Given that I don't have as much time on my hands as some folk and given that I have vast hobbies that I indulge in and not only boxing , I must say I haven't seen that many fights of Muhammad Ali. So from I saw I recall his weapons only being jab and right cross. Did he have a left hook that he used ? Uppercuts ? Body shots ? Right hook ? Please do tell...
Virtually ZERO Body Shots to Speak Of... Never a "Puncher" Per Se, Ali Put More MUSTARD on his Right Cross than Probably Any Other Punch...Despite the Relative LACK of Pop, Ali had a Knack for FINISHING Hurt Foes Too...Had Arguably the Best ORTHODOX 1-2 in Boxing History...When Ali Opened Up (Especially Pre-Exile), he Threw Every Punch in the Book (Again, EXCEPT for Body Shots) w/More HANDSPEED than Any Heavyweight Before or Since... REED:hammert:
It's pretty amazing then that only using mostly those punches he accomplished what he accomplished. Using body shots not only helps weaken the opponent but also varies your offense, helping with misdirection and unpredictability. So it's pretty amazing going in knowing what your opponent will exactly do to you and still getting your ass kicked.
Even though his punch arsenal was limited Ali was still very tricky with footwork, positioning, trash talking and many other smaller harder to notice areas. I don't think you could really know "exactly what he'd do". The Foreman fight is a pretty glaring example of that. In terms of somebody who you would know exactly how they're going to fight yet would still kick your ass? I think Carlos Monzon would fit the bill.
Jab and Cross, primarily but occasionally an uppercut or a hook as REED said, I've never seen a bodyshot from Ali
Similar repertoire of punches to Ali, really... probably liked the uppercut more than him, but basically jab/right hand
Ali is a guy where the rule book goes out the window... Kept his hands down, leaned straight back from punches, never went to the body in his life, adopted the singularly strange tactic of the rope-a-dope... somehow, it worked spectacularly well 90% of the time... you can only really attribute it to his great speed of hands and feet, his outrageous confidence, his reflexes and most importantly, his ridiculous toughness When it is all said and done, no matter how you feel about him, how you feel about his various controversies and contradictions, he was all man in the ring, one of the gamest, toughest and most resilient bastards that ever lived
Yep. There was way more to Ali than just his jab and right hand. In the 80's, a variety of fighters who seemed, on paper, to be similar to Ali like Greg Page, Quick Tillis, Tyrell Biggs, Tony Tubbs, didn't have the chin, toughness, endurance and ability to psych out their opponents and never came close to accomplishing what Ali did. And while they were all had quick hands and feet, none of them had those crazy reflexes that allowed Ali to break all the rules and get away with it. I remember doing a Homer Simpson-type smack to my forehead when the Tyson-Biggs fight was mishyped as an "Ali-Frazier for the 80's".
Minus the body punching and the rope-a-doping, of course. Vitali does a lot of the same things but he's 4 inches taller and up to 40lbs heavier and so that plays a part. Neither man was much into leading and they both had these weird hooker-cutting slashing shots.
Perhaps, but Wlad has Waaaaaaaaaaaaaay More BITCH in him...Even LATE in his Career, Ali Wasn't Shy about Digging Deeeep & RETURNING Some Firepower, in the Face of Aggression, as he Did vs. Lyle & Frazier III... There's a SURFACE Similarity, but it's Night & Day, or Dare REED Say, BLECK & White Difference, when it Comes to INTANGIBLES... REED:hammert:
no no no... I was talking about Vitali, not wald pussy wald pussy has similarities only to Richard Simmons and Harvey Fierstein
except for the part where Vitali fights fat bums, lost to Lennox Lewis, sucks, and quits against a guy half his size
Wow that is fucking weird, never really given it much thought, but I guess Ali really is just a jab and right cross guy at the core. Now I think about it, I've seen him throw more uppercuts than hooks.
It's interesting to compare Vitali to Ali. Both seemed focused on landing their jabs and following it up with a right hand. In some ways, Vitali resembles a robotic version of Ali. Vitali attempts deliberately and mechanically what appears to be instinctive and natural for Ali. But I think it has to be acknowledged that if all Vitali did was throw jabs and right hands, in such mechanical and deliberate fashion, he would not have had the success he's had. He simply isn't fast enough and doesn't have the foot-work that Ali did. Instead, Vitali, in addition to imitating Ali's jab and right hand, throws not only a wide variety of punches from different angles, including body-shots, left hooks and various other unorthodox punches, but also throws a massive volume of punches, especially considering he is a heavyweight. Ali was never the volume puncher that Vitali is. Vitali, with his care to preserve his energy by not loading up, manages to throw an amazing number of punches and because of his height, does so without subjecting himself to return fire. If Vitali's fights are less than exciting, it's only because they tend to be so one-sided - not because his style is boring. And that's why I've always thought he was the better fighter than his brother.
