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I wasn't upset with Mel's win . . . just stunned. He certainly deserved to have such a big win, though, because I mercilessly put him in to get slaughtered by all the biggest punchers. Yeah, I know, I was a sadistic kid.
I remember putting him in against someone (Liston or Foreman, I think) and making up the rule that he could only be stopped by KO (no TKO, 3 knockdowns, cuts, swelling, etc.). The fight lasted something absurd like 9 rounds and he was a mess. I can't even recall how many times he bounced off the canvas, but he kept getting up.
Another time I ran a loser tournament. If you lost, you proceeded on to the next round. Mel won the tournament title, losing I believe to Willi Besmanoff.
As for Ali in my universe, the interesting thing was that he never regained the crown. He was ducked when possible and had a few inopportune losses when he would have been in line as the mandatory challenger. By the time he finally got another shot at the title he was on the verge of going post-prime. He ended up losing in another upset to a prime Monte Barrett and slipped to post-prime. At the time, the division was good enough that a post-prime or end Ali didn't seriously challenge again.
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