Prime 4 Prime, Muhammad Ali vs. Wladimir Klitschko

Both masters of the jab & grab ! One is smaller and faster. The other is bigger, stronger, with much greater punching power.

If Henry Copper - a beefed up Light HW - could deck Ali, a Wlad half hook-jab that connects would send Ali into next week. Ali was not a big puncher in his era of smaller HWs. Norton was Ali's size and gave him fits all 3X. And I'd say Norton had a weaker chin than Wlad. Ali never came close to stopping Norton. Btw, Wlad destroys Norton. Is it possible Ali could stop Wlad? Sure, but very unlikely.

Wlad 9/10 vs. Ali. I think we're in general agreement. Since you're presenting as someone who fought as a HW, I'd like a serious response.

 

Prime for prime Ali embarrasses him and stops him in the 2nd half. I keep reading about size, height, etc and how these Wlad attributes win him the fight. One thing he doesn't have (most important one) is the mental toughness to beat Ali. We have seen Wlad obliterated by fast hands and decent footwork, we have also seen him get KO'd after running out of gas when an opponent took all his shots. We also saw plenty of ugly, super tentative fights with lesser fighters that Ali. After his prime, arguably he froze against Fury's movement and boxing, and got ko'd by AJ after not taking care of business or seizing the opportunities.

That's the difference between him and Ali.

Ali was one of the most mentally tough, conditioned, fast and smart fighters, even after his prime didn't let fear get the best of him. He had a healthy fear of Foreman, which you need to not underestimate the danger, but also had the confidence that by using his boxing IQ he could overcome any obstacle. You could see how wide eyed he was after round one with Foreman, then you also saw the killer look he had in his eye when he sensed Foreman was ready to be taken out. No matter what Foreman landed early in the fight, he wasn't going to give up or lose sight of the plan.

 

Interesting fight, but Ali would win. He excels at fighting guys from the outside and is crafty enough to neutralize opponents who were stronger than him. Infighting wise is where he was a bit weak as Frazier proved it, but Wlad ain't an insider. If I got my Klitchsko brothers correct, Wlad was the one who did nothing but clinch inside so he has no inside game at all.

 

I favour Wlad over 70's Ali though

 

Really tough one to call. It could be a similar fight to Fury Vs Klitschko but at the same time Ali is music smaller than Fury so that might make things easier for Wlad. Having said that I’m going Ali UD

 

Agreed

 

Yeah but at least when Ali grabbed someone, he didn't look like a frightened, wide eyed panicking 1st grader having their first fight in the schoolyard.