After beating Joe Frazier and George Foreman in 74, Ali fought Chuck Wepner

[.:: JSFD26 ::.]

This thread sucks and is ****** just like TS.

Boo this man!

[FrankieBruno]

Not the same thing. Wepner was a top 10 heavy at the time, and when he fought Wepner, Ali had beaten 6 of the other 8 men in the rankings. He then took on Lyle who was also in the top ten rankings. Ali took risks, he took on all kinds of fighters with different styles and was the man in the golden age of heavyweight prize fighting.

Also this wasn't a pay per view fight, now that term was foreign back then, but the fact that Mayweather actually expects people to pay 75 bucks for this mismatch with a lackluster undercard is borderline insane.

Damn TS got served

[jreckoning]

Who had a record of 30-9-2 and Ali was a 10 to 1 betting favorite over. The fight was a joke in every way imaginable BUT Ali just beat the guy who beat him before in Frazier and then TKO's the undefeated killer that everyone thought would knockout Ali in Foreman. So he took a soft touch after. Big deal. No one cares now. No one remembers Ali for taking a couple soft touches between big fights, which he did from time to time.

Berto is essentially Mayweather's Chuck Wepner. Floyd finally beat the guy that so many said would beat him, in the richest fight this sport has ever seen against Pacquiao and now he's taking a softy. I'm not paying $74.95 for it, but I'm not mad about it either.

Ali got $1.5 million for fighting Wepner which is the equivalent of getting $9,225,695.88 today if you calculate inflation. Sure, it's a bit less than $30 million since guys weren't in as much control over their earnings as they are now, but $10 million dollar paydays is a lot of money for any fighter on the planet today not named Floyd & Pacquiao.

Ever see the Ron Lyle fight after?

It's weird because after Ali,Lyle was probably happy to fight Earnie Shavers.

You know how they say GGG let Monroe punch him, Ali let Lyle win rounds.

[ИATAS]

Not the same thing. Wepner was a top 10 heavy at the time, and when he fought Wepner, Ali had beaten 6 of the other 8 men in the rankings.

Wepner ****** anyway you sliced it. If he somehow managed to slip into the top 10 at the time for like a month it still didn't make him a good fighter. The guy ******, man, don't try and say otherwise, we're not all foolish here. I mean let's not ignore that by trying to spin it and paint a picture that Wepner earned his shot, it's not different than guys trying to justify Berto as being deserving.

He then took on Lyle who was also in the top ten rankings. Ali took risks, he took on all kinds of fighters with different styles and was the man in the golden age of heavyweight prize fighting.

Yeah he took on Lyle who just lost to Young and after that Ali fought Joe Bugner, who like Wepner wasn't all that good either (a good character though).

Also this wasn't a pay per view fight, now that term was foreign back then, but the fact that Mayweather actually expects people to pay 75 bucks for this mismatch with a lackluster undercard is borderline insane.

Oh so they weren't trying to make money off the Wepner fight, it was just free to all, right? Ali vs Wepner was shown on closed circuit TV, they made good money off the fight. Ali was no different. Ali would have squeezed every last dime he could have off this fight, Ali was driven by money.

[BrometheusBob.]

I would agree with OP if Berto were a 10-1 underdog.

[Boxing1836]

Ali got $1.5 million for fighting Wepner which is the equivalent of getting $9,225,695.88 today if you calculate inflation. Sure, it's a bit less than $30 million since guys weren't in as much control over their earnings as they are now, but $10 million dollar paydays is a lot of money for any fighter on the planet today not named Floyd & Pacquiao.

a bit less? Thats a 22 million dollar difference.

a bit less gtfo lol

[El-blanco]

The legends fought only legends lol


Ali fought jurgen blin, Alfredo evanglista, lost to 8 fight novice spinks in his 30s, barely beat jimmy young who was good but won some n lost some to the best but wasn't close to great


Mayweather is older than Ali when he took that L to spinks and he still p4p the best



Mayweather will get his due when he is promoting and building his brand as a 40+ hall of famer

You wonder why I criticize you all the time, it's for ******ity like this. Ali got hit by guys like foreman, Lyle, Norton, etc. Big ass grown men were hitting him not 150 pound man-child's. You gotta be utterly ****in ******ed to even mention what you did in the bold. Ali was brain dead by the time he fought spinx.

[ИATAS]

Ever see the Ron Lyle fight after?

It's weird because after Ali,Lyle was probably happy to fight Earnie Shavers.

You know how they say GGG let Monroe punch him, Ali let Lyle win rounds.

I have, it's a fun fight to watch. I'll say this though - Ali was FAR MORE ENTERTAINING than Floyd. I mean that's a given, really. You got your money's worth with Ali no matter who he was fighting, with Floyd you still get those Baldomir moments

[Hougigo]

I don't think the backlash would be as bad if it was on CBS instead of 75 dollar PPV.... people would still hate it but at least they won't have to pay a lot of money for it....65 standard 75 PPV?

[soul_survivor]

Who had a record of 30-9-2 and Ali was a 10 to 1 betting favorite over. The fight was a joke in every way imaginable BUT Ali just beat the guy who beat him before in Frazier and then TKO's the undefeated killer that everyone thought would knockout Ali in Foreman. So he took a soft touch after. Big deal. No one cares now. No one remembers Ali for taking a couple soft touches between big fights, which he did from time to time.

Berto is essentially Mayweather's Chuck Wepner. Floyd finally beat the guy that so many said would beat him, in the richest fight this sport has ever seen against Pacquiao and now he's taking a softy. I'm not paying $74.95 for it, but I'm not mad about it either.

There are huge difference in circumstance, the biggest being the money involved and the amount of times Ali fought. After losing to Frazier in 71, Ali fought 15 times in 3 years before facing Wepner. In those 15 fights, as you rightly put, he fought Frazier and Foreman, but he also fought Norton twice, Foster the LHW champ and guys like Ellis and Mathis who were perennial HW top 10 entrants and title challengers.

Mayweather has fought 15 times in 10 years...let that sink in for a second...thats less than 2 fights a year. Mayweather is putting this fight on a near 80 dollar PPV premium and is set to make 30-40 million dollars from it. In what he says, is supposed to be his last fight. No fighter should be making that sort of money, on such short intervals, fighting opponents who barely rank above a sparring partner.

Your comparison is invalid.