Quote:
Originally Posted by nelsth
The tragedy and the beauty of Ali's career is that most of his great matches occurred after his prime years. At age 25 he was stripped of his license to fight and was 29 when he faced Frazier the first fight. His two fights vs Quarry and Bonavena were not enough to get him ready for that fight. That he knocked Oscar down 3 times in a round to end the fight probably gave the impression he was ready for Frazier. He wasn't. In 1967 he was the fastest heavyweight ever with reflexes never seen before in that weight class. He had to re-invent himself and work with what he had, which was still a lot, but not enough to be the same fighter he was before the 3 1/2 year layoff. That fighter would have probably won a lopsided decision that night.
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I disagree with your last sentence. He was 29, not 39 or 49. 29 is right in a fighter's prime - stop falling to the company line of Ali apologists. Perhaps without a long layoff he would have given Frazier a tougher fight, perhaps even won. But Ali winning a lopsided decision that night?? No way.
A big part of his problem that evening was that he had never been stalked so relentlessly by a man before, and never hit so hard so often. He looked "older" in large part because Frazier was viciously beating the youth out of him for 15 rounds. Give Smokin' Joe his due.