When was the Zenith of Ali's prime?

Williams, Terrell and Folley. And of these I would pick the fight against Folley. In that one Ali not only showed off his tremendous athletic abilities, but also maturity and his great ring smartness against one of the smartest and most skilled boxers of his era.

Folley after the fight: "He could write the book about boxing, and everyone getting in to the sport should read it".

 

True.

Nobody else was good enough to pull of what Ali could do.

I think Folley was making his point very clear though, "Ali is f'real yo"

 

True. But I suppose he meant more Ali's tactical nous than technical one. Someone with well-developed technique and solid fundamentals can probably learn a lot from Ali's ring generalship.

I would love to hear if flamboyant but tecnically sound fighters like SRL or Whitaker were influenced any by Ali.

 

Hard to say. Most of Ali's best wins are in the 70's, but most of his best athletic performances are in the 60's.

I think Ali's best perfromance was the first Liston fight. He was fast, swift, and seemed to have good form on his punches.

 

Sugar Ray Leonard was blatantly influenced by Ali, and I think he has gone on record to say so plenty of times.

 

The Williams bout for me

 

1966. The year of Williams, Foley, and Terrell.

 

Ali's prime ? We never saw it .
It would have been the three and a half years he was barred from fighting,which robbed him, and us of his best years.

 

The back to back Williams & Terrell fights showed just how much variety Ali had, that was his peak.

For Ali to have fought Williams the way he did, looking energetic & flawless, devastating... you wouldnt think he would be able to change his strategy & style SO MUCH in his very next fight just 3 months later to put a controlled, calculated masterclass on a very decent fighter like Terrell, from a 3 rd destruction to a 15 rd clinic... it shows that Muhammad Ali belongs on the very top tier of p4p fighters in boxing history, any lower than having Ali on the top tier is an opinion I will treat with disdain, quote me on that.

 

dundee said we never saw Ali's prime and i believe him, he was approaching it at 66, he'd fully matured and lost that early vulnerability, i think it would've been between 67-70