FOTC..fantastic fight! but did Joe Really win?

I just watched this fight. Here's my thoughts without doing an exact round by round:

1)Ali basically won all his rounds early, and pretty clearly. The announcers were giving Ali a little too much credit given his actual performance in the last 3/4th's of the fight. Frazier showed a great chin and determination in executing his fight plan to a T.

2)Ali also clinched so many times illegally behind the head it's a marvel to me nothing came of it considering he was warned very early in the fight for it.

3) In the current fight climate, there's a good chance this fight wouldn't have been allowed to go to the scorecards and a TKO would've been called because in several rounds, Ali literally did nothing but take tremendous punishment, looked out on his feet, and had to hold to last through the round.

4) Although Ali had his moments, this fight wasn't close. It was a borderline domination by Frazier and likely his crowning achievement. Yes, I said "domination". You would have to give Ali every single round in which he landed a meaningful combination to make it a close fight and ignore that Frazier landed hard, clean shots in most of those as well. If it were a 10 point must system, at least two rounds would've been 10-8 Frazier.

5) Joe's style basically ensured he wouldn't have a ton of longevity. If Frazier and Ali were matched up earlier in time and had fought 2 or 3 times before the first Foreman fight instead of the rematches occurring after that, I think Joe would've taken the trilogy.

6) Ali had a chin that was too damn good for his own good. I can't help but cringe at the shots he took round after round.

 

Round 15, with the knockdown and complete onesideness, has a good chance of being judged 10-6, 10-7 in realistic terms. Without the knock down, it must be seen as 10-8.

The fact Ali regained, and remained on his dragging feet has baffled me. Hardly a concious man, yet, he showed a degree of cleverness in this state, and did the utmost to smother Frazier.

I believe you have offered the first arguement regarding this fight since the conclusion of the epic fight.

 

I´m such a huge Ali fan and I really think this fight is superb. However I have to be honest and say that Frazier won it, and the knockdown made it "cemented", without the knockdown I think it´s very close. The early rounds are definetly Alis´but Frazier is lethal in this fight. As been mentioned before, Ali fought fraziers fight here, didn´t dance at all. In the second fight he´s up on his toes every round and Frazier couldn´t hurt him.
Two of the best heavyweights ever.
That was real boxing!
All the best
The Predator

 

That is an excellent point.

As others have said over the years, a clean knockout loss is dangerous in the short term, but much better in the long term than a sustained beating. In Ali's case, you can count his body as well.

 

Frazier: 9-5, with one round even.

 

That is a good score.