Louis and Ali: would it affect their standings if neither's career was interrupted?

Of course if both fighters had opportunities to fight more fights, get more wins and title defences, things would change shape. By personal view is, it doesn't matter how many fights you have, its who you beat.

Vietnam or no Vietnam, Ali has the best resume at Heavy.

 

ali was fighting very regular before exile - he was at his peak. 5 defences in 66. 2 defences in 67 and we were only in march (only 6 weeks between terrell and folley defences). if he did 5 defences every year. by the end of the 60s he coulda had an extra 13 defences. he probably woulda fought frazier in 69 or 70 but he woulda fought the likes of quarry, ellis, bonavena in the late 60s.

 

Could have gone either way.

In the 1940's, the ratings were frozen during WWII. Fighters were able to keep their rankings without necessarily having to update their credentials. The ones who suffered for this were the young talents who never got a chance to emerge during their primes, due to the fact that either A. they were forced to take a seat behind older fighters who had their rankings preserved, or B. Went to go fight in the war, leaving their boxing career hehind.

If Louis's reign had never been subjected to the interruption of a war, he well may have accumulated as many as 40 title defenses, or he may have found himself facing a higher volume of prime talents, which could also have led to a loss earlier...

As for Muhammad Ali, I am fairly confident that he would have continued to reign well into the 1970's without a loss, had he never been exiled. From the time he left the game in 1967 to the time he returned in 1970, he was between 25-28 years of age, and in the absolute midst of his prime. In fact, for all we know he might even have missed out on a chance to improve as a result of his abscence during what is typically the peak age of a fighter's career. Additionally, I do not see Frazier beating him under these circumstances. Had Ali continued to box through the end of the 1960's, he and Frazier would have jointly cleared out the division of any available talent, resulting in an earlier matchup between the two of them, perhaps around 1968-69. A lesser experienced Frazier vs a peak Ali with all the momentum in the world at his fingertips, would likely have ended in Frazier never winning the heavyweight title..

 

I think Ali was at his absolute prime before his career was interrupted. I regard his prime fight as the '66 fight against Cleveland Williams, when he stopped him in 3 rounds. Then he went on to comprehensively beat Terrell, and stop Folley.

I think if his career wasn't interrupted for 3 years, and he used that time wisely, I think it could of further enhanced his already terrific legacy and all-time standing.

 

Agreed,

He would have likely beaten prime versions of Frazier, Mathis, Quarry, Ellis, Bonavena and Martin, plus a few low profile defenses in between. This would have probably given him somewhere between 16-20 defenses before the 1970's even began..

 

In Ali's case, the fact that his career was interrupted sealed his status as one of the greatest of all time. That's because watching how good Ali was when he was past his prime (post-1970) made us realize how great he must have been during the 1960s, when he was at his peak.

 

Perhaps, but Louis was fighting about or close times to 7 times a year, he relly lost that active after the war.

I feel Louis perhaps may have burn out fast, depends if they give him Godey like problems or gets blown out like Mann, I like to think he could get 40, but I feel better around the 29-35 mark.
As for Ali, he would have rein right though his exile years, at the time of the exile, there was relly no big fish for Ali. Perhaps he gets the Frazier fight sooner, either way, both would be rated about were they are at regardless of wars/exiles or not.

 

Both were affected. But they are two of the highest ranked heavyweights anyway, so it didn' t make much difference relative to one another. Ali's prime would have been during his forced hiatus and he may have faced Frazier earlier and outboxed a younger Smokin' Joe (I suspect he would have).

 

Another question is whether the break prolonged their career as so many fighters burn out.

 

Yes. Late 1969. Ali in better shape than he would ultimately be in 71 (through activity) but not taking Frazier quite as seriously. Ali's 15th defence or thereabouts.