Also, Leon could fight at a much rougher pace for a helluva long time. Leon's gone all-out war for 10-15 rounds throwing bombs. Morrison wouldn't be able to do that for more than 5, and that's a huge difference. And Spinks was only knocked out twice before five in his prime, to Coetzee and Holmes. Holmes was much greater than Morrison, but didn't have his punching power, but Coetzee did. So that makes it a little hard to tell. But Leon was normally not stopped early in his prime.
Leon definitely had an internal toughness to him. His fight with Lopez is an absolute classic and showed what kind of heart he has. He doesn't have Morrisons natural power but he had a grit and determination that I will always be inspired by especially since he grew up 10 minutes from where I did. I have met him multiple times over the years and I just love the guy. Last time I saw him he clearly didn't know who I was but I will never forgot how cool he was to me when I was a kid.
Fighters like Shavers who commit on their punches and are "offense first" often leave themselves open to big punches in return. If Shavers had been a defensive fighter, he might have had a "better" chin, but he would probably have had fewer knockouts. Strange result in a Shavers fight; as an amateur Shavers fought Nick Wells (southpaw with two amateur knockouts of Larry Holmes), both Shavers and Wells were knockout punchers. Wells, according to his BoxRec record scored 29 knockouts of his listed 34 wins as an amateur and all but one of his pro wins was by knockout. Shavers and Wells went to a decision.
hmm... You must admit that if Shavers opened up and threw a huge haymaker and got tagged with a sharp counterpunch, he would go down, and might even get counted out. On the other hand, Foreman, who was not defensive either, wouldn't probably so much as move if he get hit with a big haymaker in the process of getting ready to land his own.
Morrison might have actually stropped him .. Ali was never a big puncher but by 78 he was a shell .. Morison wild have been way too much ..
You might be right about Morrison taking this one, though Ali did best against limited sluggers & if they have stamina issues he has a real shot. But Ali was declining by the year since Manilla. It was over 2 & a 1/2 years between Spinks 1 & Holmes. Plus he zombified himself with a thyroid drug them-he looked better against Berbick at the end of 1981, despite the march of Parkinson's disease. Hence using the Holmes fight to show what Ali had left in 1978 is a very bad example.
You have a point, but Shavers had notoriously bad stamina but went into training camp and managed to pace himself for a 15 round fight. If he could do it, Morrison could. I think they are close in boxing ability. It's not too far fetched. I do agree Ali has a strong chance of dragging Morrison into deep waters since he wasn't the most versatile boxer and had chin issues.
I actually thought Morrison had good boxing skills. It's just that, if you have crumby stamina, none of your skills really matter. I would say Shaver's display of stamina vs. Ali's was by far his best, and he clearly trained for a 15-round fight. But normally, I would say Shaver's stamina was only good and effective up until about round 7, so just a little longer than Morrison's. I agree though, Shavers and Morrison had many similar problems.
Ali had one of the greatest championship chins of all time. He takes Tommy's robotic punches, sees everyone of them coming his way and rolls with them. After 3 rounds, Tommy slows to a snail's pace and Ali starts picking him apart. The damage adds up and Tommy crumples in round 11.
People forget that Tommy Morrison had one of the worst chins among all heavyweight champions. The guy was KTFOed in one round by nivice Michael Bennt who had only 5 (five!!!) KOs in 11 fights against awful opposition. Even washed up Ali had enough power to hurt glass-jawed Morrison. If Tommy went life and death against shot Carl Williams barely surviving that fight... Well, shot Ali was WAY better than shot Carl Williams
There is a big difference between Ali 77 and Ali 78. 77 version was bad but 78 version was terrible and he should have been retired at that time. Morrison was much better fighter than Shavers. Much Better... He did hit just as hard and he was better overall.
Ye hate to say it but there's more chance of Morrison winning this than Ali imo. Perhaps he'd take Tommy lightly as he did Leon. That was Ali's weak point, getting overly confident at times.
I agree Ali should have retired at that point but he was far from terrible and only a year removed from wins over Shavers, Evangelista and Norton although I still think Norton won that fight. Point is Norton and Holmes were clearly the two best heavyweights in 77/78 and he was still good enough to beat Norton. I really don't see much that was special about Morrison other than an incredibly powerful left hook. I watched plenty of limited guys have success against him and a guy like Ali was still sound enough to deal with heavy handed guys like Shavers and Evangelista. We simply don't agree on Morrison being a much better fighter than Shavers. It's fine if you think he was better than Shavers but it's a stretch he is MUCH better.