Foreman rips the belt from Frazier ,defends against Roman and Norton. But his ego blows out of control, demanding more and more of everything to face Muhammad. This goes on through most of 74. The WBA threaten to take their version from George if he doesn't defend .So big George does a Bowe and their belt goes in the bin. Ali fights Frazier for the vacant WBA and wins a decision. Foreman defend s his WBC strap Twice more before losing in a shock result to Jimmy Young .He then retires .Ali fight s Young in a unification fight and wins a dreary decision. But he's now undisputed champion . So how would this affect Ali's and Foreman s legacy's? No rumble and Ali wins back his belt from Frazier and Young .And George never shows the world what he could/couldn't do against The Greatest?
The Foreman Young fight never happens. There's about a 2% chance of the Foreman camp taking on that guy compared to other styles out there available for him. The only reason they fought Young in the first place was the Ali camp stating they'd fight the winner. Which they didn't do of course. But the Ali camp was very difficult to pin down in the 70's for immediate and future plans. If Ali did win the title from Joe like you speculate, he'd still have Norton to contend with. George might have blown Kenny away in a rematch in one of his defenses in that 75/76 timeframe however. I sure don't think the Ali camp was ever looking to a 3rd Norton bout and would be trying to avoid it as long as possible. One way or another, Don King would have put together a Foreman Ali fight by 1976. The trouble there is the Ali deterioration setting in compared to the 1974 version. But King would put the bout together. Arum wouldn't match the big bucks of DKP. Some of those fading 60's guys get title shots and lose; Patterson/Bonavena/Smokin Joe/Quarry. Maybe a Shavers or Lyle type guy. Beatable stay between big fights type opponents like a Bugner or Wepner. And soft touches are always available to take against the Agusto/Lubbers/etc type guys for softie defenses. Adding that stuff up is years in the making. But a guy like Young is frozen out there. He was an independent and not signed to a major promoter. He'd be fortunate to face Lyle a second time if the Lyle camp is looking at 2 belts out there available. The Ali--Young bout that did take place had absolute minimal interest going in. I had the opportunity to go to it and declined because that bout and the supporting undercard were so dreary. To put it in perspective---folks liked the chances of the washed up never good Stander in there against Norton as a better match than the Ali fight. And nobody was picking Stander to win that one. So Jimmy never does fight the big fights and just goes on the regional circuit or is like the 4th bout on the big undercards. He'd be facing guys like Stan Ward and Jody Ballard and so on. Some of the bouts we did get do not take place either. Probably no Thrilla in Manilla. Foreman is not fighting Frazier in a non-title bout. I don't think the Shavers--Lyle bout happens either. Not certain about Ali--Norton 3 in 1976, I think that's pushed back. The Ali Shavers bout very well never happens.
Very much so ,in a similar way that Bowe not facing lennox did .And Ali no doubts would never let him forget that he wouldn't meet him .One have been one of the biggest what if fight s ever .
