He was sort of a top of the line ESPN level fighter, a decent fringe contender, kinda of like the Emanuel Augustus of his era. Usually made for entertaining fights, but when he stepped up the competition, he got beat.
He was a decent contender level fighter, but not championship calibre in any era. His fight with Harry Arroyo was a underrated classic though. Ali was winning handily up until the 11th, when Arroyo caught him with the one of the biggest right hands you'll ever see and basically knocked him cold.
Entertaining fighter first person to beat Jerry Page. Good wins over a number of decent prospects and contenders in entertaining ESPN bouts . Finest hour a very close and good fight for Lightweight title with Jose Luis Ramirez. Never quite in the top 3 in his divison but holding on in the top ten for a few years.
Yup, ESPN level. Back then that meant more than it does now. Cool thing about those divisions was that you had tons of really good fighters willing to fight each other. Alli, R. Mayweather, Pompey, Brazier, Ward, Tony Martin, Sammy Fuentes, Fred Pendleton, etc. Made for regularly good ESPN cards.
That was my time watching ESPN boxing. Harold Brazier was on ever week it seemed. Louie Espinoza too. Good solid boxing. I remember a promo for Tyson vs Ali that they ran all week. It was actually for Daryll Tyson vs Terrence Alli! I always thought that was pretty clever. Alli was a high energy guy. All effort but not overly gifted. Did a nice backflip though!
Very Adequate contender without having that special piece of the Jigsaw to get to the top ...A Charles Murray type who as i recall he won a split decision over, Grabbed a Draw with Boza Edwards in an exciting match (But then Boza usually made them all exciting ) perhaps best remembered for giving JC Chavez a decent few rounds of workout until JC stepped on the Gas.. With Alli under fire It looked like the Ref may have just been Parting them...But JC Instantly whirled around and started celebrating ... and noibody was going to usher The Chavez Crowd out of the Ring and recommence the End Game.. Match Terrence with Guys like Kenty.. Watt... Davis who knows...
