Frazier Ali I is surprisingly fairly one sided

Agree 100%

 

It's the truth .. however the fact that an Ali so rushed in a comeback , two tough fights after forty months off and thrown in to an absolute prime Frazier , brutal .. it's amazing Ali fought the fight he did .. Ali was one tough beast ..

 

Really? Frazier pounded on Ali in round 11. A 10-8 round on my card.

Round nine, an even bigger round for Frazier?

 

Ali landed a great flurry right at the end of the round. Joe had taken over the fight by that point. It was the only time in 15 rounds that Frazier was even stunned. He took a step back. It gave Ali some life and maybe hope because just before that he was in big trouble.
Joe landed the best lefthook on Ali he ever landed in round 9. I think maybe Ali got that round from the judges a bit of sympathy. It was getting one side before that.

 

By the same token do you think had Ali won the fight as he predicted that there would have been any talk about coming back too soon? 2 tuneups would have been just what the doctor ordered.

 

Frazier beat his ass but he also took punishment. 10-5 type fight.

 

I don't find it one-sided at all. On the contrary, I think on round by round scoring Ali actually won!

 

Okay I'll have to re-watch round nine.

 

I thought Fury beat Wilder, and still think the fight was a bit too soon for him. Fury had of course gotten himself into worse shape than Ali, but he had also been back in training for more than a year while Ali only had been back in training for six months.

 

The last five rds were fairly one-sided, but the first ten was fought on practically even terms imo.

 

My memory is that round 9 ws one of Ali's better but it's been a while ..

 

Ali's braindead refusal to keep his right hand up is inexcusable. He deserved to lose that fight, and not just for that reason. I cringe when I see him lower that damn thing again and again. He kept it up more in the second fight but I don't think that was a consummate victory by any means.

That said, Frazier took many flush shots in FOTC (though Ali was half the time either backing up or on his toes when he threw them) and imo if Joe hadn't hated Ali so much at the time he might have lost.

One of the things I've noticed over the years is how relatively rarely Ali bent at the waist and knees when he threw power shots. Larry did the same thing early on, but Ali had that habit on and off his entire career. That and the dancing/staying on his toes had a lot to do with his not being a super puncher.

 

Yeah, it's a bit infuriating to see that against a left hooker like Frazier. In the rematch he remedied mostly by moving more, but in the rubber he actually boxed quite textbook and, for me, that explains the difference in results between the first and third.

In FOTC he didn't move that much and sat down more on his punches. He catched Joe with some hard leather, especially early on, but Frazier just wouldn't be deterred. If Ali hadn't start to fade after 4-5 rds and managed to kept his early pace for a couple of rds more I don't know if Joe could have kept on taking it.

 

God picked the wrong night.

 

Ali did at times look sensational in the early rounds. I've never seen a fighter more fueled by hateful determination than Frazier. I still believe he would have beaten Louis, Foreman, Lewis, Tyson, and Holmes that night. Watch his eyes in FOTC, he was NOT going to be deterred, even by some seriously ugly shots from Ali (that landed flush at least several times).

Just that night. Joe on hate was the MAN.