If Muhammad Ali aged like Foreman and Holmes, how would he have done in the 80s

To be fair to Ali Foreman and Holmes only aged better than Ali due to not consistently facing the same caliber of competition as Ali did. Ali being a guy that always fought the best Ali would've always been a broken down fighter by the time the 80's came around.

Also, Foreman in the late 70's took a 10 year layoff and came back in his late 30's in the late 80's and even then was very carefully matched, which helped a lot with his longevity.

 

The Trevor Berbick fight pretty much sums the situation up.

 

I'd say he'd still have a lot of trouble against the likes of Holmes and definitely Tyson

 

I don't know ,with all the hard fights behind him ,I just can't see Ali ageing well enough to even beat a top twenty guy by 1980.
Let's say he retires after Foreman in 74 ,then makes a CB in 79,even then i don't see him being good enough to beat a Berbick or Weaver. And if they put him in with a young Cooney ..!

 

I agree. Even if Ali’s mental and physical condition had not deteriorated through the 80s, he still would not have been any better than he was in the latter part of the 70s such as in his last victory against Leon Spinks in 1978 and that version of Ali would not have beaten the likes of Thomas, Witherspoon, Dokes or Tucker. It would have been madness to put him in with the 80sTyson.

 

Assuming that Ali's capabilities were that of the Spinks fight, I can only imagine that he wouldn't be very successful in the 80s; he'd lose to most of the top fighters of the 80s.