Prime Ali vs. Prime Lewis

Emanuel Steward had this to say in a recent interview:


A Mythical Dream Bout Between Lewis and Prime Muhammad Ali:

I would think Ali, first of all, was a very special unique fighter, and his rhythm and ability to feint, make adjustments, take a punch, his stamina, everything! But also I think part of what Ali had was a psychological advantage he always had, which no one speaks about that. He intimidated a lot of his opponents. Most heavyweights have big bodies, but ‘inside’ as I call it, most of them are weak. And Ali was so strong, and then his whole image including with Sonny Liston. He did all of that bragging and then he had his entourage, which people don’t realize and they don’t like to talk about it, but it was very intimidating. A big part of it was Dundee and all of them threatening, and they would come in with about fifteen-twenty people, and that was most heavy especially when you had nice passive guys like Zora Folley, and all of those types of guys. It was just too much for those guys, and even for Sonny Liston! Actually that whole gang of his, so to say, broke down most guys.

But in Lennox’s case, I think it would be a very difficult fight for me to even say what would happen, because Ali had a lot of tremendous assets with the movement and everything. But we still have to remember that size is important, and Lennox at 6’5” was about another two and a half inches taller than Ali, and Lennox had a really good jab himself. Lennox was mentally never a weak person. That’s one thing is I don’t think Lennox would be easily intimidated the way those guys were. Lennox had his own built-in gangster and thug side inside of him.

I can’t really put one generation against another one, but in your mind you can look at it. I think it would have been a tough fight. I don’t think Ali would be able to do like he did with Ernie Terrell, who even though Ernie was taller, Ernie didn’t have that mental toughness. He was intimidated by, and I always say ‘Ali’s everything’. It was his whole being. It was not just Ali. It was that whole crowd that he brought intimidated most of those guys. I think Lennox would have been able to hold up to that, and it would have been to me a toss-up fight. I really can’t say.

I just don’t think Ali could have easily outboxed him, because of the size of Lennox, and Lennox could move on his feet pretty good, too. But Ali was the type of guy who found a way to win. I don’t know! It would have been a very tough fight for Ali, I could tell you that, though! He wouldn’t have been able to just easily outbox Lennox, and he wouldn’t have been able to intimidate Lennox with his whole gang, so to say. It would have been tough fight!


http://www.eastsideboxing.com/weblog/news.php?p=32961&more=1