Is it possible that the Ali of Quarry 2 was the best version ?

I named the Frazier fights as superior performances. No argument there.

Shavers. HELL NO. Yes, he was brave, but that was about it. He was far gone by this point.

Lyle was a very poor and lackluster performance except for the finish.

He didn't look very good against Bonavena. His timing was off, he didn't seem to trust his legs and got badly shaken in rd 9. He did a good job of pulling himself together after that and that left hook counter is legendary, but a pretty shakey performance on the whole.

 

I don't rank the win over Shavers high for boxing ability, because Ali looked terrible in that way; he threw tons of useless flurries in the early rounds, and was not a good boxer at that point. It is one of the finest cases for Ali's chin, and one of Ali's most incredible comebacks. Round 15 has got to be one of Ali's greatest moments.

 

Yes, in terms of durability and bravery and ring smarts. But everything else with him was gone by that point. He was far more skilled when he met Ellis.

 

I agree completely. I think much of Ali's skills stayed in Manila when Ali came back to the U. S., all he had left after that was guts and smarts, although he looked fairly sharp in the Norton rubber match.

 

The best version was definitely pre exile, Ali’s speed and reflexes at there sharpest, I don’t think he was any stronger in the seventies, what I do know though is Ali’s knock out percentage up to 1967 was 79% which was higher than Tyson, Klitschko, and Lewis at that point believe it or not, and after exile it was around 50% so the statistics say he punched harder pre exile.

 

Thought that sometimes too. Max. ring iq, durable too. If he fought Foreman in 1966 he´d take shots to the body as well and be on the run. I´m 90% sure the fight in Zaire would exceed 8 rounds, whatever that might say about a comparison.
Problem with The Legend of H2H-Ali: Both those versions get mixed together.

 

I've always said that this bout along with Norton II,Frazier II and the Foreman fights were the best we saw of Muhammad post exile.

Ali seemed to be doing what he liked with Quarry most of the time in that one.

I go with the consensus that he was at his VERY best circa 1966/67.