One of the great "what ifs" in boxing is how things would have played out if Ali had not been exiled 1967-1970. EDIT: Rewatched the first 3 rds of FOTC yesterday, and man Ali looks good there (as did Joe, of course). Frazier beat a hell of a fighter that night. As Moore says in the commentary: "Ali is showing tremendous skill".
One pet peeve is how some excuses are randomly accepted. A fighter having excuses (not trained properly, injured etc) is the norm rather than the exception, so if we accepted every excuse just about every result could be thrown out and resumes generally made meaningless, so obviously no one does that. But some excuses still become canon, like Tyson's for Douglas and Toney's for Jones (and Duran is of course in a separate league), even though we don't have much more than the fighter's word for it. Even when, like in Toney's case for Jones, the excuse seem downright counter intuitive (he was in great shape for Williams, but let's himself go in the very next fight against a much more dangerous opponent?).
I don't think results are ever thrown out - how can they be? If you mean a context for the quality and meaningfulness of the win is sometimes formed, on the basis of the losing fighter being considered less than tip-top, then I'd suggest that there are some valid points to be made in this respect - in certain cases. Ultimately, however, the official result is the official result.
Armchair tough guys who act rude disrespectful and obnoxious over what a disagreement. Please. These same guys if they were sitting across the table from you would never have the stones to act that way. Matter of fact most were never even in a ring befor
Excuses are just that excuses i take the view of the Jack Dempsey quote "You know what a champion is? A champion is someone who's ready when the gong rings - not just before, not just after - but when it rings". Dempsey of course even made excuse after losing title to Tunney, on returning to his hotel his wife Estelle Taylor was appalled by her husband's battered face. ''Ginsberg!'' she cried, using her pet name for him. ''What happened?'' his 'excuse' was "Honey I just forgot to duck."
Well, it's tough to take fighters at their primes and magically transport them, but I agree. I don't see Norton or Frazier taking the 60s Ali at any point in their career. Ali had mastered the ring after winning the title from Liston and was imo the champ with easily the greatest hand and foot work in heavyweight history. He was a towering giant over a what was a pretty interesting division at the time, moreso than even Holmes, Louis, or Tyson imo. His performance against Brian London is the closest I've see to supernatural in that division's history (though the first Holmes-Shavers fight isn't particularly far away imo). London was a more than capable fighter, and Ali just seemed to...well, literally float around him and sting like a vicious bee.
I remember watching that fight live on ABC's Wide World Of Sports, it was August 6 1966. Ali knocked out Brian London, KO 3.