Send in your light heavyweight to give prime Ali a tough night at the office

You can argue Jimmy Young fight but he was smoke and mirrors Ali at this point.

 

Yeah Ali was very ordinary at that point, to put it mildly. It was easily the heaviest he'd ever been too, excepting his last fight with Berbick. He might have struggled to cut off Butterbean, if he moved at all. Mind you the Bean would have collapsed at some point.

 

Yeah and Cooper only weighed 185 lb (84 kg) vs Ali.

 

I find it amusing that every light heavy is dismissed out of hand and yet Marciano who was shorter in height and reach than all those named , slower as well,and only 10 pounds heavier than them is routinely picked to stop heavy hitting super heavies 6ft 5in/6in weighing 250+lbs.
The logic of this escapes me. lol

 

Yes. Henry Cooper too. Would have been the winner by stoppage without the usual Mirena shenanigans.

 

No he wouldn't

 

It’s called nostalgic delusion.

 

There's a nuance here. Ali is both bigger and 1 of the best P4P and 1 of the quickest. Although I agree to a degree with your general principle.

I don't think Marciano can hang with modern day elite SHWs over the past 30 years. Like Lennox, Bowe, Fury, Wlad, Vitali - AJ you never know, really could go either way. But guys who were sloppy like Carnera and Willard were SHWs of the past who were pretty sloppy. I think it's fair to say he could probably handle them

But it's boxing and you never know in boxing unless it's fixed. Marciano probably beats Bob Baker and Valdes in his own era but his manager didn't fancy putting him in with the relative SHWs of his era

Stamina, determination and will to win to overcome some huge disadvantages.

 

There was 1min 6 seconds break between the round Ali went down in and Ali coming out and stopping Cooper on cuts very quickly. Do you really think the vital recovery and Ali coming out for the kill happened in those 6 seconds? Bare in mind Ali, while obviously drowsy was up at 3 anyway