Would Ali have been a better fighter if he body punched more often?

[rightsideup]

He seemed to focus on the head and stopped alot of guys on cuts but could he have been even better with adding a body attack to his skill set?

[Ray Corso]

Not in his mind! To land effectively to the body you need to get close and as long as his opponents were fresh and active he prefered to keep them at the end of his punches!! At 6' 3 1/2" there wasn't any reason to negate that height advantage and a 81" reach was the deciding factor. Ali had a sneaky upper cut that was started at the solar plexes and ran right up the chest to the chin but he rarely used it once he got established in 10 round main goes!
He knew how to hook off his jab and had all the punches but learned that his best offense/defense was from distance and no one did it better! Ray.

[rightsideup]

Not in his mind! To land effectively to the body you need to get close and as long as his opponents were fresh and active he prefered to keep them at the end of his punches!! At 6' 3 1/2" there wasn't any reason to negate that height advantage and a 81" reach was the deciding factor. Ali had a sneaky upper cut that was started at the solar plexes and ran right up the chest to the chin but he rarely used it once he got established in 10 round main goes!
He knew how to hook off his jab and had all the punches but learned that his best offense/defense was from distance and no one did it better! Ray.

Ray would this type of fighting style also work better against heavy weights who are slower than the lighter and do not generally develop all the facets of the game?

[Capaedia]

His strategy in his later career was to get by on durability and stamina.

Body-punching would've helped him outlast the other dude even better than he already managed.

He didn't have to get any closer to Foreman, he was already right in his face, but he didn't even go there.

He also would've had a much easier time with Jimmy Young, who flustered him by making his head a very difficult target.