More Impressive win all things considered....

FOTC for me, which I consider the greatest heavyweight win if not win of all time outright, though Ali's win over Foreman is also more than likely in the top ten greatest heavyweight wins of all time.

 

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John Michael Johnson Ko'ing Junior Jones.

 

Foreman was seen as more invincible in 1974 than Ali in 1971. Frazier was in his prime 1971, while Ali was past his in 1974. Ali won by KO without receiving that much damage (despite the rope-a-dope) while Frazier won by pts and was never the same again after the fight.

The above makes me go for Zaire. Ali would go on to achieve more than Foreman would, which elavates Frazier's win in hindsight. But at the time there were real doubts about how much Ali had left after the exile, making Frazier a favorite with both experts and bookies. Foreman on the other hand was seen as invincible and the clear favorite against Ali. There were sincere concern for Ali's health - that Foreman would permanently damage him.

Only a strong revision after the fact can make FOTC the better victory. I don't quite see cause for such a revision.

 

Frazier for me. Ali came to win and prove a point. Foreman came for a coronation and didn’t realize what he had in front of him.

 

Was Foreman found with a prostitute by his wife shortly before the fight? Ali was.

 

Ali obviously could handle it then and on a side note I have it on good authority that Foreman’s early career was a circus behind the scenes and not in a good way.

 

Being with a hooker the night before a crucial fight is a pretty clear sign of not taking the fight seriously enough.

Belinda (Ali`s wife) Dundee and Mailer all said Ali trained insufficiently for FOTC. I have never heard anything like that said about Foreman for Zaire.

 

Well to be fair on Foreman I don’t have fight specific occurrences of his behavior but that his actions were bad early in his career. Well if Ali did do that and they said that I guess I stand corrected he still fought competitively for 15 rounds while Foreman looked horribly spent extremely early on.

 

I would say Foreman vs. Ali. No one expected it. But both are great fights.

 

He exerted himself with power punches in high heat and humidity, and was hardly a Jirov to begin with. I see nothing surprising with that.

 

Frazier dropping Ali was incredible and unexpected.

Ali dropping foreman was more incredible and unexpected.

Both in my top 5 greatest fights.

 

To get into you opponents head is part of the whole thing. Personally, I don't think George was angry, though. In his world it was just an impossible thought that he could have someone right in front of him that wouldn't crumble from his blows. At that stage in his career he was a search-and-destroy fighter who only knew full speed ahead more or less.

But in the end I don't think it would matter, anyhow. Ali had the better of most of the action regardless. Had Foreman paced himself better he might have seen the final bell and lost on points, but even then I think the championship rounds would be hell for him (but, of course, familiar territory for Ali) and am not at all sure he would have survived them.