Ali's speed vs modern fighters

[Ivancho]

Ali’s frame is thicker and his shoulders were wider than glass jaw Joshua. Only difference in size is a few inches of height, coupled with muscles aided by “supplement”

you have good eyes, AJ has a narrow body of a skinny guy but full of roids, I don't say Joshua is actually on the souce but at least he did a couple of cycles to get a more mature body thats pretty common nowadays, especially n young athletes. Also I want to say that Joe louis had a big frame, people don't know but joe used to do fasting and no weight lifting. He was in a couple of exhibitions 230 lbs "out of shape" but in reality looked in pretty good shape without hanging belly fat

 

[Minowafanatic]

There are Track and field records from the 70’s to the 90’s that still stand today.

No one has jumped higher with this technique since.

This has been pointed out to him several times, he just chooses to ignore it.

 

[Err]

you have good eyes, AJ has a narrow body of a skinny guy but full of roids, I don't say Joshua is actually on the souce but at least he did a couple of cycles to get a more mature body thats pretty common nowadays, especially n young athletes. Also I want to say that Joe louis had a big frame, people don't know but joe used to do fasting and no weight lifting. He was in a couple of exhibitions 230 lbs "out of shape" but in reality looked in pretty good shape without hanging belly fat

I’ve been thinking this for years. AJ has a very narrow frame, you can tell that he’s manipulated his body past it’s natural state, which is to be tall, thin and narrow.

 

[aries]

Strange to choose AJ for this argument, a guy who is clearly one of the slower moving heavyweights in the top 10.

How about Ruiz? Or Usyk?

Yeah Usyk is a much better comparison. Similar size too. I'd say Usyk and Ali are pretty close in speed. Ali is definitely faster than all the big HW's today.

 

[toogreen]

66 Ali is the fastest HW period

 

[mozfonky]

You can hardly compare any of them to Klitschko, AJ or Fury... even Ali towered over them except for Bugner. And Ali won all those fights by stoppage, except for one - against Bugner, surprise surprise.
Went 27 rounds with Bugner and not one single knockdown.

Cooper vs. AJ... Mildenberger vs. Klitschko... Bugner vs. Fury.

Who would you pick in those fights?

Wasnt my point, anyway.

 

[mozfonky]

66 Ali is the fastest HW period

Ali had a lot more to offer than just speed, there have been lots of fast heavyweights, Dokes, Tubbs,Patterson,Tyson, Page,Biggs. It wasn't just the speed, he had layers to his talents and attributes. His power although not great was at least enough to keep the big men honest. That's a lot in and of itself and as Angie Dundee said, "when Ali came down off his toes there weren't a lot of heavyweights around who could bang with him". You simply cannot be an effective heavyweight without some sort of power even if it's at the lower end of the spectrum. Then we have his footwork which Ali said, "Defense is in the legs", then we have his reflexes and instinct for incoming punches, the first round against Liston is exhibit A and a thing of beauty. He wasn't as untouchable as some of the fanatics claim but he was fighting guys who were good and he was fighting guys who were hungry. The Chuvalo fight was not like the revisionist try to say it was, it was a tough fight where Ali needed to assert himself and take some punishment. He won most rounds but he had to work every one of them. These leads me to his greatest attribute athletically, his marvelous endurance. What heavyweight routinely throws upwards of a 100 punches a round? What heavyweight does this while he's up on his toes? The pace he would set would put him above everyone, not his speed, his stamina. Then, we found out he had an iron chin, then we found out he had the best intangibles of any heavyweight ever. It's not just the speed folks.

 

[mozfonky]

Ali's reflexes and feet look faster than his hands. His hands are not slow but I wouldn't say it's blazing hand speed like Roy Jones Jr, Sugar Ray Leonard or Meldrick Taylor and yes I know they were in smaller weight classes.

he was faster, as he acknowledge, when he was a very young pro, at about 190, he did the smart thing and bulked up to be able to handle the big boys, and he was a big heavyweight for his day, perfect size for one as Gil Clancy once said.