Did Ali lose his speed after the 3 year lay off?

So you're making an unprovable hypothesis? "As quick a fighter as Ali loses his speed and stamina at a younger age, and since no other fighter was as quick as him this can't be disproven." Such a hypothesis is worthless.

But to answer your question: Roy Jones. Don't think he had lost any speed at 29.

Tunney was also very fast and he was about that age for Dempsey.

 

The soundest practice is still to go on what we know - i e what's normal for fighters. Ali might havee been a special case who lost his speed earlier than others (don't see how he was more exceptional than RJJ in terms of speed, though), but that can't be backed up in any way. Since it can't, the most reasonable thing is to go on what we know about the aging of fighters in general. And under normal circumstances I'd say they start to slow down after 30 in most cases.

 

No doubt .. his leg speed was his greatest asset among many great assets .. once he could not move the same for an entire fight his shortcomings and other strengths became exposed ..

 

Excellent post up. Back pre-Quarry fight, the nightly National News used to run small "stories" on Ali's comeback which people were very interested in.