Who beats Ali? No hedging your bets, who do YOU pick to straight up beat him?

Below Louis.


Ali's in the second half of my P4P top 10, by the way. Around 14 or 15.

 

How many rounds?

What size ring?

Ali was far from unbeatable.

 

Dempsey would be interesting cuz of his quick great left hook. if he got close enough to ali he would be dangerous. tyson would lose the mind games. it's whether a fighter can stay close enough to ali to do damage. i don't think any could constantly. frazier did so well cuz of this one tactic. a peak ali would use better movement than the fighter who came back and tired badly in their first fight. Ali rated Jack Johnson as 2nd best after him so maybe he saw something in him that he would struggle against. the tactic of ali coming to him and counter attacking worked for norton so maybe jack johnson would try that tactic. dunno if his footwork was good enough for the quick moving ali.

 

I wouldn't pick anyone.

I would make Frazier even money however.

 

In a series of fights Louis would have a real shot to win one. But he struggled most against stick and movers, and Ali is the pinnacle of stick and movers.

The guy with the best chance to beat Ali is Joe Frazier in my book. I'd actually make Frazier the TINY favorite here, as in a 51% chance of winning.

I pick Smokin Joe to beat any pure boxer who ever lived, his body attack, relentless pressure, stamina, and mastery of the art of cutting the ring off spells doom for anyone who tries to stay away from him. Ali is the only pure boxer who stands a serious chance to beat him imo, that includes guys like Tunney, Charles etc.

 

Noone.

Frazier would take a lot longer to catch Ali therefore longer to wear him down, if he does at all. Ali of 67 gives him angles all night. That Ali hadnt tasted the joys of being out of training for extended periods he still had the single mindedness of a hungry athlete. He hadnt had three years being able to just hang with your family and friends. No athlete comes back from a layoff better. Ali came back with the mental aptitude to win, but his athletic gifts were never the same again

 

I can't outright favor anyone over him in his prime.

 

Thank you, somebody with common sense.

He will wax the old timers, Brown Bomber, Marciano , Dempsey, Johnson etc but he will have his hands full and some win and losses with , in no particular order, Holmes, Tyson, Bowe, Holyfield, Lewis and the K brothers,especially over 12 rounds.

 

I have serious question on how Ali matches up with Super heavies or heavies his size that have quality jabs and some hand speed.

Ali had trouble with jabbers at all at almost every stage of his career.

Doug Jones, Kenny Norton, Bob Foster, Ron Lyle, Larry Holmes.

And no, Frazier didn't feature a jab, and Foreman was not much of a jabber in the 1970's either.

 

Holmes and Lewis would be especially interesting propositions IMO.

 

Terrell, Liston and Foley were excellent jabbers. No problems with them

 

Whoever great fighter has Eddie Futch in his corner takes a big step forward to victory
over Ali.

 

Saying Ali had trouble with good jabbers is flawed simply because, who DOESNT have trouble with good jabbers?

And mentioning the Holmes fight as an example like he did is terrible.