Would the Ali Holmes fought have beaten ANY heavyweight champion?

Few if any.

 

Pulls off a snoozefest majority decision vs Charles Martin

 

It's ugly to think of him fighting anyone in the condition he was in.

 

Over a year later Ali gave Berbick(one of the 80s lesser belt holders) a good fight so yes. It was also a year after Ali had beaten Spinks and he was regressing fast so its hard to say where he was exactly in 1980 but he should be good enough to beat some.

Most of the pre Willard champs, Sharkey, Uzcudin, Lee Savold, Walcott, Leon Spinks, Coetzee, Tate, Weaver, Stiverne and Maskaev. The fat version of Andy Ruiz that defended belt against AJ? Age effected Ali more obviously but Archie Moore won his HW belt at 43 and was smaller.

Maybe Berbick himself or Tony Tubbs?

 

Not full of non needed thyroid medication prescribed by a quack Nation of Islam physician, maybe a couple.

 

Such a sad affair.

Overlooked often is the form Larry Holmes was in. I think he sparred 300-plus rounds for that fight. He wasn’t going to let Ali pull a magic trick on him and prepare as if Muhammad was an old man only to find he had discovered a fountain of youth … that’s probably the best version of Larry ever (although late in the bout he certainly showed as much mercy as one can under the circumstances).

 

Imagining the Holmes Ali beating Sharkey, Weaver and Walcott gave me a good laugh. He gets shut out on the cards against all of these. Walcott would seem like a blur from his point of view. Spinks beat 1978 Ali who was ten times better than the 1980 version.

 

I don't like this topic. Why don't we let it all hang out and match 1980 Ali against the top 1950s welterweights and middleweights. Would prime Kid Gavilan KO a brain-damaged Ali? Do you get my point?

 

He might have had a good chance against Maskaev who had as much speed as drunk turtle and Amir Khan-like chin.

Would probably have beaten some old-timers, pre-Johnson.

I wouldn't be surprised of that version of Ali beating Valuev. 8 years older Holyfield did it comfortably and didn't even look tired after that

 

A doctor from the Nation of Islam thought Ali's thyroid was out of whack and gave him a pile of thyroid medication before the fight which he didn't need and could conceivably have killed him. That's why he came into the fight so light. Holmes was going to beat his ass anyway but the thyroid meds on top of the physiological and cognitive decline basically rendered him unable to defend himself, he could barely hold his arms up. If he hadn't had the thyroid medication, we'd have probably seen the Ali we saw in the Berbick fight. Which means he'd still have gotten his ass beat but he wouldn't have been utterly helpless.

 

He may make it to the end with a few, crap champs or contender s but he's not winning any. Imo

 

No. Larry carried Ali out of pity. Other champions wouldn’t give Ali any mercy and would go for the kill.

 

No