Why didn't more fighters make Ali fight on the front foot?

Ali preferred when he was fighting on the back foot :think

 

Good question.

He almost looked confused on the front foot.

Iguess that making him do it was easier said than done.

 

Tell me how you beat Ali by backpedalling because I don't see it. ?

 

Closer fight than the judges scorecards suggest . Go to 17:30 where Ali is imploring Jimmy Young to attack him:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4psfN2P48U

http://youtu.be/B4psfN2P48U

 

Sorry I assumed we were talking about a prime Ali , not that 230lbs version.

 

I almost mentioned in my post "Ali was not in his prime"

 

I've often thought the same about Mayweather. People think that the key to beating him is through swarming, but I think you might get some really good results by hanging back and letting him do all the offense.

 

McVey does bring up a good point about Ali not being in his prime.

When you walk your opponent down you are more susceptible to getting hit e.g. Mosley catching Floyd in round 2 but if you have the reflexes and are quick enough in the exchanges you can be effective. Mayweather showed this vs Canelo, Ortiz and Mosley amongst others .

 

When Ali was in very good shape he could box more off "the front foot", like in the Al "Blue" Lewis and Earnie Terrell bouts. Later though he often wasn't physically sharp enough to pull it off. The Young and Evangilistica bouts looked like he trained on ice cream so you can throw those out as examples.

 

I always wanted to see a negative guy like Cory Spinks stink it out vs Floyd to see what Floyd would do and if a guy so defensive and pretty mobile could make it close


my bet is that Floyd would win wide on points but Spinks wouldnt get his ass kicked by counters but wouldnt bring enough on offense to trouble Floyd

kinda like the Canelo fight, Canelo remained patient and fought a tight fight never pressured or really opened up on offense but then again never came close to winning more than 1 or 2 rounds

 

Ali had to against Joe Bugner - Twice - i think Ali tended to get easily bored if there was no real threat attached, A cobwebb Shedder until the more serious business camw along.

 

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Maybe a billy conn or Ezzard Charles?

 

Ali was pretty effective on the front foot in the two Joe Bugner fights too.

 

After the Zora Foley defense was over I think Ali said Foley was the smartest guy he'd faced so far because he would chase Ali.