Time wars - Muhammad Ali v Joe Frazier

Didn't Ali win against Frazier in 75..... He's the one that was winning the fight at that point and he is the one that one.. So how is the 75' Frazier better then the 75' Ali.. I don't get it. :huh

 

Styles make fights. Ali in 1971 hadn't learnt how to deal with a swarmer like Frazier, while Frazier in 1971 was well-equipped to deal with the style of Ali in 1975. It was Ali who learnt to adapt to Joe Frazier over the course of their series, rather than vice versa.

 

I think the Ali of 1974 beats any version of Joe Frazier. Ali had a sort of "second prime" in that fight, where he recaptured much of the speed of his youth and combined it with the greater strength, strategic thinking and ability to hold off swarmers that he developed after 1971. Ali also never used the uppercuts as effectively as he did against Frazier in their second fight. It's a rather underrated performance precisely because it was such a surprisingly successful (if not quite dominant) performance, so the fight gets ignored.

 

So you think becuase '75 Ali beat '75 Frazier that he also beats '71 Frazier??
If you misunderstood me, then I meant '75 Frazier gives '71 Ali a tougher fight than '75 Ali gives '71 Frazier, but both the '71 versions win.

 

I think this gets forgotten a bit. Frazier had had the perfect preparation against a skilled mover in his fights against Mathis, Foster and Ellis over the previous two years.

Some like to say that the '69 version of Frazier was even better than the one in FOTC, but I personally think that FOTC Ali would have beaten the Frazier who needed 11 rounds to put away Mathis and lost the early rounds. He looked much more imposing when going through Foster and Ellis. And I think that this preparation is what him the perfect swarmer that he was in FOTC.

Ali, on the other hand, hadn't had the same preparation against swarmers (hadn't met one in 5 years) and I think this showed. He went out with a reasonable but risky gameplan and it backfired. In the next two fights his tactics were better suited for the task at hand. And it showed.