How did Alfredo Evangelista ever get 2 title shots?

The first time Ali fought Spinks,he employed similar tactics to bout with Ron Lyle - Do virtually nothing for the the first part of the fight,and come on strong later.
He caught Lyle with a peach of a right,and followed it up with a blazing combination. By the time he got to Spinks,Muhammad could no longer do those things.

 

Good post :good A 29/30 year old Ali would have stopped Spinks,Shavers and Evangelista.

 

No disputing THAT ! Muhammad was too far gone to have beaten those men at that point in his career.

 

I agree. Also 60s Ali beats Holmes anyday 9/10. The Ali from 70-75 would definitely beat Holmes probably the same number of times...what about the Ali that beat Spinks in the rematch in 78? That Ali trained his behind off from the minute he lost the title to Spinks...he ran until 3am right after that bout as the story goes...it was his last masterpiece...not the same obviously but for that one night I think he could have beaten 80 Holmes no doubt. I don't think Spinks won more than 2 rounds that night...Ali had one last great fight in him.

 

I disagree with your view that Ali '78 would have beaten the 1980 version of Holmes. He was still too far gone to have managed that. He would have put up a far better fight,and would probably have lasted the distance.
To find an Ali that I would have confidently betted on to have beaten a 1980 Holmes,you'd have had to have gone back to 1974 (Frazier 2 and Foreman) A Thrilla in Manila Ali would have been a 50/50 shot.

 

This is an old thread, i'd forgotten about "The Drake". :yep

 

And did n't Billy get shafted when they did actually fight ? A hometown decision. I've never met Billy,but bizzarely had a telephone conversation with him. About ten years ago,Billy was working down here in London. A mutual friend handed me his phone in a pub one night,and I talked to Billy for about 5 minutes. He told me that he was mentioned as a possible opponent for an up and coming Frank Bruno. They never offered Billy enough money though !

 

Not sure what the consensus was there mate. I do know that most at ringside scored Aird the winner in his draw with Jimmy Young (probably Billy's best ever result).

 

I told Billy,over the phone,that he fought terribly against John L Gardner (I'd sank a few lagers by this time...) and could n't believe that he'd lost to him. Billy said that he hardly trained for that one.

 

Ah, what else could it be, like every 99% of fighters, "I didn't try" is a far more legitimate excuse than "I wasn't able".

 

Very true. Aird had the edge on skill over Gardner,but did n't have as much determination.
Did you ever see Aird's fight with Conteh ?

 

As for Holmes in Ali's first term in the 60's, Larry was MILES ahead of any of Ali's challengers..it makes you wonder..

 

Would have been a good challenge for Ali. He'd still have won though,imo.

 

Evangelista earned his shot at Ali by going 8 rounds with Lorenzo Zanon.
Obviously, he didn't beat the great Zanon, but going the 8 round distance proved him worthy to fight Ali.

Then he proved himself at the highest level by going 15 rounds with Ali.
If Holmes hadn't fought Evangelista no one would have taken Larry's claim to be champion seriously.

Lorenzo Zanon eventually went 2-0 against Evangelista and that's why Holmes just had to fight Zanon.
Imagine if Holmes had ducked both Evangelista and Zanon !
It's a testament to Holmes' greatness that he beat both.

 

the alphabet orgs .. plain and simple ... filler fringe contenders for champions between bigger bouts ...

Ali's post Frazier second reign was pathetic .. he lost to Norton, looked horrendous v.s. Young, lucked out against Shavers and did everything possible to avoid fighting Norton again ...

Holmes had just won the title and was entitled to an easy on after beating Norton and Shavers ...