Muhammad Ali ducked Thad Spencer

[butterfly1964]

Spencer himself said that he would have pressured Ali all night. And as we all know, Ali was quite fragile in his younger days (as evidenced by the Cooper KO and the Banks knockdown).

Lol! This guy's a riot.

[Emon723]

Ali may have also allegedly ducked duane bobick, and this was before bobick got halted by ken norton, looking at boxrec. by 75'-76', ali has his share of bums too, wepner, coopman, dunn, Evangelista was even coming off an 8 round points loss prior to facing ali, i've noticed bobick (yes, the same guy who beat Holmes in the amateurs) was undefeated in 30 plus fights against decent opponents.

[QueensburyRules]

Spencer was the Highest Rated Heavyweight that Ali never fought while he was the Champion. I really don't think he ducked him, I just think he ran out of time in 1967.

Here's a list of all the Heavyweights that were rated in the TOP 10 by Ring Mag., when Ali was the Champion, that Ali didn't box.

(*) Highest Rating during the time Ali was the Champion.


Thad Spencer (2) at the end of 1967, (3) at the end of 1966
Duane Bobick (4)
Kallie Knoetze (6)
Amos Lincoln (6)
Howard Smith (6)
Hubert Hilton (7)
Alfio Righetti (7)
Johnny Boudreaux (8)
Eduardo Corletti (8)
Gerry Coetzee (8)
Roger Rischer (8)
Stan Ward (8)
Eddie Machen (9)
Henry Clark (9)
Manuel Ramos
Johnny Persol (9)
Henry Clay (9)
Larry Middleton (10)
Randy Neumann (10)
Domingo D’Elia (10)
Amos Johnson (10)
Elmer Rush (10)
Mike Schutte (10)
Leroy Jones
Bunny Johnson

- -Henry's IQ can't be limited by singular measurements.

Henry's the ultimate boxing savant, the best ever.

Maybe he'll show up for a gosh, shucks modest bow, and a Jersey Boy as I recall!

[Willie Pep 229]

I don't think Spencer gets a shot even if Ali isn't suspended.

Just about the time of Ali's suspension Spencer gets mangled by Jerry Quarry and then from there falls apart (maybe he even went into the tank,) gong 0-8-1 in his last nine fights.

Only other 'big name' I recognize is Terrell (OK, Brian London too, just not to get the Brits angry) -- but he does have wins over several opponents with double-digit wins, so he wasn't building against soft competition.

I suspect that its the #3 ranking in '66 and his #2 in '67 that got him shots at Terrell and Quarry. But after the Quarry defeat in '68 he falls off the planet, and rightly so.

No, 'no duck.' IMO others more worthy.

[HOUDINI563]

Ali had no reason to duck anyone. He rematched both Frazier and Norton, his toughest opponents multiple time. He was not afraid of a “Thad Spencer.”

[QueensburyRules]

Ali had no reason to duck anyone. He rematched both Frazier and Norton, his toughest opponents multiple time. He was not afraid of a “Thad Spencer.”

- -He and his team afraid of Big George rematch not to mention Wilt.

Been documented endlessly with additional substantial video proof.

Read it and weep thee softly to bed.