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

Inneresting stuff...

I just skimmed this thread, so if these points were already made I apologize for the repetition.

- George Chuvalo, though he was coming off a loss, was a late replacement for Ernie Terrell. Not sure how late, but despite the loss he was likely the available guy under the circumstances.

- Those annual Ring ratings people like to quote from aren't the best way to go. They were ratings made at the end of each year to summarize the year, thus they were made in hindsight. A better way to go, depending on what you're trying to show of course, are the rankings for the nearest "period ending" before the fight.

- Before the Ali fight, Williams was ranked as high as #3 by Ring though, as previously discussed on this forum, this ranking was probably unjustifiably high.

- All we can ask of a champion is for him / her to defend against the best competition available. A look a period rankings shows that Ali did this, perhaps more than many other champions. Whether this was a good era and Ali's sixties top ten was as good as, say Louis' top ten, is open for discussion, as we've seen on the last seven pages.

 

"Liston was most certainly the top guy after KOing Folley."-Me going from memory earlier in the thread.

I certainly knew Liston was #1 and had his legal troubles at this time but obviously forgot he was stripped of his ranking that year. Now I didn't know Cooper inherited the spot, I always thought Machen did.

But whatever helps you sleep better, man. So do you care to explain why this situation is evidence of a weak era? Cooper was a streaky fighter who pulled off a great upset and still didn't get the ranking until Liston was suspended.

 

I actually think they are better for that reason, a broader picture. Rankings are in no way the end all be all, but they are a good measure for who were considered the best fighters of that period.

Williams may have briefly shot up to actually think it was #4 before Ali, but in the annual rankings he was rightfully not recoginzed as one of the year's top fighters. Meanwhile, George Chuvalo finished 2 years as a top 5 fighter prior to Ali and remained top 10 despite gettingi beat by him. For all his limitations and sporadic losses, the guy was a legit contender who gave the best hard fights when he was motivated. That was my initial point though I allowed it to be sidetracked by trolling.

 

On paper Liston was his toughest foe but the Liston we thought we knew changed forever after Ali 1 Ali's next hardest foe was a 26 fight Frazier. One thing I have to say about Ali is he always fought the best, never avoided opponents, re-matched tough fights

People have a tendency to blow up his 2 best fights vs Liston and Foreman but there were not too many around at the time with the style,mental strength and guidance to defeat those 2 men who appeared unbeatable. The smarter men knew those 2 where beatable but you needed a strong minded man to do so. Ali and Angelo did this.

 

WALDO, VITLAY, Dempsey And Tyson all had much easier title reigns IMO.

 

Not compete. Ali spent a minute and a half hitting Liston when he wanted with his right hand, whereas Liston wasn't hitting anything in return. Plus, the more I view the knockdown, the more I come to realize that the kd was probably legitimate...Even if his quit job after the fact was a poor acting job.

 

it couldn't have been that easy did you see corletti's face,my guess is chuvalo waited to long in that fight to get going

 

yeah:goodali must have thought that was hilarious

 

as i've heard chuvalo say,ali went to the hospital and pasted blood for 2 weeks.and i took my wife Lynn dancing after the fight.
yup chuvalo fought to the level of his opponent which was to bad but he gave ali 2 tough fights

 

too right.i don't think ali will forget george in a hurry

 

chuvalo and ali are friendly,ali stills says chuvalo was a real tough guy the first to take him the distance in a title fight.but chuvalo and jimmy ellis are very good friends