Guys Who Ali Beat Who Could Have Beaten Ali

Poor Ernie still bangs his head against the wall to this day for not following up in round 2 after having Ali badly hurt. Even Ali admitted he had to play possum.

 

As a German i saw some very rare black and white documentary about Ali-Mildenberger shortly after Karl died in October 2018.

After the Ali fight Milde was very confident for a rematch, said he did some mistakes in the first fight but would not reply them in a possible second fight.

But honestly i think the primary reason why Ali had so much trouble with him was not his southpaw stance or his class, it was simply Ali fought too much on his trip to the UK and Germany.

Maybe i am wrong, but if i remember right it was like this:

- vs Brian London
- vs Henry Cooper II
- vs Karl Mildenberger

all within a time period of 4-8 weeks.

To fight 3 fights in such a short time was used back in the 30s, 40s and 50s, even more fights in that time, but not in the 60s anymore. When Ali became a pro he was not use to fight as much as Robinson, Armstrong etc. did in their time.

So i am very confident a top trained Ali, which means only focus on Mildenberger for 3 months, would beat Karl without any problems, similar like Brian London.

 

Muhammad Ali's fight schedule was like this, George Chuvalo, March 29 1966, Ali, Ud, Henry Cooper, May 21 1966, Ali, TKO 6, Brian London, Aug 6 1966, Ali, KO 3, then Karl Mildenberger, Sept 10 1966, Ali, TKO 12, You were close my friend, and I think you were right , Ali fought often that year.

 

Thats what i ment.

As a German i like Milde very much. When he died in October 2018 it was sad news. He was always a peoples man and never looked down to anyone.

But for my money many Ali haters always come up with him or Norton why Ali is overrated etc.
I say a 22-25 years old Ali has no problem to beat Norton very comfortable.
And he also would have less trouble with Mildenberger if he had study him properly and took his time to train for him.

Ali was a little bit like Fury when it comes to motivation for certain opponents.

Take Fury:
- vs Wladi
- vs Schwarz
- vs Wallin
- vs Wilder 2

He was extremely motivated for Wladi and Wilder 2 because ANYTHING was on the line in those 2 nights.

He was also very motivated against Schwarz because it was his 1st appearance on Top Rank with Arum.

But after Schwarz was easy he thought training for Wallin was more or less not necessary, simply because he thought Wallin is only slightly better as Schwarz.
But he was much better, so he got trouble.

Ali thought 100% after demolishing the Britons Sir H. Cooper and B. London the fight vs Mildenberger would be an easy night...like Fury thought against Wallin.

 

Even that's a stretch.

 

I don't see any version of Williams, Chuvalo, Terrell, Lyle or Ellis beating any remotely close to prime version of Ali.

Jones and Young match up well with Ali stylistically, so maybe they could pull it off (and both almost did).

 

Ali fought often but it only made him better. I don't see the fuss. He played with them all. I never thought Mildenberger gave him any real trouble at all. Every time Mildenberger landed a tap, Cosell and the crowd went gaga. Ridiculous. He was never in the fight. Expectations were so low that all Karl had to do was breathe, and Cosell would make a big deal about it. This was the beginning of a tradition of lousy announcing.