Something Incredible Ali that doesn't get talked about

[Rayrobinson#1]

How in the hell could Ali take the body shots he took? I've never seen a fighter be able to take the punishment he has to the body and keep going. He took crazy body shots against Chuvalo, Foreman and Frazier yet in the end he was the one with the finishing ability. The boxing textbook says you bang the body early and take them out late yet with Ali this did not apply. Was it the fact that his jab was so effective it had a similar impact as body shots and he wore his opponents down? Was it he had iron ribs? Was his will so strong that body shots didn't matter. Ali was some kind of freak of nature.

 

[Henry Swanson]

Ali's toughness is sometimes underrated. The guy had a chin and could take a lot of punishment. Watching him get body raped by Foreman made me ill.

 

[Seano]

Watching him get body raped by Foreman made me ill.

Cossell-

"Those punches are having no effect whatsoever!"

 

[DAZEDJELLYLEGS2]

Some of Ali's fights are painful to watch. I dont think anyone can deny his ability to absorb shots be it body or head. I think though most focus more on his skill due to the slightly tragic undertone of his ability to absorb punishment which has left him something of a shell.

 

[MMAmouse]

The only man who could rope-a-dope Foreman without getting his lungs punctured.

 

[Tam-Tam]

They had an effect. Look in the toilet for the following week to see the proof of it. What Ali had that I never saw in another great heavyweight, was the inhuman ability to absorb PAIN and keep his poker face. Toughest 'great' fighter in history, IMO.

 

[Henry Swanson]

I have an old hardcover book with a bunch of pictures taken throughout Ali's career. There's a great picture of him in his dressing room after a fight where he's holding an ice pack against his face and you can see the agony he's in, like Tam said, he had the ultimate poker face but that picture is a pretty good depiction of Ali without his poker face on.

 

[djacobox372]

Going into the foreman fight he was facing the most devastating puncher the HW division has ever known, a guy that had DESTROYED the only two men that ali had ever lost to.

What was ali's strategy against this monster?

"Let him hit me until he gets tired!"

That's one

 

[Sharkey]

How in the hell could Ali take the body shots he took?

Ask him about the ones he recieved from the likes of Blue Lewis & Jimmy Ellis, when both knocked him down and hurt him badly with body shots in sparring (within a week of particular fights when he was fight ready) and he'd tell you that there were body punches that he couldn't take all that well.

 

[xXSpawnXx]

^^^He probably didn't take it so seriously, but those guys have nothing Foreman.

 

[Sharkey]

^^^He probably didn't take it so seriously, but those guys have nothing Foreman.

He talked about both body shots indepth back then, and especially the shot he took from Blue Lewis, which he dedicated a few pages to in 'My Own Story' (describing the punch, how he went down, how much it hurt, how he had to keep it secret, etc., etc.).

Dundee has also talked about both punches on a number of occasions in print, although in rememberance a few years after the fact.

 

[Reza Nasri]

Great thread and some great replies.

I have a video of Ali in 1975 before the thrilla in manilla where he is letting a young Larry Holmes pound his body while Ali on the ropes speaks into a camera.

Also the chivalry and magninamity of the guy was underated. I have a video where he spars a 19 year old Michael Dokes in 1977 and he lets the youngster bang his body for 3 rounds and doesnt attack in return until the last 10 seconds.

 

[Straw_Dog]

He went to the hospital with bleeding kidneys after the first Chuvalo fight. He took the damage, but like others said, had an incredible will.

 

[deadpool]

I think many forget how much of a bad ass Ali was- combination of:

speed, technique and will to win= greatness

 

[stuff]

What Reza Nasri said.

Ali let Larry Holmes constantly pound him in sparring to get conditioned to take those body shots. Some people have a misconception that the ability to absorb body shots only comes from doing thousands of crunches.

 

[GodLovesUgly]

Going into the foreman fight he was facing the most devastating puncher the HW division has ever known, a guy that had DESTROYED the only two men that ali had ever lost to.

What was ali's strategy against this monster?

"Let him hit me until he gets tired!"

That's one

i laughed at this description.