Muhammad threw 917 punches of which 365 were power punches. That comes out to 66 punches thrown a round. Joe threw 674 punches of which 337 were power punches. That piqued my interest so I looked at the punch stat for Mayweather- Pacquiao. Mayweather threw 435 punches of which 81 were power punches. Pac threw 429 punches of which 63 were power punches and they were comparably little dudes. Even accounting for the two extra rounds the disparity in work rate is huge. https://boxrec.com/wiki/index.php/Muhammad_Ali_vs._Joe_Frazier_(3rd_meeting) https://boxrec.com/wiki/index.php/Floyd_Mayweather_Jr._vs._Manny_Pacquiao
Add the inhumane conditions the Ali-Frazier bout was held in, and it’s even more impressive … The other factor at play (at least to me) was, for lack of a better term, passion. Muhammad and Joe were fighting for the championship of each other. Anger and contempt are powerful emotional fuels, and both had them in droves. They left literally everything in the ring that day. Neither man was the same afterward.
I have to agree here. Big factor. They were fighting just about to death. Mayweather and Pac were not, they were just engaging in an athletic contest. I can't imagine how terrible Ali and Frazier must have felt once that was over. That's some "spend a week monitored in the hospital just making sure you don't drop dead" kind of ****.
