THE fight of Ali's you would point to....

Honestly, I don´t think anyone. He looked amazing in quite a few fights but not as "possesed" as Dempsey in Toledo, Louis against Schmling in their second encounter, Duran against Leonard the first time around, Frazier in the fotc. Those performances are very, very rare. Ali has more performances where he is at his best than any other hw including Louis though. But none where I would say he was unbeatable.

 

Did you see him?

 

Too many point to the Cleveland Williams fight.

But, Cleveland was 'no test'.

He wasn't even rated in the Top 20 of the Heavyweights.

For God's Sake, only a few months earlier he was floored and nearly knocked out in the 'First Round' by Bennie Black.

It took Muhammad Ali longer to floor Cleveland.

The win over Cleveland Williams was just that, a win, 'nothing more and nothing less'.

 

Terrell.

 

Terrell for me. He was bigger than Ali and a legitimate number one type guy. There were no mitigating factors: Terrell was in his prime and uninjured. And Ali simply eviscerated him.

I would rank the first Liston fight next. The only thing that keeps this from the top its the stank from tee second fight and the fact that Sonny may have been a little past hits best. But Ali (not for the last time in his career against a top.15 heavyweight) outclassed him, fairly easily. I'm not sure any heavyweight best a fellow ATG as effortlessly as Ali did in Miami.

 

Definitely Cleveland Williams and Zora Folley fight plus numerous others.

 

Didn't Williams have a bullett in him by that point? But regardless, I believe Ali was primed that night and it really didn't matter who was in front of him.

 

Yep ! Ali was just coming into his awesome prime.

 

"THE fight of Ali's you would point to....
as the fight nobody or virtually nobody would've beaten him that night."

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Do you mean 'no one at that time', or 'no one ever'? If the latter, my answer is:

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williams - many would've ended busted up like him in the ring - his movement, shuffle and combos were at another level. from mar 66 to mar 67 ali defended his title 7 times.

 

Last night when I was looking at this thread for the first time, I was surprised not to see more people naming the Terrell fight. There are probably only a handful of occasions where an ATG came into the ring in that kind of shape, that motivated, at one of the highest points of his prime and performed on that level.

I can't think of many fighters that would have been able to avoid getting their clock cleaned against him that night.

 

Not against Cleveland Williams, who was a corpse that night. I'd answer Liston 1 or Terrell... maybe Patterson I.