Ali just wasnt that agressive of a fighter and today's heavyweights are just simply too big. He would box and box and have plenty of success with a high possibility of becoming undisputed champ but he just simply would not razzle or dazzle anyone with big hammering punches or sheer explosiveness that have become the standard of entertainment to casual fans. Even if ali fought today it wouldnt bring back american interrst in the heavyweight division. Americans would consider him just as if not more boring than wlad.
Ali was 6'3 and around 220. With today's training methods, he would probably would have added 20 lbs of muscle and retained his quickness. Ali also lost his 3 best fighting years. I think Ali would be great in any era.
keep watching Muhammad ali highlights then. I wouldnt want you to wake up from you fantasy world where Ali is the greatest boxer/athlete/human being of all time.
son, you won't get the niceties of ali's kind of boxing just watching highlights...
and it is not my fantasy world where ali is the goat...
the real world i live in consider ali the goat...
where do you live?
Most of Ali's figths were boring when he was fighting guys who weighted 215 pounds.
Ali would have been considered a feather fisted safety first fighter in this era
cassius/ali fights were never boring....
his boxing skills encompass a matador's killer instinct when he gets the openings and chance to put down an opponent...
and it would be unrealistic to believe that cassius/ali was not aware that there were opponents that he could not knock down or knock out..
still, he fought them, as well...the trademark of a great champion/fighter..
opponents he could not put down he enrolled to a boxing clinic...
a boxing clinic boxing fans could highly appreciate
I dont think most people have watched ali's fights. They have only seen highlight videos.
To quote the crazy Roger Mayweather, people don't know sh!t about boxing.
Which is why you get ignorant comments like "Hagler was a brawler", "Leonard was a runner", "Leonard was scared of Pryor and didn't give him a chance", and crap like that.
Ali was one of the greatest fighters of all-time, but making entertaining fights on a consistent basis was not his speciality. People bring up his "Fights of the Year" against Doug Jones & Sonny Liston. Well, if you actually took the time to sit through those fights, you would know that they were far from fan-friendly fights.
Ali was involved in two of the greatest fights of all-time, but was no Matthew Saad Muhammad. He did brilliant things in the ring but you had to sit through a lot of boring stuff to get to it.
Seriously, has anyone actually sat through all of his title fights in the 1960s and said "wow, he was one exciting fighter!".
It's more like "he did some amazing things despite many of his fights being slow-paced".
I make highlight videos all the time because I am a fukking boxing nerd. Which means I have seen many Ali fights in full, in fact, far too many than I care to see.
Ali was not a consistently entertaining fighter to watch.
Ali the greatest HW champ
His wins over foreman and frazier mean more than vitalis and wladimirs victories combined and I'm a klit fan.
The win over frazier in the Phillippines means more than any win of any boxer in the history of boxing..he couldn't breath there was no air conditioner the arena had a roof..that showed the spirit of a warrior.
These cock suckers who discredit Ali have no idea about boxing.
Ali would never be boring, he was like a bigger SRR. Anyone who finds Ali boring, should watch some other sports or go to a boxing gym and learn a thing or two about boxing.
you have no idea what the hell your talking about. the klitscho bros are the most boring heavyweights to date, in history. They cant even sell PPV, THAT SAYS IT ALL RIGHT THERE.
Your reasoning for this is because the heavyweights of today are bigger, but the aren't as agile my friend. Ali would have a FIELD day with their slow reflexes and plotting bodies. Ali fought as if he was a middleweight with his movement and combinations. And when he fought a bigger, stronger Foreman when he obviously was the latter, he let Foreman tire himself out by allowing him to tee off.
Yes he would have a field day with the bigger slower fighters but it would be considered boring by todays standards. Similar to haye v klit or haye v valuev without the ability to hurt opponents.
The gaps in the timelines you just pointed to, prove that he wasn't a exciting fighter on a consistent basis. 71, 75, 78 already were the past-prime, post-prison days.
You only pointed to one 60's fight vs Liston, and even that one wasn't that exciting on it's merits. There was more excitement reading about it, that Ali's eye might've been poisoned by Liston's gloves than anything that went on in the ring. Or the post-fight celebration from Ali.
But 5 of his fights were voted fight of the year. So he can not be that boring. To average boxing fan I can sort of see what they are talking about because they don't know what they are watching....Of course Ali was not the most exciting fighter but to sit there and say that he was boring is totally incorrect. Then you might as well say that Wladamir put people into a coma. I don't knock Wladamir. He does what he got to do to win and I don't
trash him. But back to Ali, just go back 50 years and try to find a fighter who has been in 5 fight of the years. Arturo Gatti hasn't been in five and he was one of the most exciting fighters in the last 25 years.
Your reasoning for this is because the heavyweights of today are bigger, but the aren't as agile my friend. Ali would have a FIELD day with their slow reflexes and plotting bodies. Ali fought as if he was a middleweight with his movement and combinations. And when he fought a bigger, stronger Foreman when he obviously was the latter, he let Foreman tire himself out by allowing him to tee off.
ali and the word boring do not rhyme...
never will...
Your reasoning for this is because the heavyweights of today are bigger, but the aren't as agile my friend. Ali would have a FIELD day with their slow reflexes and plotting bodies. Ali fought as if he was a middleweight with his movement and combinations. And when he fought a bigger, stronger Foreman when he obviously was the latter, he let Foreman tire himself out by allowing him to tee off.
It's funny how you would consider Ali boring. how many other fighters can say that on 5 different occasions he was in the fight of the year. 1964 against Liston, 71' & 75' against Frazier, 74' against Foreman, and 78' against Spinks. Just because you want blood and guts, but this man was athletic, skilled, and has one of the fastest hands in heavyweight history. Plus Ali had more great fights that were exciting. Just as much I can enjoy a knockdown drag out but I can also appreciate a skilled fighter breaking his opponent down. Do you consider Gene Tunney boring? There style is very similar. Do your research next time before you put something out like this.
How ironic you point to the 5 fights of the year to point out ali was exciting and yet they were all knockdown dragouts. And with the exception of foreman all against men his owb size.
Look dude....Ali in his prime was no more than 208lbs at most and probably alot smaller if he wanted to. Thats a cruiserweight with no place at heavyweight by today's standards. his power is just not going to earn the respect of 250lb fighters and up that dominate today's heavyweight scene when he wasnt even considered a big puncher in his own era. Him fighting today would look like haye vs valuev every fight because he would have to outbox and outpoiint every behemoth like the klits and areolas.
The Ring used to have really strange choices for Fight of the Year. Ali-Jones and Ali-Liston 1 were not very exciting fights. Foreman beat Frazier like a ragdoll for 2 rounds and that won Fight of the Year. Franklin-Johnson 1 was definitely better than Foreman-Young.
Just to add regard the Doug Jones fight, what an overrated "robbery" or "controversial" decision. Jones would throw a punch within a two foot vicinity of a young Cassius and the crowd would go nuts like he just did something amazing.
Imo he wasn't exactly the most entertaining / exciting boxer anyway, he was in a handful of exceptional fights obviously but the majority of them aren't exactly must watch like most people make out.
I agree.
I don't really find Ali that entertaining, personally.
Ali was involved in some real classics, but was from being an entertaining fighter on a consistent basis, especially during his prime. The only title fight I really enjoyed watching from him in his first reign was against Williams. The others, Liston, Mildenberger, Folley, Patterson, etc...were okay at best.
I liked watching the brilliant things he did in there, but you had sit through a lot of nothing to get to that point.
His legs slowing down from age and inactivity was a big reason why his fights became more exciting in the 70s, he was a less difficult target.