Max Schmeling v Muhammad Ali

I don't see this fight as being a good matchup for Max. I agree Max is often underrated but I believe Ali's foot speed and height would see him prevail.
I think the Zolley fight is the fight you would look at if you wanted to find some way to make a case for Max. Zolley did have some success with his right and he was neither the puncher Max was and he wasn't as durable.
I'll take Ali by UD. Max lands a few nice counter rights but loses wide decision

 

Yeah as much as I like Max Schmeling I simply can't see him as having any sort of advantage.. Ali had height, weight, reach, speed, durability, stamina, etc.. Schmeling was an extremely crafty fighter but I'm not ready to say that he was more Skilled than Ali.. As for Max landing counter rights, that may be a possibility but then again Ali fought a fairly talented counter puncher in Jerry Quarry and destroyed him despite coming fresh off a layoff..

 

Good post Mr M.:good

 

Thank you sir.

 

I don't think Quarry fought anything like Max.

 

Ali fought a good crop of counter punchers. Jones, Patterson, Folley, Ellis, Quarry, Mathis, Young and Holmes the ones that come immediately to mind. The times he struggled with any of those he was a either a bit green or in different stages of over the hill. Most of the times he handled them comfortably.

Prime Schmeling against the Clay/Ali that faced Jones and Young is an interesting prospect. Of course he beats the Ali against Holmes. As for the other versions of Ali, I'd go with Muhammed. Think he'd hardly touch the Ali of Patterson I to be honest.

 

And I don't think anyone max ever faced fought anything like Ali and to an even more drastically differing extent.

 

I suppose the weakest versions of Ali might have had some trouble with the BEST rendition of Schmeling, and may even have resulted in a loss.. But honestly I think The Ali from the first Cooper fight going right up to about the time Ali won in Manilla would have resulted in victory for Muhammad.. That's a period of about 12 years which saw perhaps 3-4 different versions of the greatest.

 

Well by taking that stance it's impossible to know how Max would perform against him. All I was saying is Quarry and Max had very different styles and choosing Quarry as a comparison is not indicative of what the outcome would be against Max. I think Folley is a closer facsimile of Schmeling.

 

I think even the Ali who fought Shavers would have a good chance of beating Max.

 

I don't.

 

I'd put money on it.

 

When a champion however great, is in the condition of the post Manilla Ali, they are not going to hold off a fighter like Schmeling.

A condition of them holding the title, becomes that the best challenger who can force them into a title fight, is some sort of Schmeling minus.

 

Look...
Someone mentioned the possibility of Schmeling countering Ali with the right and I felt it pertinent to point out that Muhammad beat a very good right hand counterpuncher of comparable size, power and description even if they're not Exacty the same .. If you think max beats Muhammad then go with it... You'd be in the minority...

 

No , but he was a good counter puncher which I believe is Mr Magoo's point.