During my current Muhammad Ali Marathon (At Chuvalo 2 now) I noticed that the layoff made Ali lazy

This is gonna sound absoloutely crazy. I know that when he got exiled in 1967 that he could have become an even greater fighter. We were robbed of that prime that we never saw. And I noticed that what took the biggest hit when it came to Ali was not his legs, it was his reflexes, he was still doing the lean back. He took more punches from Bonevana than he did his whole pre-exile career.

Now, one other thing I noticed is that Ali just got real lazy after the exile, I suspect this is due to the celebrity status he gained at the time. When I watched him fight Quarry,Bonevana and Frazier. he would dance maybe for 1 or 2 rounds then be stationary or in the case of FOTC go to the ropes. So I thought, okay,his stamina and legs took a massive hit during exile. Then I see his fight with Jimmy Ellis and Buster Mathis, and I'm like..........wtf.......he is literally moving and sticking for the whole fight,his legs might have lost like 20% of what they were,he is not floating like there is no gravity anymore,but he still is dancing around the ring VERY VERY well.
Then I watch Foster and Jurgen Blin fights, and he is back to the lazy,stand infront of the guy and trade stuff.

I don't get it

 

watch him fight Jimmy Ellis and Buster Mathis

 

He didn't lean as hard into Mac Foster when he was tired too

 

watch the ellis / Mathis fight,then watch Bonevana, Foster etc. I think he just got lazy