Muhammad Ali vs Ernie Terrell

Neither Liston or Foreman were ever the same after facing Ali. And Cooney after Holmes, Curry after Honeyghan, Taylor after Chavez, Biggs after Tyson, Ruddock after Lewis, Bowe after Golota (though not technically losses), Trinidad after Hopkins, Walters after Loma... It's not uncommon that fighters never recover from a bad loss, even if it happens in their prime.

Terrell was beaten and taunted in front of a world audience and the word was, true or not, that Ali played with him and could have knocked him out whenever he wanted. That's about as bad as it gets, worse than perhaps all of the above examples. So not that surprising that he never was the same again.

 

People always talk about Williams being Ali’s peak but I think there’s a strong argument for Terrell. He just ruined Terrell at least psychologically, pretty much took his manhood.

 

The Terrell fight proved that Ali could put on the type of dazzling performance he displayed against Cleveland Williams for a whole 15 rounds if necessary. A significant asset when considering H2H match ups.

If Terrell had actually engaged Ali reasonably, I think he would’ve been put out of there by the 1/2 way to 3/4 mark - he clammed up so much more tightly again after the rocky 7th round.

If Ali wasn’t so disdainful of the body he might’ve been able to break Terrell anyway with a concentrated attack targeting that area - at the very least, it would’ve served to bring Terrell’s high guard down.

But of course, Ali did it his way - and it certainly wasn’t broke to require any fixing,

While Terrell overly clutched, I did note that he was a pretty strong guy, as measured against Ali who was strong himself and knew how to best leverage his strength.

I don’t know that Terrell was a full 6’6” but 212 1/2 lbs was awfully lean for his size/height, and, as someone already highlighted, that was an increased weight from Ernie’s more recent fights.

He was actually a pretty well built guy and looked pretty shredded at that lean weight.

I would guess Terrell might’ve been a better fighter if he didn’t incorporate such negative tactics - but then he would’ve more aware of the limitations of his chin than anyone else.

 

Great minds, lol - my previous post (submitted after yours) implied that the Terrell fight would’ve (should’ve) pushed Ali’s stocks up that much higher.

No matter which Ali, a Joe Frazier isn’t tipping over in 3 rounds - but then Ali proved he wouldn’t be turning into a pumpkin himself after 3 awe inspiring rounds - so much more in the 60s Ali fuel tank to go the whole 9 yards.

 

Did you know that the original date for the Muhammad Ali vs Ernie Terrell title unification bout was originally scheduled for March 29 1966 in Chicago, Illinois. But it was determined that Terrell's camp was involved with various mob members, there was fear that the Muslims and the members of organized crime on Terrell's behalf would get involved in a shootout. Also at this time, Ali made his displeasure to being drafted noted, I Ain't Got No Quarrel With The Vietcong. This angered the members of the Illinois Boxing Commission, they proceeded to recommend that the fight be cancelled. Instead of Ali vs Terrell, George Chuvalo took Terrell's place for March 29 1966 in Toronto, Canada.

 

Muhammad Ali ruined Ernie Terrell, who would never be the same again. Terrell was beaten by Thad Spencer during the 1967 WBA Heavyweight Tournament, Terrell was on the deck a few times enroute to his humiliating loss to Spencer on points. Terrell tried a brief comeback in 1973, during George Foreman's title reign, Ernie had wins over Sonny Moore, Johnny Hudgins, Vic Brown, Luis Pires, Robert Davila, Jose Luis Garcia, Bill Drover, but was beaten on points by Chuck Wepner on June 23 1973 and stopped by Jeff Merritt on Sept 10 1973.

 

Good info Rich, thanks.

 

Thanks buddy.

 

I honestly don't see how this was such an impressive performance Terrell looked awful. Slow as hell refused to throw his jab and for some reason kept trying to get on the inside instead of fighting him at range using his jab. I really don't see how you can say this shows Ali would be able to compete with modern Heavyweights any modern heavyweight would make mincemeat out of Terrell.