Would a technically sound Muhammad Ali work?

Well let’s face it, a change was needed his existing style didn’t get him far.

 

He'd have been better. Undeniably so. It was his biggest missing asset. Imagine if he had an inside game? Proper punching technique and a real defence.

 

He started that way. Everybody does, or should.

 

He looked a lot more sound as an amateur when that fellow with the tape on his head was training him. My 0.2$

 

If I had known that Chuck Bodak trained Ali back when I would corner him at the fights and in gyms and pester him with questions...I wouldn't have. I would have been too awestruck.

 

I like that. “Corner him” I’m sorry but all I picture is you stalking him into a corner and blocking all exits asking boxing questions. Lol

 

It probably would have benefited his later career more than it would his early career.

 

Wouldn't a more technically sound Ali have been something like a heavyweight Robinson or Leonard?

 

Ali had close to 200 amateur fights before turning pro, so he already had a solid foundation of the fundamentals of boxing. Any coach crazy enough to try and rebuild an amateur with Ali's experience from scratch would be crazy and wouldn't have a job for long.

Ali was a very versatile fighter when he wanted to be, but had a preferred style he like to use like most other fighters do. Also, Steward was a very shrewd boxing manager-trainer and would make suggestions in training and during fights to Ali much like Dundee or Wiley did, since when Steward became Holyfield's trainer he didn't try to teach Holyfield fundamentals Holyfield already knew, but instead found different ways of motivating Holyfield by making the right suggestions at the right time.

Archie Moore was an excellent trainer, but not the most flexible trainer, which is why he got fired by Ali and other experienced amateurs he tried to handle, but he was a great fit for a guy like Foreman, who's fundamentals were lacking when he turned pro.

 

Ali was "fundamentally sound", his style was different/unconventional. I've never seen anything wrong with Ali's fundamentals and when a fight became challenging, his style became more conventional. He did some things stylistically at times that only a bigger, stronger, faster man could get away with, but Ali had been fighting since he was 12 and fundamentally he didn't lack anything.

 

It'd look a lot like Sot Chitalada.

 

I could see him fighting a bit like Michael Watson, but he wouldn’t have the strength against heavyweights to hold his feet really.