Originally posted by SABBATH
Henry, I read your thread where you told Monte Cox about Nat Fleischer rating Ali as the #2 defensive heavyweight of all-time and I'm glad you did.
I've exchanged e-mails in the past with Monte and while I respect him as a historian I've still questioned a few of his writings.
Monte did an all-time heavyweight ranking of essential categories and gave Ali a 7/10 in defence which was the same rating he afforded among other Jim Jeffries, Rocky Marciano, and Joe Frazier, and less than Jim Corbett's 9/10 and Max Scheling's 8/10.
I think you would be hard pressed to find too many objective historians that would rate Jeffries as hard to hit clean as was Ali in his prime, which is why I'm at the point now of questioning alot of 'historians' opinions and choosing instead to rely on my own observations.
It's not about 'conventional' defence, it's about the art of not getting hit hard and/or often, and Ali wasn't hit much at all in his prime.
There is a sequence in the FOTC in one of the later rounds where Ali was backed into a corner by Frazier and Ali dropped his hands to his side and invited Frazier to try and hit him. With Frazier less than a foot away he tries several clean head shots and Ali makes him miss by turning his head or rolling and blocking with his shoulder. The sequence can be seen very noticeably in the documentary The Fighters.
Ali had an uncanny radar system that allowed him to accurately gauge space, time and distance. I've yet to see another heavyweight with that comparable attribute.
Henry, I read your thread where you told Monte Cox about Nat Fleischer rating Ali as the #2 defensive heavyweight of all-time and I'm glad you did.
I've exchanged e-mails in the past with Monte and while I respect him as a historian I've still questioned a few of his writings.
Monte did an all-time heavyweight ranking of essential categories and gave Ali a 7/10 in defence which was the same rating he afforded among other Jim Jeffries, Rocky Marciano, and Joe Frazier, and less than Jim Corbett's 9/10 and Max Scheling's 8/10.
I think you would be hard pressed to find too many objective historians that would rate Jeffries as hard to hit clean as was Ali in his prime, which is why I'm at the point now of questioning alot of 'historians' opinions and choosing instead to rely on my own observations.
It's not about 'conventional' defence, it's about the art of not getting hit hard and/or often, and Ali wasn't hit much at all in his prime.
There is a sequence in the FOTC in one of the later rounds where Ali was backed into a corner by Frazier and Ali dropped his hands to his side and invited Frazier to try and hit him. With Frazier less than a foot away he tries several clean head shots and Ali makes him miss by turning his head or rolling and blocking with his shoulder. The sequence can be seen very noticeably in the documentary The Fighters.
Ali had an uncanny radar system that allowed him to accurately gauge space, time and distance. I've yet to see another heavyweight with that comparable attribute.
Great video.
Early ones, late ones, all weight classes, his first loss...any would do. Completely unrelated, I know, but I was curious.
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