Is it possible that Floyd Mayweather was technically a better boxer than Muhammad Ali

[Anthony342]

I think it's a bit of both.

Depending on the style he's adopting it can go either way.

When he fights out of a high guard he fights very technically sound and conventional whereas if he's using a shoulder roll he's obviously heavily relying on reflexes there.

Good to see you back educating people. I know you've already taught me a lot here. Merry Christmas.

[IruleYouAll]

Ali wasn't technically skilled to began with. His hooks were mostly slapping punches. His uppercut attempts were weak. He rarely went to the body. Ali as a whole is overrated. His win over Foreman was a fluke which is why he avoided giving Foreman a rematch. Also no Ali didn't lay on the ropes on purpose. Ali has stated this himself and I will add links latter. Norton won 2 if not all 3 fights against Ali. Frazier beat Ali. Hell even guys like Henry Cooper who wasn't even a modern sized heavyweight almost knocked him out and most people think 180 pound Doug Jones beat Ali.

I am not a Mayweather fan but in terms of in ring skills he was far above Ali. Well truth be told most heavyweights aren't really skilled once you compare them to smaller fighters.

[QueensburyRules]

--- That's why the call them heavyweights where special attributes are needed.

TUE could only hack it at MGM where he had the Vegas commish and WADA in his pocket. Guys with his skills are a dime a dozen thru history and many more have greater skills and natural attributes.

A 20 old southpaw Japanese kick boxer caught him with a right hook that knocked him face first into the corner.

I was surprised he didn't go squallin' to his daddy and Bayliss.

[Tom Cruise]

Ali wasn't technically skilled to began with. His hooks were mostly slapping punches. His uppercut attempts were weak. He rarely went to the body. Ali as a whole is overrated. His win over Foreman was a fluke which is why he avoided giving Foreman a rematch. Also no Ali didn't lay on the ropes on purpose. Ali has stated this himself and I will add links latter. Norton won 2 if not all 3 fights against Ali. Frazier beat Ali. Hell even guys like Henry Cooper who wasn't even a modern sized heavyweight almost knocked him out and most people think 180 pound Doug Jones beat Ali.

I am not a Mayweather fan but in terms of in ring skills he was far above Ali. Well truth be told most heavyweights aren't really skilled once you compare them to smaller fighters.

Ali has wins over a prime top 5 ATG HW in Foreman, two wins over top 10 ATG HW in Frazier, and two wins over borderline top 10 ATG in Sonny Liston.

He also more top 10 wins, at the time he fought them, than any other HW in history, including Joe Louis. That means a lot at HW where you don’t have champions above and below your weight class to fight.

He was not overrated. He is/was clearly the greatest fighter, in the most historic division, in boxing history. P4P doesn’t exist in the real world. Ali was the greatest.

Ali wasn’t technically skilled

Jesus.

[The Old LefHook]

I thought everyone understood by now that Mayweather is a much superior technical boxer to Ali. Ali the greater fighter, but not the superior boxer. Ali did not appear to know fundamentals. I would say he didn't. He knew OF them, but hardly ever practiced what were fundamentals to other fighters.

[Eff Pandas]

Ali was the first boxer I ever heard of back in the day so I held him in high regard forever (I'm pretty sure the first adult book I read was his bio from the 70's which was the only boxing book my school library had), but upon watching his fights he's one of the most boring HW's of all time, this doesn't mean he didn't have any entertaining fights to be clear, & his talent has been grossly exaggerated.

Ali was almost all about his gift of speed/quickness & his jab. Thats all he does. Okay he could take a punch. Okay he did show a great strategic mind in & out of the ring. Okay he could lift himself higher when tough moments where thrust on him.

And yes that surely does make him the best fighter of his day & a guy the scifi dorks can put into the ATG talks, but his greatness has been oversold to & by the masses as I see it.

[Tom Cruise]

Ali was the first boxer I ever heard of back in the day so I held him in high regard forever (I'm pretty sure the first adult book I read was his bio from the 70's which was the only boxing book my school library had), but upon watching his fights he's one of the most boring HW's of all time, this doesn't mean he didn't have any entertaining fights to be clear, & his talent has been grossly exaggerated.

Ali was almost all about his gift of speed/quickness & his jab. Thats all he does. Okay he could take a punch. Okay he did show a great strategic mind in & out of the ring. Okay he could lift himself higher when tough moments where thrust on him.

And yes that surely does make him the best fighter of his day & a guy the scifi dorks can put into the ATG talks, but his greatness has been oversold to & by the masses as I see it.

How is his greatness oversold?

He is sold as the greatest HW of all time. He is, in fact, the greatest HW of all time.

Ignoring P4P, he is the greatest boxer ever.

[Eff Pandas]

How is his greatness oversold?

For reasons like I said.

Ali the boxer was a HW Amir Khan who could take a punch with a better jab & less effective non-jabs.

I also think he gets extra credit as a boxer for sh^t he did out of the ring.

He is sold as the greatest HW of all time. He is, in fact, the greatest HW of all time.

Based on cats who've seen like 5 of his fights sure.

I've watched ~40 something of his fights probably, sh^t maybe more, if not all the fights one can view of his 61 bouts. He wasn't a well rounded fighter. He had speed & the jab. Thats it. And if you've seen his fights you know he got gifted decisions more than any notable boxer ever perhaps. His record was 56-5, but he coulda easily been 51-10 with all the gift decisions he got. If not for Dundee cheating he'd probably have had a KO loss earlier in his career.

[them_apples]

Yes, Floyd is a much better boxer than Ali. Many fans don't realize how technically flawed Ali was, and how much he relied on his reflexes against big, slow, lumbering HWs. Ali did too many things wrong, that he would not be able to get away with in lower weight classes. He leaned back from punches, moved back in a straight line, kept his hands at his sides, rarely went to the body. He could get away with it while fighting slower or smaller opponents.

most also don't know how smart and clever he was in the ring as well. His ring IQ was phenomenal. Nobody can just eat flush punches or lean back with reflexes and go as far as he did. Ali was a master of rolling punches and deflecting shots, tying opponents up. He threw his shots fast but also very smooth with no tell, a lot of subtle feints and an incredible iron willpower. This is the sole reason why even with Parkinsons and no legs he was still a formidable fighter.

For example he rolled 80% of Frazier's left hooks in the first fight, in all the slow motion replays you can literally see him rolling the shot. He got dropped on his ass cause Frazier tricked him and got him to roll first by delaying his shot and then caught Ali on the end of it.

Mayweather does some things better but that's because he is a natural lightweight. Duran and Robinson were more skilled than Ali too, but a better question is who is more skilled than Ali as a heavyweight? nobody.

[QueensburyRules]

--- Joe Louis woulda made Ali's boys weep.

Louis was natural attributes + Skills whereas Ali was mostly about natural attributes leveraged into a limited style.

Louis head to head in their timelines whoops Ali silly no matter how how much ali fans bluster. Wlad also substantial skills, hence he being the only fighter to approach the Louis record.

Read it and weep...