Joe Louis Versus Muhammad Ali

I respect both men and what they meant to America and to Black Americans but I agree with Emmanuel Steward who said if you asked a computer for a printout of a boxer who had the tools to beat Joe Louis it was Muhammad Ali .

 

A young Ali had a close fight with Jones which he won. Ali was playing and was careless when Cooper hooked him. He was only knocked down three times in 61 professional fights, four if you want to call it a knockdown when Wepner stepped on his foot while jabbing him to the body. Ali said he could never figure out Ken Norton, not that he couldn't beat him. Even Norton concedes he lost the second fight and that all three fights were competitive.

 

Jimmy Jacobs who had the largest collection of fights on film measured Ali's hand speed on a synchronizer and found it to be faster than that of Sugar Ray Robinson and in fact faster than any fighter he had on film. Patterson who had really fast hands said I was fast but Ali was faster than me. Make out of it what you will

 

Would you like the link? It requires me to get off my Android and on my laptop. It also goes into Ali's preternatural sense of distance.

 

I don't want to turn this into an Ali board and alienate the other posters. I try to mix it up but here it is. It delves into his hand speed and sense of distance.


The Muhammad Ali of 60’s was the fastest heavyweight ever. In the May 5, 1969 Sports Illustrated, Ali’s jab was measured with an omegascope. Ali’s jab, it was found, could smash a balsa board 16.5 inches away in 19/100 of a second. It actually covered the distance in 4/100 of a second, which is the blink of an eye. Jimmy Jacobs, who owned the world’s largest collection of fight films, said that on film tests with a synchronizer Ali’s jab was faster than that of Sugar Ray Robinson. Jacobs contended that Ali was not only the fastest heavyweight, but also the fastest fighter he ever saw on film.

Marv Jenson, who managed Gene Fullmer, concurred saying, “Ali has the fastest hands on any heavyweight I have ever seen.”

Bob Foster, the world light-heavyweight champion agreed, saying, in an interview after their fight, “He has no business being as fast as he is. I never saw that right hand.”

Author John Durant described him as having “lightning fast hands and a pair of legs that moved around the ring like a ballet dancer. He would float just out of range with his hands dangling at his side as if to taunt his opponent.”

Ali made a lot of mistakes in the ring such as dropping his hands low, holding his right hand out too far when he jabbed so he could not block a jab in return, telegraphing his right uppercut by dropping his right hand, and completely neglecting body punching. However Ali, in his prime, was able to out-speed his mistakes. Eddie Futch commented, “Ali takes his mistakes, shows them to you, and then beats you with them.” Ali got away with his mistakes because of his astoundingly quick reflexes, speed of foot, and uncanny ability to gauge distance.

Ali danced gracefully across the ring, his lateral movement and fleetness of foot made him the master of ring center. Ali’s judge of distance was also phenomenal. He divided the ring into “safety zones” and “danger zones.” In a demonstration done in a boxing ring for Sports Illustrated, (See May 5, 1969 SI), with sparring partner Lee Carr, when Ali was in a “safety zone” he appeared to be in a position to be easily hit, especially with his hands dangling down at his side. That’s what Carr thought. He decided that a left jab would be long enough to reach him. Ali smugly held his ground and with a slight move of his head Carr’s jab fell two inches short. “I can move in on him,” said Carr, “but I can’t seem to get to him.”

https://coxscorner.tripod.com/ali.html