Ali was a chess master in Zaire. That's it. Sure George bite hook, line and sinker. But it doesn't change the fact that Ali fought brilliantly
Sorry, but I don't really understand the critique. It's not a 10 performance because Ali made the fight "easy" for himself ? I bet if you were able to ask Ali's ribs after the fight, they wouldn't call it easy. But besides that, isn't a fighter supposed to make a fight easy for himself. A boxer moves rather than trade with a puncher, and that makes the fight easier for him. The puncher tries to get the boxer in a slugging match, he doesn't try to match him in slickness. If we go on what you're saying, it seems like every fighter to have a 10 "performance" would need to place themselves in danger, fighting in a less than optimal way, in order to beat their opponent. But I rank boxers on all of the work they do. All things considered, it was an absolutely brilliant performance by Ali in terms of both planning and execution. Everything down to him coming out early and hitting Foreman before he could get a punch in was well thought out. You can say George's head was an easy target, but no one targeting it before then had been able to hurt him. It's true that Ali wasn't dancing, and the story was about the upper body. But, there are a lot of fighters who give great performances that aren't about dancing and moving. Also, I don't think we really know Ali could have ended it sooner. And I'm not sure how McGrain would know it. When the moment came Ali took it. He had to soften George up, and take punishment doing it. But let's not forget that Ali won nearly all of those rounds with George. From the get-go he looked a lot faster, and he managed to time Foreman so well. I just don't see how you can say this performance, although it may not have been what you were expecting, is anything less than a 10. Aside from this, how can anyone say Ali had "fish in a barrel" against George Foreman ?
But there is no ideal way to rest yourself against a fighter with the work-rate and speed of pressure that Frazier brings. Ali finds an inelegant and dangerous solution to a problem that beset him throughout the Frazier trilogy. Again, it was borne out by results.
The heat helped Ali. The loose ropes helped Ali. Foreman sustaining a cut in sparring helped Ali. The crowd helped Ali. Ali's performance here was good, not great. The rope-a-dope strategy was really out of necessity as Ali legs could not longer play keep away as he did in his youth. On the ropes, covering up, Ali took the shots Foreman gave him, and waited for Foreman to gas out before upping the ante. I do think Ali's lead right hands, and counters were very good. I'd say the level of the win was a 10, but Ali's performance was a 7. Ali knew when to turn it on.
I voted 9 because hardly anything is perfect & it WAS masterful. Ps. Id give him a 10 for the Williams fight regardless of opponent, that was flawless artistry.
:good A lot of people seem to be urgently trying to convince me how effective Ali was. As though I couldn't see how effective he was with my own eyes. He executed his gameplan perfectly. However, in a truly perfect performance you don't eat as much leather as Ali ate, and you take greater advantage of your substantial handspeed edge by throwing/landing a few more of your own very effective punches at the predictably, stupidly berserk sitting duck target before you than he did. Ali could have landed more and been hit less, IMO, while executing the exact same gameplan. Alternately, he also could have foregone the whole rope-a-dope strategy and boxed his way to a UD. I don't have a problem with him using the rope-a-dope aiming to knock George out. That's fine. His planning and execution were flawless from a tactical standpoint. It was not pretty though. And I just feel he could have pulled the trigger more (and obviously landed at will for the most part), and slipped and moved away to tire George out just as quickly instead of falling in love with the ropes. He chose instead to conserve his energy and wait for the coup de grâce. Fine. That was effective. But ugly. Even utilizing that lean-and-bean approach in lieu of more conventional movement-based boxing, he still could, IMO, have put on a better performance from a "maximize connects and minimize punches taken" standpoint but he chose to put on a slightly lesser performance for the more explosive payoff and more triumphant achievement. His prerogative. And sowing that prerogative he reaped a spectacular, historic KO of a feared, seemingly invincible undefeated champion. He deserves full credit for that. But to call the actual performance a ten when he could have certainly been more efficient (but maybe in so doing yielded a less thrilling points win...or a later, less brutal stoppage); when with all his ability he could certainly have taken less punishment, when George was right there bulling in with a bullseye where his third eye ought to be and Ali only deigned to throw damaging right hands every now and again despite many clear opportunities...I just can't. 10/10 achievement. 10/10 strategy and implementation. 7/10 performance, IMHO.
While there's been some stimulating discussion, I sort of regret how unclear I've been able to make my point. It is not my wish to be tagged an Ali hater or short-seller. :think The whole crux of what I'm saying comes from my belief that Ali was even more talented than what he showed. His achievement came at a relatively cheap premium (getting hit more than George, knowing what we know now and Ali knew then, had any right hitting him; and maybe not punishing George as much as he could have for barging in, as he wanted to be painstakingly economical to achieve his master stroke), certainly worth it in his eyes and I'm sure of all his fans at the time. With hindsight though, can we not all agree that Ali could have had an even more career-defining performance, given how much either the heat or his right hands or both (that could rage on forever, so we'll leave it aside) affected George - at the expense of his statement-making, world-shaking, legacy-cementing kayo flourish?
I still don't understand what you mean. What did Ali know then, and what do we know now ? You're saying he should have fought differently. But, had he been more aggressive George likely would have caught him with something. Had he attempted to use his legs more, George likely would have cornered him and worn him down. You're simply assuming Ali could have won the fight by doing something else, but that's far from clear. What are you counting as more career-defining ? His legs were not what they used to be, and Foreman was an expert at cutting off the ring. Is there really more to it than that ? Ali employed an unusual strategy which, along with his great handspeed and durability, allowed him to defeat Foreman. If he had taken a different approach, we might instead be talking about how Foreman took out Ali.