What are the advantages and disadvantages of using Muhammad Ali fighting style?

Advantages:
Extreme Mobility - movement is priority
Full range of sight - excellent for keen eyes and judges of distance
Hard to predict

Disadvantages:
Vulnerable to being outjabbed.
Requires physical gifts to build skills upon.
No systemised from of defense to rely on - especially when hurt.
Requires high levels of stamina- wastes energy needlessly.

It goes a lot more in depth, but these are some main points.

 

Yeah, the flowing rhythm of Ali was based on his jab, as it was the starter to his dancing mobility and other shots. Jabbing with him, at his chest, would push him back and put him of rhythm, and have to reset.

 

The main disadvantage of using this style is the fact that it was natural to him and for everyone else, it's an emulated style. The best version of an Ali-copy would have been that of Howard Davis. The two reasons Davis couldn't attain the same success as Ali with this mimicked style was that Davis lacked the natural balance which comes with a natural style and he lacked Ali's jaw. Ergo, the knockdowns scored against him when caught with the hands down or pulling away. It was a very good copy, but who knows how far he could have gone had he melded in some basic principles to compensate for some glaring deficiencies.

 

Adventures you'll win a lot of fights
Disadvantages retirement will not be kind to you.

 

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There are the disadvantages. Mere mortals don't have the luxery.

 

He had his hands at his waist and relied on his reflexes to avoid punches. It worked ok until he got to the elite level.

 

Yeah, Joppy's defensive style might have worked on second tier contenders and an elderly Duran, but not against a guy at Trinidad's level.

 

To fight like Ali one has to have supreme natural talent. The disadvantage is that when you slow down you are going to get hit some.

To see the adavantages look at actual peak Ali pre exile. To see some disadvantages look at fights against the likes of Norton when he'd lost a step or two.

 

This ... in his prime, it was all about quickness and reflexes; unfortunately, those are the very things that age poorly on just about anything human. What saved him were the things that age better, or at least more slowly - strength, and frankly maturity; the ability to outlast and outsmart the other guy. But regardless of the resource, every well ultimately runs dry.

 

If you want to see a lower weight guy stick and move and really have a lot of Ali in his style, check out the fantastic Sot Chitalada.

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Nino La Rocca was said to be an "Italian Ali" down at welterweight. Didn't help him much against a peaking Curry, despite all the flashiness of his style.

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