What if the Ali who beat Cleveland Williams fought the Frazier of FOTC?

Yeah, the equation just doesn't add up for me any other way. 6 months after 3,5 years of inactivity he gives Joe a brutal enough fight to end his prime, then beats him two times despite being in his 30's and the older fighter by three years. What's not pretty obvious with that picture?

 

In Hauser's biography Ali...His Life and Times (I believe released around 1990) somewhere near the end Ali acknowledges that Frazier had what Ali was vunerable to, a good (inclose lefthook.) If Ali had Kryptonite that was it. To a stand up boxer like Ali who was taller its actually coming in from the blindspot in his vision. Ali defended right hands well. Can't think of too many that trouble him. Anyway Ali gave an interesting breakdown of why he couldn't pick up that punch better. Holding his hands low and pulling back didn't make it against a whip like Frazier had.

 

Ali

Ali's right hip was swollen and badly bruised after FOTC.

 

He must have infrequently gone to the gym for the layoff. Muscle has memory & is easier to maintain than speed, which is hurt more by a layoff & is a virtue of youth.
So he could have been & I think was a little stronger in the upper body, but lost a lot, mainly in spring & endurance, in the legs.
Yes I agree that he would have had to develop something such as elite KO power to compensate.
What he did both recognize & develop, the clinching skills & great chin, was not enough to make him as good as in the mid-late '60's.

 

The Quarry fight was too brief to prove anything and Ali looked bad against Bonavena,he wasn't ready for Joe imo.

 

By the mid 70's Ali could have gained some strength, at least when he came in around 220-225 lbs. Doubtful if he was stronger at 212 lbs at 32 than at 212 lbs at 24. Really only academical anyhow. At 22 years and 210 lbs Ali was strong enough to control Liston in the clinches. Ali's strength wasn't an issue, the decline of his legs post exile was.

 

What made the Ali vs Frazier trilogy so memorable is that Ali after the lay off had lost his brilliance and mobility and was more stationery and forced to exchange and took more shots that he would previously never taken.
Pre Ali FOTC beats Smokin Joe on pts in a fight which Frazier as usual never stops trying.