Would Ali have won the FOTC had he taken more tune up fights before?

He could have had a dozen warmups. He wasn't going to get back the three years and five months of his athletic prime Uncle Sam took away from him. As to Ringo his plodding style was always going to make a puglistic artist like Ali look bad. Gil Clancy's game plan was to get the fight in the mud and it worked. He just didn't realize how tough an hombre Muhammad Ali was.

 

I'm not sure I understand your point but respect it is being communicated in a gentlemanly way, not always common here. My point is Ali needed more rest after Bonavena rather than jump immediately back into training to fight a beast like a prime Frazier and he didn't get it because at any minute his license could have been revoked again and too much money was at stake.

 

TBH I've never really liked this excuse for Ali quite honestly.

It's not like Ali was fighting tune ups in his comeback fights he fought two very notable top 5 rated contenders in Bonavena, Quarry. And you can't really have much better preparation than those two fights.

Ali also got rounds in vs Bonavena going 15 rounds.

So to answer the question no Frazier deserves all the credit he fought the fight of his life unfortunately he never quite reached that level again.

 

You don't think he would have benefitted having the very same fights but stretched out over 13-14 months instead of 6? 3 fights against world class opposition over 6 months is a big ask even for someone who is active and even more so for someone coming back after years of lay-off.

 

Exactly .. any conditioning coach would agree. The body needs time to heal ... Ferdie Pacheco and Angelo Dundee both commented on this one the years ..

 

Of course he could have. He could even have won it without the tune-up fights. If you replay that night ten times, Ali might win three or four times. It was a close fight, not a blowout.

 

Two rounds separated them.

 

Hi Buddy.
Errrrrr, not quite sure what to make of your comments, they seem harmless, so enjoy your day.
Mike.

 

You too!

Stay safe buddy, chat soon!

 

I don't think so. I think having the experience of the first fight with Frazier helped Ali be better prepared for the rematch.

Here is Ali's opinion on where he went wrong on preparing for the first Frazier fight.

Muhammad Ali is surrounding himself with sparring partners, ranging in weight from 150 to 180 pounds as he prepares at his Deer Lake Camp in Pennsylvania for Joe Frazier.

The 12-round heavyweight fight will be shown on special closed circuit television at the Riviera Hotel Convention Center, Palm Springs live from Madison Square Garden in New York, Jan. 28.

Doors to the Riviera open at 5 p.m., with the preliminary bouts starting at 6:30 p.m. and the Ali-Frazier fight at 7 p.m. Price of the tickets is $12 and $15. There are 2,200 seats available.

Speed has become the keynote of this training camp and until further notice there will be no sparring with heavy heavyweights. Muhammad has surprised even his severest critics by not only braving the cold weather but by doing roadwork on the road beneath the mountain they have renamed "Muhammad's Mountain."

"I don't have to box with heavy fighters. What I lacked in our first fight was speed that I could keep up for fifteen rounds. Now, it's only 12 rounds and I'm going to be faster than I ever was. Running around the mountain does wonders for your legs."
https://imgur.com/31hQY0g

 

Hi Buddy.
Not entirely on board with your assertion that Ali " jumped " straight back in to training after the Bonavena fight, it was fully 3 months, before he fought Frazier, I,m no boxer but that seems long enough to recover from the Bonavena fight, and then go into camp for the big un, thinking the practice these days of fighting twice a year ( if that ) has clouded our judgment somewhat, from the early part of the century 1900 onwards, fighters would think nothing of fighting 5/6/7 times a year, and even more for hundreds of fighters, I might agree he should have had more fights in the lead up, maybe get his timing a little sharper, as a aside, I have Ali winning the fight, I know I am in the minority, but he landed more punches, and they were hard and point scoring, anyway just my opinion.
stay safe he grant, chat soon.
Mike.

 

We can agree to disagree on his prep and who won. It’s all subjective.

 

Why can you never stop lying? We've already been through this. It’s obvious Ali wasn’t putting in serious work during his exile. He was out of the gym for over a year and a half, unless you count those fake, controlled ‘sparring’ sessions with an old, out-of-shape relic from twenty years earlier—where Ali himself was sporting a belly which is just a little different from grinding through a real training camp or defending a world title. https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-observer/183003246/

"Since he was found guilty of draft evasion, Cassius hasn't seriously worked out in a gym" https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sacramento-union/182981426/

"Cus D'Amato, who guided Floyd Patterson to the heavyweight title, was on hand Wednesday, and said Ali's long layoff gives Quarry the edge in the bout. "While Clay has been inactive, Quarry has been fighting competitively for 10 years. That is the big thing," said D'Amato." Article clipped from The Huntsville Times - Newspapers.com™

 

He also lost Norton I coming off an extensive NABF campaign. In both trilogys even if they didn't win again Frazier and Norton proved their wins weren't flukes.

Ali won the early rounds and while he didn't win it was as close as clear wins come. He wasn't "off".

This was Alis first close fight since before he won the belt. Since then he'd never entered the 2nd half of a 15 round fight without a healthy cushion.