re: Teofilo Stevenson v Ali

'76? I'd bet on Ali

Fighting 3 round amateur fights compared to 15 round wars make Ali an easy winner.

It's a shame we never got to see something like this. Stevenson was really fun to watch during the Olympics.

Of course, Olympic boxing is a lot of fun in general (other than the judging).

quote:

---

Foreman, Sugar Ray, and others all managed to move up.

---

Just about every fighter that reaches Championship level where they were having to go 15 rounds for ages before being cut down to 12 rounds took years to reach that level of endurance.

And even then, some fighters really struggled to get there if the action was heated for most of the fight. I can think of several very good fighters who struggled with the championship round fights due to fitness levels.

Your mentioning George Foreman is a bad example here, especially in his early run at heavyweight. He would gas pretty bad past 5 rounds and his power saved him many times. His record would not be near as impressive if his opponents forced their fights to the final bell.

Ron Lyle, Ernie Shavers, Deontay Wilder, Jermaine Taylor are names that immediately come to mind when I think of fighters who gassed in the ring.

Just because they may go the distance, doesn't mean they do it well and are effective fighters.

Ali was 12 years older than him

Bigger what if is:

Roy Jones Jr born 1969 robbed of gold medal in 88 Olympics

vs

Ariel Hernandez born 1970 won gold in 92 & 96 Olympics