Most of the ali story is contained by his flamboyant personality, that is well known. He carried that in and out of the ring. It was there in the early fights. Leading up to the liston match they'd never seen or heard anything like it. It follows through to been stripped and exile. His comeback fights, the war of words with Joe, foreman, Norton and many other s. It affected his opponents and made him a star. So what if he has the personality of a Floyd Patterson? How does this affect the ali story?
I am convinced that their careers were for the most part, based on performance not personality. Ali was a winning fighter with exceptional speed and skill. He was very athletic and talented. Floyd was more of a puncher type fighter. He is often given credit for being a good boxer but he was more of a puncher. He actually had one leg that was a bit shorter than the other and it impaired his footwork. Interestingly, I met both of them separately and spent about 1/2 hour with each. It would not be surprising to most that Floyd was a very pleasant and humble type guy. He actually flew a piper cub airplane and the two of us flew around Marlboro N.Y. talking boxing. I also met Ali at his Deer Lake training camp in Pa. He was showing my friend and me his car and the thing that struck us about him was how pleasant and believe it or not, how modest he was. I mean he was really down to earth. Floyd was one of the most popular fighters ever. He had a tremendous fan base. During his fighting days, Ali was either loved or hated. He was probably the most well known fighter in history. He used to say he was " More well known than the Pope or Bob Hope ".
Nice story Frank. I'm a big fan of Floyd and certainly hope I didn't come as been negative about Floyd. I'm just curious as to to what people think of a ali with out a ali personality , if u get my meaning?. How different he would have approached liston for example. If it would have been enough for ali just to get by on his boxing skills with out that charismatic character of his.
He'd not be the legend he is today, but up until 1967 his career would probably have panned out more or less the same. Sure, his mouth gave him attention early on , but he earned his shot at Liston through what he did in the ring. There's no real reason to believe he wouldn't have got that title shot and after that things would have looked pretty much the same until he went into the army. But he was only going to serve for a yearn right? And do some exhibition during that time. So he should be able to continue for where he started. What was supposed to happen with the title when Ali was in the army? Was it going to be frozen or would it be vacated? Probably wouldn't too much of a difference. But if Ali came straight back from the army to face Frazier, without a tune-up, it might result in a loss (but the 1,5 years he had off between the Liston fights didn't really seem to affect him). In that case I think he'd regain it anyhow. But there in all probability wouldn't be the kind of legendary fights he had with Frazier and Foreman in reality.
I could see him being just as pivotal figure, but in a completely different way. Another Joe Louis like figure might have certain benefits at that time.
Well, I wonder what his record would be. I mean, he probably wouldn't have got those gift decisions against some of his opponents
