Ali-Foreman: Ali ahead on the score cards?

[QueensburyRules]

--- Everything ****** in the fight with George on his feet when waved off to being cut his first day of sparring an being held hostage while Ali was feted in the prez mansion by a murderous monster to Dundee loosening the ropes to Sadler crafting the strategy for Ali to beat George and drugging him and so on.

It was DKing first fight and he didn't disappoint!!!!

[BKM-]

Yeah, most boxing fans in the know only remember it right though, that Ali was landing every round, with harder shots seeming to be landed with each round as Foreman tired and Ali used his speed advantage to land lead right, jabs and combos leading to the KO. The thing I always wondered myself was if it was really a KO, as Foreman seemed to get up before the count of 10 and the ref just stopping the fight. But watching it again just now, the commentator probably had the count wrong and instead of 8, it was probably 10 the ref reached just before Foreman staggered to his feet.

You actually have that correct, the commentator was off by 2 counts. Foreman was legitimately counted out, and it's yet another myth surrounding that fight.

-Ali laid on the ropes till Foreman tired.
-Foreman was ahead at the time of the KO.
-Foreman got up @ 8.
-Foreman was poisoned or unfit for other reasons.

People to this day believe atleast 2 of the BS claims that have been around forever. They know what a monumental win this was(the biggest HW win in boxing history) and it takes Ali's #1 ATG HW spot to such a place that nobody else can reach, not even their Godly Joe Louis. So they have to find ways to discredit Ali.

Past prime Ali outclassed and KO'd the unbeatable prime Foreman fairly, for the biggest HW win of all time.

[HOUDINI563]

Very true about the KO. Glad to see I'm not the only one on here that understands the truth.

[QueensburyRules]

--- Sloshing Slurping Sounds of koolaide by jim jones survivors is all I'm hearing from you two.

Joe won the Fight of the Century, not Ali to massive acclaim and worldwide audience.

Near nobody cared to watch the Zaire fight and the fact that yer boy didn't fancy the big money rematch pretty much certified his obvious decline after that fight.

I'm sure you bear no responsibility for keeping al propped up for those many years of needless punishment and humiliation that left him in an invalid state...utterly shameless as to be expected from his fans, of whom I was one of the biggest until I saw the damage and fraud committed to keep him propped up.

[GhostofDempsey]

Ali tried to convince the public he was some sort of genius for the rope a dope. Truth is, that is an old method used by generations of fighters prior and Ali himself was tiring, which is the first thing a fighter does when his legs are tired, rest on the ropes and put on the earmuffs.

[HOUDINI563]

Untrue. Ali Foreman was a highly anticipated bout. As any would be that pits an undisputed hwt champion vs his undisputed No 1 challenger who also was the most highly recognized fighter of his generation. So cut the crap no one wanted to see the fight. You can say Foreman was highly favored which he was. George was looked upon as unbeatable at that time.

Although resting along the ropes as a general tactic was done in the past none did so like Ali. Watch round five and then show everyone a comparable round in boxing history. Closest would be Marciano Moore but really incomparable as Moore was destroyed while Ali triumphed.

[Dempsey-Louis]

Ali's "tactic" worked so well and is so unprecedented in its effectiveness (other have indeed used the tactic but not to the same extreme) because Foreman was so inexperienced (gullible) that he made the tactic work.

I have always been of the mind that Ali was making it up as he went along, just trying to keep Foreman off him; there was no grand 'rope-a-dope' strategy going in, just some more of that magical 'intangibles' we always (and rightly so) associate with Ali.

And Anglo Dundee never touched those ropes that's just more of Dundee's self-aggrandizing, which he was a master at. Those ropes were like that for the same incompetent reason one fourth of the close circuit venues lost their feeds.

The entire fight was one screw-up after another. e.g. "From the Slave Ship to the Championship" (Some guy on EBAY is asking $15,000 for one of the original posters; he'll never get it.) King screwed up just about everything you could screw up with a fight, from the close circuit presentation, to the poster, to a poorly assembled ring.

The match-up was not highly anticipated, there was a condescending interest in the fight; every one expected a Foreman walk-over with Ali getting one last payday. People were announcing how they weren't going to buy the fight because they weren't gong to be the guy who gets ripped-off. People were saying things like: 'this is a joke, he might be killed."

There was far more excitement/interest after the fight than there was leading up to it.

[billeau2]

--- Sorry, but I stopped drinking koolaide eons ago.

You would have people believe that Ali's talents were exxagerated despite his record, despite his skills in display even today with various Gifs. So heres the thing, you are not such a rebel, such a clear thinker amidst a bunch of sheeple, as you would no doubt like to believe.

First off, the sheeple all hated Ali because he would not function as a means to an end for this imperialist government. All the rebels were happy to see him go to jail, and to call for his hide, with few exceptions, most notably Howard Cossel who stuck by Ali. Ali spent years as a hated man because of ignorance. Ali never told anyone what to do only that he had no reason to go kill Viet Cong individuals...

Find another boxer in the modern era who beat so many great fighters, in such a short time....ok now find a heavyweight that comes close to doing so as Ali did... Good luck. We know that Ali, like, for example Max Bauer, was somewhat driven by who he was fighting, so he did not always look great...Bt we also know that he managed to secure wins over men who were considered some of the best.

There is no koolaid being drunk in seeing how great Ali was but there will always be individuals who want to look back and disparage how good Ali was.

[HOUDINI563]

Completely untrue. The bout was highly anticipated. The purses and the gate worldwide is a testament. The ropeadope worked against most all opponents aside from Norton 3 but one can make a case for it as in the end Ali won. Even vs Frazier (3) Joe exhausted himself trying to stop Ali only to find Ali surging the last three rounds with Joe unable to keep up.

The ropes were loose because it was an 18 foot ring ( Clayton swore it was 16 foot) that had ropes designed for a much larger ring. Thus the noticeable sag.

[QueensburyRules]

--- Documented that Dundee tried to loosen the ropes for fight of the century prior to foreman.

Nobody ever denied Ali's abundance of natural talent, however he squandered it on many occasions like the Lubbers fight where he couldn't solve a Euro journeyman as one example.

During his Vietnam sojourn where Nat Fleischer supported his position Nat was flooded with NOI letters demanding Ali be put on Nat's all time list.

Shameless, yeah, but Ali fans tend to be his worst enemy.