Or certain parts and not others? I think he hits the nail on the head myself [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPiLGbDrGnw&feature=related[/ame]
I think he's right, but Dempsey might give him more trouble then he thinks, just because Dempsey has that wicked left hook and because he's so fast.
I think Ali's wrong. It's not right to assess all of Dempsey's abilities off of a short segment of footage where he's desperately raining blows on a despertely hurt opponent to get him out of there.
Ali loved to talk. Period. More often then not, he was spouting anything that would get attention, a la "Gorgeous George style". What's gonna grab more attention? A guy quietly and carefully stating his position? Or a guy using "the buzzwords" saying how he'd defeat one of the great champions? There's a lot of words that Ali spouted out mainly for attention purposes only. I think the only thing that Ali's correct about is how White America then liked to push their white fighters (great white hope). Look at Ali's style. It's unnatural. So I can easily imagine later champs just sitting there and breaking down tape and saying how great they are. I've been at bars and heard idiots say, "Oh I can beat that guy, it's easy..." then they proceed to push out some nonsense drivel about how great they would do. The only credit Ali has is that he's actually done something. Still, the type of talk is no different then a trash talker. I bet if Ali was alone with someone he wouldn't "act" around (a non-media type) you'd get some truth out of him.
Ali trash talked to promote his fights and promote the sport of boxing which he did better than anyone. id say Ali is the most recognized sportsman on the planet. Ali could trash talk better than anyone because he could back it up better than anyone. he is 'THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME'
I don't really agree with him, no. I think in Ali's mind to be any good you had to be like him. I think the only one he gave any real credit to in those interviews was Tunney...you can see where I'm going with that. Ali said Frazier had no skill and wouldn't go six rounds with him and so on. The other thing that I find a bit weird is Ali always describing himself as "scientific" which really he wasn't. He was crafty and intuitive in the ring but I see him as more of a Roy Jones type where most of it comes from physical attributes which he was gifted with rather than brilliant technique. The real scientific boxers to my mind are guys more like Louis, Charles, Walcott, Holmes etc (Louis is about as far back as my smattering of knowledge goes where I can talk with the least amount of confidence). So no, I don't agree. I don't think Dempsey would beat Ali but I think he'd give him trouble, he'd hit him with a fair few put it that way. Men who know how to get low and spring are always the ones I think would give Ali the most trouble, he didn't like to use the uppercut, he didn't like to go to the body...
I think for a champion fighter there is nothing more anoying than an ignorant layman who never boxed himself putting a young champion down by saying "so and so would have kicked your ass". can you imagine how many non expert old white guys insulted ali with that? jack dempsey was a hero to the generation of those in power that ali and his muslims had conflicts with. all the authority figures he came across-lawyers and guys from the draft they were all Dempsey fans. it never helped that tunney and dempsey themselves gave ali a hard time in the press when given the opertunity. so why should he say anything nice about them? so I take it with a pinch of salt. Even if he loved dempsey ali could never say it if he wanted to.