Why did Ali stylistically struggle with Frazier but not Patterson?

[The D3vil]

That's not what he thought. He said: Frazier would have always been a difficult opponent for me.

He may have been difficult, but he wouldn't have beat him.

Remember, he only beat Ali the first time after he'd been gone for 3 years.

After that, even a drastically diminished Ali beat him the next 2 fights.

[QueensburyRules]

Frazier and Patterson were pretty similiar. Why wasn't Patterson able to capitalize on his swarming the way Joe did? More gun shy?

- - Floyd fought with a slipped disc first fight. He shouldn't have been in the ring. The 2nd fight was just an easy money fight.

Frazier much bigger, more powerful could back Ali to the ropes ripping his kidneys out, not Floyd.

[Pugilist89]

- - Floyd fought with a slipped disc first fight. He shouldn't have been in the ring. The 2nd fight was just an easy money fight.

Frazier much bigger, more powerful could back Ali to the ropes ripping his kidneys out, not Floyd.

Frazier was not bigger than Patterson. Patterson was actually slightly taller.

[KidDinamita]

Frazier could take a punch, Patterson no

[Zaroku]

He may have been difficult, but he wouldn't have beat him.

Remember, he only beat Ali the first time after he'd been gone for 3 years.

After that, even a drastically diminished Ali beat him the next 2 fights.

You are Satan. Showing me perfect females at this late sage of my life

keep it communing

[elfag]

Fraizer was larger with more power. Even if everything else was exactly the same, that alone means that Ali has to consider the risk of Fraizer landing on him more than Patterson so Ali would make his adjustments from that.

Ali himself was younger and quicker with facing Patterson as well. He was taking a lot more shots in the 70s.

[Dr. Z]

Patterson when he fought Ali had back issues and was older. Patterson was a cruiser weight, was fighting with a bad back, and past his best. He was 37. It was his last fight.

A young Patterson who do the same an old Ali

[champion4ever]

It's because Joe Frazier was a pressure inside fighter who liked to keep the action in close. Where as Floyd Patterson was just your typical boxer/puncher out fighter who liked to keep the action on the outside.

Which made it easy for Ali to extend his arms and put his combination punches together. While Frazier would just smother him on the inside. Ali had to work twice as hard against Frazier because he was forced to move and use his legs just to get enough punching room to fight Joe off of him.

[Slugfester]

They didn't fight anything alike. Their favorite punch was the left hook. That's about it. Floyd bore more resemblance to Tyson than to Frazier for obvious reasons.

I hope when our grand children are talking about boxing in the future they can do what you failed to do, and take into consideration that Floyd was old and at the very end of his career plus suffering injuries. That is so simple. A win against hamburger means nothing. Ali gets no credit for that win, but for many others who were not shot. Remember that when you look at record books. Generally, a handful of fights are more legacy-building than the rest of a record combined. Shot fighters by rights have very little to do with enhancing a legacy.

[kafkod]

Frazier could take a punch, Patterson no

That is the most important difference between the two. Frazier could walk through Ali's punches, Patterson couldn't.