Did Ali have the easiest Heavyweight reign 65'-67'

...His first two defenses were against HOFers...

 

I sick of hearing people using stupid and ridiculous slogans like "HOFer" - trying to tag the Liston Ali fought and a half crippled Patterson Hall of Famers is ridiculous - come on lets be real the Liston rematch was a total sham and everyone knows it - and the Patterson fight was one of the biggest travesties for ever having been allowed to proceed with one of the participants so badly hindered - the fact that Ali still took 12 rounds to close the show doesn't say a lot for him either other than he may have been purposely extended the toying with the one legged mouse - other defenses in this period included the farcical Brian London - even in his own back yard he was considered a joke and I think the British Board refused to sanction him - then we had a greying veteran in Folley and a one time very dangerous man in Big Cat Cleve Williams - but in reality he'd had half his insides blown out by a cop not long before and landed barely 7 or 8 punches against Ali and Terrell was simply ordinary in my book - oh and there was the german aswell big deal

 

You sure don't give up. I'll give you that.

 

Chuvalo beat his ribs until he pissed blood and was hospitalized...how the hell is that an easy reign?

 

Yeah but, as much as I love the guy, he wasn't what I'd call sensational - really not much more than a tough trialhorse really - he'd lost to Pete Rademacher and Joe Erskine (!!!!!!!?????atsch) - sorry but Joe Erskine??!!!! Not to mention the ordinary Terrell and the not great Eduardo Corletti - the 1950's veteran Bob Baker also decisioned him aswell - I know Chuvalo is renowned for his never having been knocked off his feet - couldn't be hurt and everything but he was very limited in reality and would always fall short against most B level guys

 

Circular Bull****, frankly.

He beats the great Sonny Liston...oh, that fight was too easy.

He beats Chuvalo in a hard fight...oh, but Chuvalo wasn't great.

And lets not pretend Chuvalo was some bum. He was a top 5 fighter when Ali beat him, even with the bad loss here or there, he stopped Jones and gave Patterson hell in a close disputed loss.

 

George Chuvalo was #5 in the world. A change of pace from Holmes' often non ranked opposition. And he was certianly not an easy opponent if Ali was hospitalized for internal bleeding from his body work for crying out loud.

 

The thing is though - (at least I think) the point of the thread was that Ali's first reign was one of the easier reigns based on the relatively poor level of his comp - on the subject of Chuvalo - George may have given him a tough fight but that doesn't necerssarily mean Chuvalo was a great - in reality he wasn't - in the commentary for their first fight Don Dunphy refers to him as journeyman George Chuvalo - that is what he was viewed as at the time - it's only nowadays with the revisionist historians who have made Chuvalo into something he really wasn't

on Liston Ali didn't beat Liston in his first defence - the fight was totally bogus - it can't really be used as a for or an against on Ali's first reign - because it was a non event

you can't tell me that Patterson should've been in the ring with Ali??? Are you seriously going to suggest to me that Floyd should've been in the ring with his back the way it was - let alone one of the greatest heavyweights ever (with a grudge)

BRIAN LONDON - ??????
Henry Cooper?????

Mildenberger?????

They were great fighters right??

 

George Chuvalo was ranked well above Machen in 65 and 66. Machen dropped several fights and performed poorer than Chuvalo against common opposition..coming off the FOTY against Patterson.

 

Again using terms like he was a top 5 fighter carries no weight at all - if the top 5 were pretty shoddy anyway why should it immedeatly elevate one of the 5's actually level of ability just because he could say he was in that top 5??? I'm sure Henry Cooper was top 5 at some point as well but he really wasn't that great a fighter on the world stage - you say even with a bad loss here and there (in relation to Chuvalo) but come on man Joe Erskine (!!!!???) - he was and has always been viewed as something of a joke even at British Title level?? You can't lose to people like that and be considered even a good fighter IMO - sorry revisionist history atsch