Lost in all the Ali hoopla and self promotion is a fact I find interesting .. post exile Ali had thirty two fights. In those thirty two fights Ali only placed seven opponents on the canvas. Out of those seven, four were flat out second raters ( Blin, Wepner, Cooperman, Dunn ) were second raters and one a light heavyweight (Foster) .. what is more ironic is that his two KO's against top heavyweights were against iron men Foreman and Bonavena, two tough as nails guys monsters who were never KO'ed before or since .. go figure ..
Interesting, Ali could hit but never often punched through the target, just often to land enough at times. He was much slower after his return, many of his knockouts pre exile were from punches the opponents didn't see coming.
Ali was often too heavy in his fights during the 70`s compared to when his training habits were more consistent in the 60`s, Ali trained really well for the Foreman fight and his hand speed in that fight was nearly as quick as when he fought Cleveland Williams at times.
George completely emptied his tank in the intensely heat of their match before Ali's sharp shooting broke down a completely open Foreman and increasingly ragged. The Bonavena stoppage was cumulative and came in the 15th. Ali did still indeed stop two iron men who were never stopped before or again in their careers, though. Ali was quite the combination of boxing skills.
Well Lyles legs turned to jelly when Ali landed that highlight reel right hand. Lyle stumbled and lost complete control of his lower body. He would have fell to th canvas if not for the ropes supporting him. Ali staggered Frazier badly in the 2nd round of the 2nd fight but the ref gave Frazier enough time to recover. Also in the 3rd fight he retired on his stool before Ali could get the chance to stop him via punches. Wouldnt really factor in any fights beyond 78 when assessing his power and KO/Dropping %--he was pretty much shot, old, and hardly trained at all, relying on instinct and lazy ring generalship to coast to a decision win. So yeah in hindsight while that is kind of interesting he only floored 7 opponents in his comeback, that doesnt really change anything in the overall picture in context. As he got older, Ali rarely went for the KO anyway unless he was absolutely certain he could get it without too much risk (partly to conserve energy for later rounds). Look at the Buster Mathis fight for example, he had the guy badly hurt dropped him, and watched him wheezing and hunched over and for whatever reason wouldnt let his hands go. Ali was also a showman. He felt like it was the champs duty to give the people "their moneys worth" and go the distance on purpose or wait till the later rounds to go for a stoppage. Lastly, if you watch his interview where he talks about the Patterson and Terrel fights, he expresses frustration at the publics criticism of the way he "tortured" his opponent and "carried him" to prolong the beating. Part of him want to distance himself from those dark moments in his career to fashion himself as a "technician" and master of the "sweet sciences" rather than another typical brutal boxer who beat the mess out of his opponents. Ali had obvious tremendous physical strength, fast twitch muscles, and very explosive power. Every opponent remarked how much his punches stung and the effects were also obvious in that virtually every opponent was badly marked up, cut, and/or swollen at the end. Even his jabs would snap out lile a rubber band and make the opponents sweat fly off into the first row. Also take note that nobody ever just walked through his punches and overpowered him...not without dire consequences anyway. That tells you all you need to know, feather fisted fighters cant keep powerful strong willed fighters from closing in at some point, especially at heavyweight. Its all about psychology.
The Bonavena stoppage was a result of Ali refusing to go to a neutral corner and getting away with it.
Foreman was saved by the bell vs Lyle despite what ppl wish to think. Foreman was exceptional!y big in his era with few who could match him physically at 6'3 220 . Foreman also lost to weaker Jimmy Young, you can make 100 excuses no competent fighter who can punch and take a punch at Foreman's size loses that fight unless he's overrated. This puts into question how Ali is labeled unbeatable and modern guys are bums? Hmmm There are many interesting facts about Ali and his deliberate push by the boxing insiders , mainly being the most unbeatable...ummmm..never mind!
He knocked out bonavena because he wouldn' go back to a neutral corner and swatted the refs hand away, he stayed on bonavena and beat him senseless. He knocked out foreman cause foreman has bad stamina to begin with but continued to punch himself out until he was exhausted, punchs hurt worse when you can't catch your breath The k.o. of sonny liston the second time though stunk of fakeness
Also had terrible hand problems that plagued him much more in his ‘second career’ than in his physical fighting prime.
Merry Christmas he! Never even thought about the first part of your post, interesting. As to Bonavena & Foreman I would offer that both of those were more attributable to exhaustion instead of power.
The Bonavena fight was an ugly , grueling fight .. Oscar was a brute and Ali never should have fought him that early in his comeback .. both fighters were exhausted but Ali actually nailed him with the best left hook of his career ad Oscar never recovered .. Both Ali and Foreman were tired in Zaire but Foreman had punched himself out .. he was ready to go both mentally and physically .. Ali nailed him .. the same shot would not have stopped George in round one but Ali managed it in round eight .. say what you like but it was the only time in eighty one fights that George was stopped ....
Foreman was so exhausted by the 8th round, that even if he had slipped to the canvas without being punched, he was never going to get up and beat the count.
Agreed, but Oscar would have survived the round if Ali had to abide by the neutral corner rule. Another fighter might have been disqualified for that, and rightfully so.
Interesting in that Ali had, virtually, no left hook to speak of his entire career (not meant as a criticism).
