he did for a lot of people at the time because he was so unusual, only after his career was over did that style look common, ali really had an uphill battle but there were some who really thought he was special right from the gitgo. One guy, Skeeter Mclure, his olympic teamate even said the first time he saw Ali that he had a divine glow to him. You are correct though, the old boxing men who used to sit ringside as Clay sparred couldn't be blamed for saying "he's gonna get moidered".
I grew up on the old ali so i was mesmerized the first time i saw 60's ali playing on a laser disc in a dept. store, not the same guy i grew up watching, it was the first liston fight and I think it was the second cooper fight that i watched, probably in total, my life was changed that day as much as any, in terms of what I wanted to do. I stood there with my mouth open.