Ali vs Ali, Winner Vs Lewis

First topic message reminder :

I'm just reading Truss's article about how Lewis would match up against his Top Ten ATG Heavyweights. Everyone's in agreement that Ali beats Lewis. However, this got me thinking, which version of Ali beats Lewis? Or is it both versions?

Pre 1967, Ali was a lyth athlete, fleet of foot and fast of hand. To coin a phrase "he'd float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. He out boxed a master boxer in Patterson and made a monster look silly in Liston. However, this version of Ali was a little lighter and perhaps a little less durable. I know he was knocked down by Cooper, a concussive left hooker, but other than that we can't really comment on his abilty to absorb punches because he wasn't the kind of fighter to get hit be cleanly or soak up punishment, such were his speed and reflexes.

The post 1970 version of Ali was a little slower, and later a little smarter. Beat in '71 by Frazier, Lost in '73 to Norton, and may have lost again to him later that year. He then went life and death with Frazier another twice, was beaten by the Novice spinks, went the distance with Young and Bugner (both good fighters if a little shy from great). He is often credited with his performance against Big George, I don't need to go into how he won, but in retrospect the tactics were so simple they are laughable, though at the time they were rightly considered genius. Ali, through experience, utilised his relative lack of mobility, as compared to his younger years, and Foremans stamina issues to his advantage. Had the fight taken place, in '64 the fight would have been very different with Ali skooting around the ring schooling Foreman.

My question is who wins: the faster lighter mobile Ali vs the smarter, slower, more durable Ali. It may be the simplist question ever asked on V2, for me the answer is simply young Ali. However, I'm mindful of which version of Ali would perform best against Lewis. To further confuse things, there are two version of Lewis 1) the the young awkward, clumsey (but more mobile and fit) wrecking ball of a fighter that demolished Razor Ruddock, and 2) The more measured and cautious fighter that dealt with Tua.

Both fighters had to adjust their styles due to circumstance, Ali got slower; Lewis realised he lacked concentration and was little chinny.

So, plenty of permutations to talk about, some of the answers may be easy but how do you see some of these fights going...


Young Ali Vs Old Ali

Young Ali vs Young Lewis

Young Ali Vs Old Lewis

Old Ali vs Young Lewis

Old Ali vs Old Lewis

Young Lewis Vs Old Lewis

Cheers!

Katie Taylor goes without saying 6B

Cheers Milky.

Good article Mackem,one that takes a bit of thinking about before you answer. Young Ali against young Lewis, Ali wins for me unless Lewis did manage to catch him with a good shot which is possible,Ali was put down early in his career once before Cooper's much talked about effort. As they both got older they both changed their styles Lewis very much for the better Ali still brilliant in short bursts but taking a lot of punishment and still only going for the head. Lewis was bigger and hadn't been in any real wars, I can't see him stopping Ali when you consider that Ali wasn't knocked off his feet by big hitters like Shavers,Foreman etc but i would pick Lewis by a close split decision.

Liston's head movement is often under sold. There's a moment in one of the Williams fights where Cleveland (who had a very quick and spiteful left) throws three quick jabs in succession and Liston slips them all. He doesn't do it with the flamboyance of Ali but the shots miss and he remains on balance. That's what matters.