On Jimmy Young …

I had Young Ali a draw.

Am I going mad with that one?

 

He wasn’t the best to watch, he didn’t put vicious combinations together body and head, he was a spoiler, but he was very effective and was a very good fighter, he was a master boxer, he was tricky, he could bait opponents and he was very hard to land clean on, if you could land clean punch, best believe you weren’t following up with anything else clean, he could box at range, he could give a target, make you commit and take it away and counter, great survival skills, was able to think steps ahead.
He was an elite fighter in terms of skill.

 

I don’t think he should have been DQ’d.

I think the ref should have stopped it as a TKO. It’s basically the same as turning your back. It’s a surrender cobra move. It’s a signal that he no longer wanted to fight.

You wanna play, you have to get (and stay) in the sandbox.

 

To quote Evander Holyfield (not that he originated it, but afaik he was the first one to bring it to boxing): Pressure busts pipes.

 

I'm an Ali fan, he's my second favorite fighter in the history of the sport. I once scored a fight treating every incident of Young sticking his head out of the ring as knockdown. Young still should win. So in my opinion, only case of Ali winning this, would be a DQ.

 

It was the first time most of the United States had seen Jimmy Young in the ring. Not much was expected at all.

The bigger fight (at the time) was the Dunn fight only a month later in Germany - because it was going to be a prime time live satellite feed from Germany. That was still rare at the time.

Ali-Young was essentially a tune-up for that one, if you can believe it.

Most of Ali's fights hadn't aired on live network television in the 1970s. Just Ali-Norton 1, Ali-Lyle, Ali-Coopman ... and the upcoming Ali-Young/Ali-Dunn fights back to back in less than 30 days.

It was an exciting night. When a monster upset seems to be unfolding before your eyes, fans tend to be a little forgiving.