This is an interesting video where the narrator just goes through key points in the fight and breaks down the action. The Fight of the Century Explained

The guy's breakdown only serves to confirm what I've argued for years to anyone willing to lend a listening ear; namely, that if Ali had never been banned from boxing, and had ended up fighting Frazier probably in 1968 or 1969 at the latest, the fight would have been borderline uncompetitive.

When Ali came back after his 3 year and 7 month layoff he had lost foot speed that he would never regain. The fact that he never regained anything loosely resembling his earlier foot speed despite being only 29 when he came back is something that I've always found somewhat puzzling and that I've posted about separately. But the other hindrance to Ali in this fight, which is simply that he wasn't in nearly as good a physical shape as he had been in 1967 was to be expected. And, honestly, his handlers are partly to blame for rushing him back to a title fight in only his third fight back after a nearly 4 year absence.

Bottom line: Ali was completely gassed by round 9.. And everything that happens in the fight from there out is exactly what you would expect to get when you've got one guy who is in a number of different respects the superior boxer and athlete, but wo has very little to give against a guy who is in the best shape of his life and dialed the frick in. Ali is actualy to be commended for keeping that fight as competitive as it was.

This is my favorite fight of the trilogy. The second fight was boring and lopsided. And the third fight is two guys taking brutal punishment because they are no longer good enough to avoid taking brutal punishment. Famous as it is; I've never much enjoyed it.

The first fight is my favorite, not just because of the unparalleled atmosphere, but also because it's two better versions of the substantially diminished guys who nearly kill each other in Manila.

And it shows you, via the action in round 1 alone, what a fight would have looked like in 1968. It would have actually been more lopsided than round 1 is, but the same general idea. Frazier would have had a great deal of difficult hitting Ali, and Ali would have won easily on points. Basically, just watch the first Ali/Chuvalo fight and pretend Chuvalo is a smidgeon darker in skin tone and more active with his upper body movement.....but just not so much more active that it would have made a practical difference. So, yeah, that's would it have resembled.

In that alternate scenario, we probably don't even get a rematch. After losing that fight, Joe takes on a couple lesser fighters, and then moves on to Foreman in 70 or 71. And that fight plays out just exactly like the one that happened in real life, and as it would in real life any time they ever fought, and from there Frazier probably retires as a historical afterthought....or sticks around and beats on the Chuvalo's and Buster Mathis' of the world as long as people are willing to pay him to do so, and then retires a sa historical afterthought.