If Ali didn’t get Parkinson’s how long could he have held the title/been top class?

He would have still been finished by 1980. He had been boxing non-stop since 1971 and had gone through too many wars in the ring. It takes a huge toll on the body. At most he would have maybe held his own against WBA contenders like Weaver and Tate, but against Holmes he still would have been beat. The reason Ali’s resume is the greatest is because he fought and beat every top tier and good boxer in the 60s and 70s, including rematches. It’s a flame that burns twice as bright but half as long.

 

Would love to see Ali vs Weaver.

 

Until the rise of Lennox.

 

Ali and Frazier were not in top form for the thrilla, they were both past it and found it in themselves to rise to top form for the fight, Ali would not have had a better/longer career he was done regardless

 

The same.

Ali did intense sparring sessions and took a lot of punishment in those sessions. He leaned on the ropes in sparring and took tremendous punishment.

The more punishment you take, the faster you age, mentally and physically. After 3 fights with Frazier and Norton each, plus Lyle, Bugner, etc, there is no way he could dominate any longer.

The reason guys like Usyk and especially Hopkins did well when older is because they didn't take that much damage.

Ali was done. His speed was going to decline even without Parkinson's. Punch resistance, even desire declines with more punishment taken.

 

Not to mention, his fight with Foreman where he actually took a lot of damage, and was pissing blood for a month.

 

The weak WBA belt gave Ali a pathway to win the title a 4th time. But he was a fighter who relied on quickness in his late 30s. If he could get lucky and win that belt it'd be a one fight thing.

He'd taken a lot of damage in that third Frazier fight and after that he was mostly in competitive 15 round decisions.

 

There has been evidence to suggest his Parkinson’s affected him as early 1969-1971? they studied his speech in what I’ve had shown to me.
Boxing is a thing of very small moments and Ali was pretty dependent on his reflexes - so anything that might’ve gone unnoticed by an average person for many, many years would start to show pretty quickly in fighting.
reacting to a punch isn’t exactly pouring a cup of water, typing or playing catch in the yard.
I’m willing to admit I’ve changed my opinion to it being possible that while the competition was better the reduction we saw in Muhammad Ali’s perceived ability might’ve had an additional culprit.

 

He was your quintessential reflex fighter and reflexes wane with age. It was amazing he fought at such a high level before his reflexes failed him and even a bit after they had.

 

Something to point out just to think on it a trainer who used to post here talked about having someone with elite measured reflexes still having a poor defence/ head movement in the gym.

 

The thyroid problem got him before the Parkinson's. He had to take medication the effectively made him a zombie version of himself.

 

He looked bad in training . He couldn't even hit the heavy bag.

 

My bad. The speed bag. Hard to miss the heavy bag.

 

The thyroid issue was a diagnosis from Herbert Muhammad’s quack doc without any testing; after the fight, with legit lab work, they discovered no evidence of thyroid malfunction.

Of course, Ali didn’t help matters by gobbling the Thyrolar like it was Pez, exceeding the recommended dosage.