Tommy Farr on Ali v Louis, do you agree with him?

I'm not saying Tommy Farr would have beaten Ali he'd have done better than any of the Brits of Alis day.

 

You mean they knew how to jab in Louis' day ?

 

When Eddie Futch told Norton to jab with Ali, to catch Ali's jab with his right glove and take advantage of Ali's right hand flaring out when he jabbed, I am 100% sure that he came up with that because he was familiar with Joe Louis. Louis kept his right hand home to catch incoming jabs, Ali did not.

 

Tommy vastly underestimates how tough Muhammad Ali was. Joe Frazier said he hit him All "with punches that would bring down the walls of a city" in Manila.

 

(biting lower lip)

 

They've missed off the last part of that quote, which is:

What's Ali? Just a clown, a performer, a theatrical figure.

This was in 1978. Even after everything he'd achieved, there were old-timers like Farr who just refused to give Ali any credit.

 

Farr never won a fight in the US, and Louis damaged his right hand in the fight.

 

Sure. But then it's also "I see something". If Schmeling could drop his right over that low left, couldn't Ali? Ali had one of the best counters over the jab I've seen at HW. These things tend to go both ways.

But that Farr apparently thougt he was so much better than Ali that Ali would have no chance against a guy he himself gave a good fight... Admire his self-confidence.

 

He would have absolutely not done better than Joe Bugner. In fact Bugner would have kicked his ass.

 

That's wildly stupid. I wonder what the great Harry Wiley who trained the great Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali for his fight with Jimmy Ellis thinks about that.

 

Tommy Farr was a great fighter but of course he was showing a considerable bias for his era.

 

Farr is implying he would have beat Sonny Liston, Floyd Patterson, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Jimmy Ellis, Ken Norton, Bob Foster, Jerry Quarry, and Joe Bugner. People can infer what they will. He would be even money or less against Terrell, Folley, Williams, Chuvalo, Bonavena, and Mac Foster, and Doug Jones.

 

If he said that in 78, he can automatically be dismissed regarding anything Ali related. Typical boomer mentality.

Duran has this problem too, he actually said with a straight face he had better defense than Mayweather.