Ali-Foreman: Ali ahead on the score cards?

[HOUDINI563]

Your comments don't make any sense. Alis issues with the draft and the war have nothing to do with his ability as a hwt champion.

Fans of Ali bombarded Fleischer for years to put him on his top ten. He never did. Fleischer DID maintain Ali AS HWT CHAMPION OF THE World until he officially retired in 1970 and rightfully so.

It was not until after Nat died that Nat Loubet made Ali No 9 all time with Frazier No 10.

[HOUDINI563]

The fight was watched by a record global television audience of 1 billion viewers, including 50 million viewers watching the fight pay-per-view on closed-circuit theatre television. The fight grossed an estimated $100 million (inflation-adjusted $496 million) in worldwide revenue.

[QueensburyRules]

--- my documented comments make no sense you say as you slosh in yer koolaide...you shorted cents on the dollar at birth I say.

[Anthony342]

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.

A lot of aging, past prime boxers do it too. When watching Larry Holmes, I noticed by about the mid '90s, he seemed to be on the ropes a lot.

[Anthony342]

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.

He might be killed? Weren't people saying the same thing going into the Leonard fight with Hagler?

[Dempsey-Louis]

He might be killed? Weren't people saying the same thing going into the Leonard fight with Hagler?

I don't know if it went to that extreme but certainly the general consensus was that Leonard was too old, too small, too rusty and would likely get KOed.

After the fight, one Ring Magazine reporter claimed he saw it coming, claiming that he watched Hagler skipping rope and recognized that Hagler's timing was completely gone. He claimed he called a friend over at Leonard's camp and asked "can Leonard fight at all, because Hagler's finished?" But as I said, he wrote this after the fight, so no points.

To me Hagler did look for **** that night; like he was fighting in second gear.

[Anthony342]

I don't know if it went to that extreme but certainly the general consensus was that Leonard was too old, too small, too rusty and would likely get KOed.

After the fight, one Ring Magazine reporter claimed he saw it coming, claiming that he watched Hagler skipping rope and recognized that Hagler's timing was completely gone. He claimed he called a friend over at Leonard's camp and asked "can Leonard fight at all, because Hagler's finished?" But as I said, he wrote this after the fight, so no points.

To me Hagler did look for **** that night; like he was fighting in second gear.

I kind of wouldn't be surprised if that guy knew though, but yeah, it looks better if you sat it before hand or have a record of saying it to someone before the fight. But I wouldn't be surprised because that's what Leonard saw after attending Hagler's previous fight vs. Mugabi, so this guy might have seen the same thing. That's the only reason Leonard finally agreed to the fight, because he knew he could beat him and it was STILL close, which shows to me how great Hagler was. So also less points for Leonard, since he took the fight when it was much less of a risk, which he himself is the first to admit. I doubt if Leonard ever would've taken the fight if Hagler had one punch KO power. I give him some credit though, as a good win, but not a great win. His great wins would be Duran 2, event though there was a little gamesmanship there too, but also changed his strategy and frustrated Duran, so much credit still IMO, Benitez and Hearns 1. He should've get Hagler the rematch he was seeking too.

[Dempsey-Louis]

I kind of wouldn't be surprised if that guy knew though, but yeah, it looks better if you sat it before hand or have a record of saying it to someone before the fight. But I wouldn't be surprised because that's what Leonard saw after attending Hagler's previous fight vs. Mugabi, so this guy might have seen the same thing. That's the only reason Leonard finally agreed to the fight, because he knew he could beat him and it was STILL close, which shows to me how great Hagler was. So also less points for Leonard, since he took the fight when it was much less of a risk, which he himself is the first to admit. I doubt if Leonard ever would've taken the fight if Hagler had one punch KO power. I give him some credit though, as a good win, but not a great win. His great wins would be Duran 2, event though there was a little gamesmanship there too, but also changed his strategy and frustrated Duran, so much credit still IMO, Benitez and Hearns 1. He should've get Hagler the rematch he was seeking too.

Yes I had heard the same story regrading the Mugabi fight; also heard that Leonard once said that Duran showed him how to beat Hagler, "make him come to you." -- Hagler did prefer to counter and spent that night leading.

[HOUDINI563]

You said the bout was not anticipated and the numbers, of course, completely contradict this. Any more lies to spew?

[QueensburyRules]

--- You got your numbers from wiki supported by nonexistent attribution.

But what the hay, let's do a breakdown. One billion out of the world pop of 4 billion with 2 of that living in Asia with next to nil TVs. So of the remaining 2 bil, 33% too old or too young to know or care, so that leaves 1.3 bil, half of whom are women tending kid or the elderly, so now we're down to about 700 mil of the adult western male pop, at least half not knowing or caring about the fight.

I was in college at lubbock, texas in a good sized town of 100k, bigger and more advanced in communication and broadcasting than half that western male pop, and we had no way to view it, or if we did, the prices listed were out of the range of a poor college. Student and other assorted poor folk.

I love wiki, but it too often filled with stink as you are in this case...just sayin'...