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Maybe this belongs in Sports/Boxing, but since I'm going with the "what if" approach, I'm gonna start here.
What if Ali had not missed those 3-4 years because of his conscientious objection to the draft/Vietnam War. I was too young to follow the sport at the time, so I don't know who (besides Joe Frazier) might've been a contender in those days. Would Ali just have racked up a series of wins over sub-par opponents to pad his overall record? Or was there a challenger that he never faced?
Whatever the views, there is no doubt that he was a giant in and out of the ring, and it is sad that he is gone.
I think he would have piled up a lot more wins, and ended his career with an even more impressive record, but he also would have taken a lot more head shots. I never saw anyone in his class who was better at not catching a punch, but still, over the course of 6 or 10 or 12 rounds the head shots do get through. I think his career might not have lasted as long as it did, and his retirement might not have been as dignified and comfortable for him as it was. I think the brain troubles would have been more severe, began earlier, and possibly finished him sooner.
I admire and respect him as much for his post-boxing career as I did for the fighting, and it would have been sad to have seen that diminished or shortened. That man enjoyed the hell out of his retirement, and I enjoyed the hell out of watching him enjoy the hell out of it. He earned the right to stay center stage for the remainder of his life, and I'm glad circumstances allowed his to do that for so much of his retirement.
Then who would have been the very public draft resisters with possible skin in the game during the Vietnam War era? Higher end college basketball stars were more likely to be too tall for enlistment while baseball and football stars were more reliant on teams and not ready to stand out like a world champion
But I'm not sure that's the totality of why we think of him as "the greatest". At least for me, I admired his character and how he stood up for what he believed in...even though it was quite different than what I believed in.
Maybe this belongs in Sports/Boxing, but since I'm going with the "what if" approach, I'm gonna start here.
What if Ali had not missed those 3-4 years because of his conscientious objection to the draft/Vietnam War. I was too young to follow the sport at the time, so I don't know who (besides Joe Frazier) might've been a contender in those days. Would Ali just have racked up a series of wins over sub-par opponents to pad his overall record? Or was there a challenger that he never faced?
Whatever the views, there is no doubt that he was a giant in and out of the ring, and it is sad that he is gone.
RIP, champ.
At the time of Ali's suspension there were five fighters of any note who Ali had yet to fight. One was Joe Frazier and Ali would have probably wound up fighting him a year earlier than he did, and fighting Frazier without the three year layoff. That seems likely to have enhanced Ali's chances of beating Frazier in their first fight.
The other four were:
Jerry Quarry
Oscar Bonavena
Jimmy Ellis
Buster Mathis
Ali beat Quarry and Bonavena in his first two comeback fights before meeting Frazier, and he beat Ellis and Mathis in his first two fights after his loss to Frazier.
So there were no strong contenders from that era who Ali did not eventually beat anyway.
But I'm not sure that's the totality of why we think of him as "the greatest". At least for me, I admired his character and how he stood up for what he believed in...even though it was quite different than what I believed in.
Then who would have been the very public draft resisters with possible skin in the game during the Vietnam War era? Higher end college basketball stars were more likely to be too tall for enlistment while baseball and football stars were more reliant on teams and not ready to stand out like a world champion
I don't have a dog in this hunt, as I think of boxing not as a sport, more like Gladiators in Ancient Rome, smashing one another to pieces for the amusement of blood thirsty cretins, but the maximum height for male draftees in 1970 was 80 inches, which equates to 6' 8", so although I accept that there were, and are, basket ball players at 6' 9" or more, some would have got the call.
During Ali's layoff he didn't spar like he did before and lost the feel of a full contact boxing match with no headgear. When he came back his legs were not the same anymore neither was his overal handspeed and reflexes.
He used to dance around for 15 rounds not taking many if any shots during the fight. When he lost some of the ability because of the layoff he had to adapt his style which made him more stationary and allowed fighters like Frazier to rough him up a lot and beat him.
Basicely IMO he would have gone unbeaten for several more years racking up the same wins against Frazier, Foreman and Norton etc. but a lot more decisively. But he would still reach the same point of losing his youthful attributes at some point and only Norton and Frazier could have beaten him, possibly only Norton because Frazier's lifespan as a fighter was short.
He would end up with 1 loss, maybe one or two more when past his prime before retiring just like his real career.
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what if: Ali hadn't missed those years...
