Could Mohammad Ali (in his prime) compete with the boxers of today?

you still sound like you need to yield an explanation but dont have one.

 

Why?

 

I would fear for Ali’s health against today’s big punching HWs with superior strength, power and technique.

AJ and Wilder definitely stop him on his feet in the mid to late rounds.

I would also pick Tyson Fury, Povetkin, Ortiz and Joyce to win decisions over him.

Ali places in the lower half of top 10.

 

In his secod career Ali sometimes cliched as much as Wlad.
Not much at all in the '60's.
The question is could someone much lighter & overall smaller than a modern skilled SHW win?
I think with his native gifts, speed, ring generalship/judgment of distance & endurance he would be favored.
Assuming it was his prime & bigger guys were not allowed to hug him to death.

 

In response to the original question I would make reference to the Holyfield fights against Lewis. Lennox is considered to be the greatest heavyweight since Ali (with the exception perhaps of Larry Holmes). He is also in the "super heavyweight" category and is therefore directly relevant to the inference in the original post.
However, despite Lewis' superior physical attributes over a smaller Holyfield - 6ft5, 245lbs vs 6ft2, 217lbs - Lennox certainly did not destroy Holyfield in the way certain people suggest modern "super-heavyweights" would destroy Ali.
Ali was a superior boxer to Holyfield with better stamina, chin and speed; how therefore would Ali be dominated by the example of Lewis, Wilder, Klitschko etc. when the best of them (Lewis) couldn't do it Holyfield.
Something that is forgotten by many commentators is that we are talking about a "boxing match", not a weight-lifting contest or a body-building exhibition. Ali was a supreme boxer. He doesn't have to "out muscle" the so called "super-heavyweights" to beat them, he can simply outbox them...float like a butterfly and sting like a bee; something he was the greatest exponent of.

 

Quora?? Are you kidding me?

 

Let's not pretend that Holyfield was anything but a science experiment by that point. Of course Lewis himself tries and fails to maintain a clean image at all times.

But if Holyfield, a natural 195-200lb man with a very uninformed observation on his physique and performance from cruiserweight to heavyweight, can bulk up to 215lb and maintain a good deal of his hand and footspeed, gain more punching power and durability while not having to fight for 15 but for 12 rounds? Then Ali could gain 5-10 pounds of mass with the right medication and decently measure his chances with the modern heavyweights. Steroids are not as complicated as they can be. What Holyfield did was crazy, anyone with a semblance of knowledge in steroids will tell you that much. To gain all that mass in such a short period of time, while pulling off performances that would be considered extraordinary even amongst world class athletes, regularly taking monster shots to the head and body in sparring, and then having the gall to blame some heart defect... of course his heart failed...

 

I would argue that Ali would have no need to increase his weight in order to compete against the super-heavyweights. His natural style of circular movement, feinting and side stepping until an opening could be found before unleashing the jab or combinations would have been sufficient to frustrate and eventually defeat this category of fighter.
By increasing his weight, he might possibly lose the very advantage he would need in order to defeat them: speed and movement.

 

Perhaps

 

But these guys fought many smaller men and none of them were able to win bu out speeding them.

 

Floyd Patterson, Ernie Terrell and George Chuvalo all affirmed that Ali's greatest asset was his speed - which he used to assert his dominance over them.

 

Yet all that amazing speed didn't prevent him from losing to Frazier and Norton and getting whacked repeatedly by Chuvalo

 

The losses to Frazier and Norton were post exile and I think we can all agree that Ali was no longer the same fighter. His speed and ability to move for prolonged periods of time had diminished significantly.
As for Chuvalo, Ali beat him comfortably and those instances when Chuvalo was pounding his side, Ali had allowed him to do it.
It is important also to note that Ali didn't necessarily box to his highest level against every opponent during the pre-exile phase - the fights against Big Cat Celeveland Williams, Liston and Terrell are exceptions to that.

 

Lol Ali was 6'2 1/2 and 220 which means he is the same size as Alexander Povetkin and only 1/2 inches and 10 pounds lighter than Joseph Parker. So no he wouldn't be able to compete with today's heavyweights.

 

Dear o' dear.