is what he did:

"So i told him to "keep his hand up" before the fight. So, while he was keeping his "hands up" out there, he was also getting the hell kicked out of him. I had fooled around with his style and was wrong to do so. He came back to me after the third round and i told him the opposite, "Keep your hands down". And it worked."

not saying its an excuse why clay looked bad, just throwing it out there. i did not watch the fight btw.

as for the topic, as many here already said i too feel that young clay's workrate/stamina, speed and reflexes would have eventually allowed him to beat the older, more experienced version of himself, by a decision after a grueling 15 round war.

 

64, though it will be a tough fight, 74 Ali beats almost anyone in history so tough call. But I will take his youth and better speed over experience and ring savvy.

 

'64 wins. Too fast, too busy, better footwork, better overall offensive output.

 

superior footwork wins this and a young clay wouldn't fall for that rope-a-dope when 74 ali realizes he can't catch him and has to change tactics. clay stood and fought against jones early but as soon as he started using more footwork/movement he was winning.

 

Older Ali was stronger, smarter , younger Ali was more on his toes...I think the older version makes the younger version fight his fight for a SD

 

I think 74' Ali would probably outsmart him at some point.

 

Probably. Folley was stylewise quite similar to Jones and Ali handled him in a very smart manner, I'd say. He'd probably do something similar to Jones. But it would have been very interesting to see, because it would show in just what ways Ali evolved during these years.