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

Right. You hit it on the head. It was the medicine that did it.

 

Tbh i think he can extend his reign a little bit longer. Ali had really good reflex and speed, but he also had excepcional timing, ring iq and grit.
Holmes i think beats the late 70's ali by descision in this situation.

 

With or without Parkinsons it was amazing how long he carried on and how many decent opponents he beat whilst his skills were in decline due to age/wear and tear.
Regardless of his marquee wins in Zaire and Manila, he fought a long list of willing triers and some quality guys thrown in.
Bugner, Lyle, Young, Norton and Shavers , is a decent winning resume in itself, so deep into the latter stages of a career.
I always thought the Shavers win was as gutsy and notable as some of his higher profile wins.
By the time of the Spinks fights , I'm not sure too many people saw him as the real champ as Regardless of any illness , he looked physically past his best.
His slurred speech was noticeable and the people who encouraged and enabled his last 2 fights wanted locking up.
With or without Parkinsons he should've retired after Shavers or thereabouts from how I remember it.

 

Too hard to say as we don’t know how bad the Parkinson’s was at the end of his career nor how severely it was effecting him. My guess is that by the age of 35-37 he was pretty well diminished regardless as his style relied heavily on speed, stamina, workrate and punch resistance. Those things don’t usually age well

 

Great answer.

 

Perhaps. But he wouldn't beat a young Mike Tyson and a 40 something Ali might have been taken by a Michael Spinks or a Carl Williams. He wouldn't have been knocked out, but he could have been out pointed. And without Parkinson, he probably would have UD'd Trevor Berbick and he still likely loses to Holmes, but it's more competitive.

 

He was pissing blood??

 

The answer to the first part of the question is:
- until the fight with Holmes
Answer to the second part of the question:
After the defeat by Holmes, Ali's form would decline rapidly, it would be unrealistic to expect someone to be top class for twenty years. And it would be bad for the "greatest" to have a series of defeats (or to win once and lose, and thus continue his career), and therefore not be "the greatest".

 

Another thing is was there ever someone in Alis shoes who lasted as champion into their 40s? Between Frazier III and the Holmes fight Ali fought 6 15 round decisions. He beat his worst 2 opponents Coopman and Dunn pretty easily but every other fight was a struggle. Before Frazier III Ali had fought Frazier, Foreman, Wepner, Lyle and Bugner. Of these fights only the Foreman one didn't go double digits and that was probably the one he took the most damage. In the 70s Frazier was forced to retire from like 5 or 6 really tough fights despite it being smooth sailing before that. If we look at someone like Norton who had a lot of wars they were spaced out by the fact he never had a title reign. And Norton was done before he turned 38. Lyles first retirement came at 40 and he wasn't champ.

If we look at other long reigning HW champs in other eras there really isn't a case of someone fighting as many wars as Ali. And despite that no one really made it into their 40s. Louis took off almost 4 years during the war and another 2 after the Walcott fights. Still retired at 38. Holmes fought into his 40s but after the Spinks and Tyson fights(which he took a 2 year break between) he took up can crushing and while he wasn't retired from boxing he was retired from being a champion at 38. Foreman took 10 years off, fought like 2 decisions before he was 40 and he was also Foreman. Wlad had an easy reign he lost his belt at 39. Archie Moore was a LHW who the vast majority of the time was fighting 10 round non title fights. But yeah this whole question is based on the idea Ali could have remained champ to like 40 if not for an illness. Theres nothing that really supports that from looking at HWs who didn't have said illness.

In MMA HWs fighting at a high level into their 40s is common but the main reason for this is the division is horrible and they barely fight.