Have Ali ever claimed he won the first Frazier fight?

Yes. Ali attempted to paint it as a "white man's decision".

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Damn near every professional boxer in history , especially
ATG'S have claimed they should've won a very close fight they lost.
Including Ali in the FOTC.
Ali of course was wrong.

 

I remember Frazier saying something like:"I put Ali's ass on the floor, in front of the whole audience, in front of the whole world, and in front of God (God forgive me). And Muhammad Ali is still challenging me."
I assume this was a statement a few months after FOTC.

 

Initially Ali pretty much admitted Frazier beat him. Later on he claimed he actually won citing Fraziers stay in the hospital, facial beating and blaming the supposed bad decision on racism.

 

Sounds like a coping mechanism to me, trying to convince himself.

 

If Frazier didn't get the knockdown it was close enough for Ali to posture that he won. For me Ali v Frazier is a good border between close fight and not close fight.

 

Ali of the early 70s was an *******.

 

Round by round it's close and an argument could be made for Ali imo. 1-5,.9-10 and 14 could all be scored for him if you give him the close rounds. 13 was pretty close as well from memory (edit: watched it again and it might just be Ali's). But Frazier had the biggest rounds and was the rightful winner.

I'm pretty sure Ali felt as much himself after the fight, but as time went on he managed to convince himself otherwise. I suppose it's a thin line between confidence and delusion when you perform at that level.

 

Good points as always,Bokaj. Muhammad felt that he could be honest immediately after the heat of battle. But after a while he altered his stance more than likely due to,as you say,a coping mechanism plus Ali always had the mind to bang the promotion drum.

 

To me the best case for Ali is 8-7 in favour Frazier + the KD.

I would struggle greatly to see someone scoring it for Ali. But I did think Ali won more than 4 rounds.

 

Larry Merchant thought Ali won. The ref Arthur Mercante said it was close. Joe won. Arguing a decision after the fight when you know the outcome is a mug's game.

 

More than once including in The Greatest.

 

This.

There is plenty of testimonies on how inmediatly after the fight Ali admitted Joe smoked him good and even openly pondered if he was already past his prime and in the downhill, since he was almost 30 yrs old.

What Ali said later about a bad decision was shameless self promotion to keep the "Greatest" gravy train going on.

 

TBH I would take anything Merchant said with a grain of salt.
It is not like Merchant didn't have his own agenda...