Describe How A 1964 Ali V 1974 Foreman Fight Runs?

Ali noticed that,in the first round,he was taking at least five steps to every two of Foreman's. Going to the ropes while still fresh was improvisation of a special kind. Muhammad knew that had he kept moving,more than likely,he'd have tired before George in that heat. Had the bout taken place in Madison Square Garden,for example,no doubt Ali would have danced more.

 

The young Cassius had quite a passable singing voice going on 'Stand By Me'

 

Ali too fast. Reckon it would have been similar to the first liston fight.

Liston and foreman would have been formidable in any era. But young ali for me was something else. The way he moved in unison. His legs, his arms, his brain all seemed to work together at the same time. With most fighters. One of them is working at any given time. Maybe two. With ali it was three of them together. Hard to explain.

Liston was an absolute handful but ali was masterful at getting in and out. Doesnt matter how hard or powerful you are....if the opponent gets off first everytime. Its usually a long night ahead.

Frazier fought ali pretty well. It was a slower ali tho. Less movement etc. Even when stationary ali was tricky... when he had movement tho...the only thing that could beat ali was ali himself imo. I still reckon liston chucked that second fight because he knew even that early in the fight the writing was on the wall. You can almost see the point he realises it. Think it was prior to the knockdown. I think to this day people get that wrong saying it was a fix. Liston had regressed a bit from the first fight. Ali had got more confident.

I think liston realised that earlyish in the fight and chucked it when the chance came before having second thoughts after he was kind of forced to fight on.

In conclusion tho...ali would have stopped foreman....the 64 version. Foreman was great as he proved....but he was no match for someone that could get in and out like ali could. His speed of foot and hand and accuracy was hard to beat. Just hard to see any real weakness,s in ali. His strengths we,re all time great as well. Speed of foot. Speed of hand. Accuracy. Movement. Riding punches. Almost had a radar as a brain at times. Chin. Power was a weakness but it didnt really matter when you could hit the opponent with the kind of accuracy ali had as many times as he could.

Punch variety....possibly a weakness. Again tho he didnt really need it because the opponents couldnt really deal with the straight punches anyway.

 

You always quote the “out on his feet” thing when you can just watch film of Ali practically sparring Foreman into submission with relative ease.

 

That is not true on 2 levels, but I know you must believe that.
I am not the only one citing this quote-but this was what Ali said.
Ali was similarly damaged against Frazier, but was Masterful at pretending otherwise-it worked against Shavers, that moment's hesitation & not being as aggressive-whether Ali does not show he is hurt, or exaggerates & acts rubber-legged HIDING that he is hurt-or grabbing someone & shaking his head-is clearly camouflage, bluster, puffing himself up-a tricky, wise natural defense system as found in nature...

But whether you listen to the announcers calling it pretty even just before the end, OR watch the movie "when we were Kings"...
It is clear that Ali had to change his strategy (because the ring was too slow & small & Foreman much faster than Ali thought as he admitted later), ND do the rope-a-dope he had tried in previous fights AND been practicing in sparring as per sportswriter's George Plimptons comments in the film & colorful description of it I can give you...

And he got away with a ton of illegal grabbing behind the head & pulling George dow, thwarting attacks & tiring him out.
STILL it was a superb performance.
In part because it was so difficult to accomplish: & the fearsome beating he took.
Despite rolling with punches & deflecting, Ali still took a lot of punishment.

It was not at all like a fairly easy victory or sparring session.
If it was the accomplishment would be much less impressive.

 

You and many here are proof Ali is a great salesman.

 

I just have no idea what you are saying here-& I do not know if anyone else following the narrative here could either.
You wrote that Ali handled Foreman pretty easily; I gave you extensive evidence that this was not the case.
Citing in part the film "When We Were Kings", that has many witnesses.
Now you seem to imply I & many are bamboozled by Ali.
But I have shown you how he conned folks in the ring about not being hurt-but it is you who believed that, despite what is both sometimes admitted by him, & obvious to others...

And you who mistakenly thinks or thought Zaire was a cakewalk, despite all the evidence of all the stops Ali had to pull out.
So how is it me or us that is fooled by Ali, & not you?