Send in your prime heavies to beat 1967 Ali

I do disagree - The GOAT thing is partly a product of Ali's historical importance and due to media reasons. 'Ali, in his prime, never got hit..' Another fairytale. Ali was very good at hiding it when he got hit. In his prime, just before the Liston/Miami fight, and as a 202 pound mature fighter, he was close to losing to a small beefed up lightheavyweight (188 pound Doug Jones), and he was hospitalized two weeks after the first Chuvalo fight due to kidney problems.

 

Ali would take the beating of his life vs Wlad. I think WLad stops Ali before round 8 or 9. I repeat, I would not like to watch Ali be punished by Wlad.

 

Ali had a short prime window...(1964 to 1967)...and 2 1/2 doesn't make for a great career...When he came back in 1970...he was heavy...lost a lot of his speed and quickness...and basically laying on the ropes and taking all kinds of punishment is not really a good fight plan. Look how he ended up...

 

Whatever. As noted we can agree to disagree. I’m not changing your mind, you’re not changing my mind, let’s not engage about it further. (I do know how to use the ignore function.)

 

I agree. He didn't really have a great career. He's usually number one on ATG heavyweight lists for ***** and giggles.

 

Joe "Freaking" Louis!

 

The usual suspects, Louis, Holmes, Lewis, Tyson but I don't think any of them beat him in a best of three.

 

The Patterson 1 Sonny Liston, Holmes, Louis, Holy, Lewis...all have a great chance.

Only FOTC Frazier succeeds.

 

Go read the article in Sports Illustrated where they call Ali the most "Overrated" Heavyweight of all time...and how they call Rocky Marciano the most "Underrated" Heavyweight of all time! Read Lowell Cohn's article about the time Sonny Liston QUIT in Miami in '64...and how he took a DIVE in Maine in '65. How Ali's "phantom" punch was a farce and had the force of a "Love Tap"...and Sonny ended up on the floor in one of the worst acting jobs of all time!

 

Mike Tyson was 12lb heavier than Ali
Faster and way more powerful
Faster at throwing punches not open hand flicks that Ali did
Tyson was dynamic, calculated and very accurate with his punches
Ali wouldn’t be able to hold him off
Tyson was the best at closing distance and cutting the ring off
Somewhere along the attacks Ali would be stung then the follow up barrage would finish him

 

An important factor I think a lot of us are forgetting is that Ali is given prep time. In my mind, this basically means Ali gets time to trash-talk, mess with his opponents, undermine their confidence, and generally play mind games and f*ck with them. A fighter can't just have physical or stylistic advantages over Ali but also needs the mental fortitude to deal with his harassment enough to actually be able to use those advantages and not get lulled into fighting Ali's fight. With a guy like Vitali, I imagine Ali would berate him about how he wasn't durable, how he gets cut, injures himself, is nothing more than a big Soviet boy with no skill and no power etc., etc. He'd call Tyson a bird boy and a thug and make him blow his load early and gas. Lennox he calls an Uncle Tom with no chin, no skills, and a bad jab. I give a few of the old-school guys a chance to stand up the mental tirade, but then you have deal with the issue of actually beating the phantom that was '67 Ali.

 

Oh what an excuse! How old was poor Ali 30?

 

He was 57

 

Frazier would have the best shot and the toughest skin for Ali's trash-talking, and this would be before Frazier's health and vision started to diminish.

Manny Steward also said Frazier would be Ali's toughest matchup and a Prime Liston could win as well.

 

I think it was more the fact that he'd been out of the ring for three and a half years rather than his age.