Tommy Morrison vs. Muhammad Ali

he would still beat him

 

This is still a lopsided mismatch. I mean do you really think this much of Morrison to put him in,with even a faded Ali.

Morrison could win a couple early rounds against a lackadasical Ali but when ever Ali decides to open up its target practice.

(faded) Ali TKo8

 

manila' Ali would win. I'm sure Morrison would not take the right leads very well. and if Ali comes out the way he did against frazier, he will KO morrison early.
meanwhile Ali could take morrisons best shot
no doubt Ali wins in my mind.

 

a decision win.. anyone who says a tko ali..is way too lazy to think the actual question though....

 

Post Manila Ali was sharp and impressive at 220 against Dunn. Tommy had a better chin than that, but not so much better as to allow him to survive 15 rounds. Morrison still wouldn't have had an answer for the right lead Muhammad repeatedly landed on Dunn almost like a jab. Tommy would inevitably gas with the Ali who easily disposed of Dunn in five, and get taken apart, very possibly before the championship rounds even came up.

 

You hate Tommy Morrison, right?

 

Dunn was absolutely HORRIBLE. Morrison would have dispatched Dunn even quicker than Ali... or Kallie Knoetze for that matter. Drawing any conclusion from that performance is intellectual dishonesty at its finest.

That said, Morrison could win against the Spinks era Ali by doing more of his Foreman like hit and move tactics. Though Morrison could sting Ali, he wouldn't get him out of there. If Shaver's didn't, then no one is going to do it.

This fight is closer than many here want to admit. Ali pretty much sucked post Manilla.

 

I misread this thread,on first glance. I thought it referred to the MANILA Ali ! Not much room for debate,I thought. Ali thrashes Morrison worse than Rocky Balboa did to him on film. The post Manila Ali,however,against Morrison is a little closer. 1976 or '77 Muhammad stops Tommy late in the contest. The '78 version has to rely on the judges cards,which show a clear Ali decision. Morrison too limited in skill,and Ali could take his best punches.

 

Ali after Manilla was a dead-man walking - Morrison TKO6.

 

I would n't say that it was quite as bad as that. Post Manila,Ali had definitely deteriorated somewhat,but in '76 he was still winning against Jimmy Young and Ken Norton. Disputed wins,sure,but wins against two class heavies who were in their prime. Morrison would n't have presented Muhammad with the problems that these two did. And if a shopworn Ali could take the best that Earnie Shavers could dish out,then there would be no way that Morrison would stop him.

 

In 1977, Kallie actually did take the same number of rounds to retire Dunn that Ali used to stop Richard-five. However, in Dunn's only fight between Ali and Knoetze, an aroused Bugner flattened him in the first six seconds, and became the fourth man to take out Dunn in a single round, by far the most aggressive outburst by Joe in his career. What matters here is that Ali was in decent shape at 220, and on high alert following the scare with Young. (That was also Muhammad's third defense in 1976, and it was only May. Dunn came at the end of a spate of steady competitive activity and fairly continual training for Ali.) As for how quickly Ali did stop Dunn, he and Dundee wrote the prediction of round five inside the gloves he wore. That final bolo punch was loaded with venom, causing Dunn to stagger back into the ropes after getting up, and making good on their forecast.

Ali was a showman who realized that the fans wanted to see their champion in action for at least a little while. At first, he wanted to demonstrate that the legs and dancing were still there, and had a good first round scoring while moving away and defending himself. In round two, he was unloading his lead right, but obviously not with full force. Had he wanted to, he clearly could have floored Dunn in this round, and did stun him a bit. Richard came back well in round three, in fact his best round of the fight, but did not do enough to prevent Ali from taking it. Following that third stanza though, Dunn was obviously fully warmed up, and that's when Muhammad chose to go to work.

Dunn was floored for the first time at 1:15 of round four. This was the earliest post exile knockdown Ali ever produced, and the very earliest since he brought down Cleveland Williams a decade earlier in his peak performance. (After the Big Cat, nobody else tasted the canvas from Ali prior to round five.) Had the three knockdown rule been in effect, Ali would have won on a TKO at 2:46 of round four, his fastest win since JQ I on cuts in 1970.

Yes, Dunn was horrible, but Ali certainly went the distance with Lubbers and Mac Foster. (Lubbers did pull off a quality achievement though, coming as it did between Norton II and Frazier II.) Wepner, Coopman, Blin, an over trained and underweight Ellis, rusty and badly overweight Mathis, and Blue Lewis were no great shakes either. Try to overlook Dunn a bit, and concentrate on what Ali was doing. Like Blue Lewis, Dunn was one of the few times he really brought his game against a secondary opponent in the 1970s.

George gave Tommy no choice but to hit and run if he was going to survive, let alone win. Old Foreman never took a backwards step, and repeatedly shoved Morrison back with casual ease through a push of his forearms. Even when Ali had Dunn in serious distress, he didn't come after him like that. Given the option, Tommy will attempt what he's best at, what comes most naturally to him, and that's what Ali feasted on.

KOTF asked about post Manila Ali, not Spinks era Ali. The damage Inoki inflicted on Muhammad's legs in Tokyo immediately after Dunn further diminished him after Manila, then his brain was concussed and damaged by Shavers. I don't buy Evangelista going the championship distance with the Ali of the Dunn fight. I do buy Ali's suggestion that Dunn might have upset him if he'd been in the same kind of shape he was for Young. (Muhammad was interviewed immediately following an exhibition performance shortly before Young. He was winded and obviously in horrendous shape, and having to continually reassure the interviewer that he'd be ready for that upcoming defense. He wasn't. Following Dunn, there was no labored breathing of the sort. Not only was he speaking normally in the ring, he was actually quite talkative.)

Ali's lean was really geared for slipping the hook to the head, and it was working for him against Dunn, and even in Spinks II. It required good conditioning to pull it off, and Ali could still do it when he got himself into trim with his legs working well. Tommy could also hit with his jab and right, but speed was never a great asset of his.

I just don't see Morrison going the limit with the Ali of Dunn. Even in lesser condition with Coopman, he was able to dig his legs in well enough to generate a knockout blow. But his endurance did not ever desert him, and Tommy was noticeably tiring at the conclusion of Foreman.

Morrison never stopped anybody beyond round nine. Ali did this eight times, chose not to do it a ninth time to Mathis, and nearly did it yet again in his final successful defense against Shavers. Tommy's roiding would be a horrible detriment in the championship rounds. The gulf in stamina between them is epic.

 

I was about to vote Ali by ko/tko. Then I saw that it was a post-Manila Ali. So I voted Muhammad by decision.

 

the ali as late as last year would still beat morrison

 

whos the idiot that voted for morrison by ko?