Does anyone have reliable punch stats from Ali-Frazier 1? What were the total punches thrown and the total punches landed by each man? A google search is showing me that Frazier threw 1202 punches and Ali threw 1466 punches but i am not sure how reliable this is. Cheers.
Frazier = 631 punches thrown, 378 punches landed, 59.9 percent overall connect percentage. Ali = 893 punches thrown, 330 punches landed, 37 percent overall connect percentage. This content is protected
Thanks. The google search looked off to me. 631 means 42 punches per round, which is good, but the accuracy is stunning. Frazier was such a great ring cutter. Ali's work rate is astounding. Shows you how good Frazier was at making guys miss and keep coming forward. Ali was throwing 59.5 punches per round and yet Frazier kept coming forward. Brilliant stuff.
Frazier wasn't a whirling dervish in regards to punches thrown. But the constant pressure, bobbing and weaving, and the fact most of those 42 punches were thrown with mean intent tells a different story than just looking at the raw stats. One of Frazier's best assets is that he can continuously hit hard with frightening precision from round 1 to 15 and that's alot of physical and mental pressure for a fighter to overcome. So if you ain't a monster puncher like Foreman who can stop Frazier's forward momentum then you're in big trouble.
Frazier was also loading up on those left hooks. He didn't throw many tippy tappy shots with his left hand. He loaded up constantly with the left hook but did it so quickly that it was hard to counter it even though you knew exactly what he was doing.
