![]() ![]() ![]() If Joe Frazier would have been about I would say three inches taller and ten pounds more he would have really been a nightmare-but I think Joe Frazier because of the way Joe would go down, bob and weave, come out with a punch, but more than that Joe Frazier’s mental mindset. Q: Who do you think represents the toughest style match-up for Ali when he was at his very best?Ī: You know, it’s hard to really say that because Ali fought every style there was and I think as rough as it was, would have been the guy he had so much trouble with-a little guy like Joe Frazier. In their own ways they both were the two greatest, I think, heavyweight champions, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they could have still beaten a prime Larry Holmes or maybe even a George Foreman. He didn’t care whose style that he had to fight so in that way, Ali was the greatest because fought anybody, everybody, in their country, if it was a style that was bad for him he didn’t care, fight him in a rematch he’d do that, whatever. He fought guys who were terrible for him style wise, but Ali would just tell Angelo Dundee, “Let’s fight”-and he put him with a guy like Kenny Norton who was always going to be a problem because of the way Kenny kept his elbows, he blocked jabs and right hands and that’s all Ali basically had and then he fought him I think three times Joe Frazier he went to London to fight Brian London and Henry Cooper and he went I think to Canada to fight (George) Chuvalo he fought Karl Mildenberger to fight the German in Germany. So I think he was the greatest champion when it comes to the word “champion” but as far as who would have beat who, I think Ali would have beat him, and then I have a lot of respect for Ali because Ali was the only champion that I know of that fought anybody, everybody. He beat everybody of his era and held the title for so long and was a perfect gentleman when it comes down to what was required and necessary at that time. I was fortunate enough to get to know one of his best friends who came from Detroit like I did, and he said Joe’s management always had to keep him away from boxers, people who could move, because Joe had problems with movers. The movement which Joe had problems with, even in a little small light heavyweight Billy Conn and Jersey Joe Walcott, those guys Joe always had problems with. If they fought, I think Ali would have definitely, I feel in my mind, beat him because Ali was the computer printout of everything that was a problem for Joe Louis. He was a world, when you say “champion”-I thought the epitome of the word “champion” was Joe Louis. It was just that night, he became bigger than a boxer and no man is ever probably going to be in that position to do what he did. It was all over the world everybody was on pins and needles waiting on that, and the fact that Joe Louis came out and had such an unbelievable great knockout-especially in view of the fact that it was the same man who had knocked him out-and that was like trying almost to stop that whole Hitler reign. And I learned as I’ve traveled, it wasn’t just in America. ![]() He was a perfect image for what he did for the country and the fight that he had with Max Schmeling was probably the most epic event that I still have known of in my mind in, not just in sports, but in any event of the history of the world because that night was like the night that the world stood still, and this mean German machine that was like trying to take over the whole world, Hitler, that it was strange that these two men in a little small limited little space in America here, half naked with just something on their fists, were going to almost determine the fate of mankind so to say. I thought having those record defenses and it’s just hard to be a guy who over eleven years had twenty-five defenses. Joe Louis was the greatest champion because of the fact that what he did at the time. A: Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali both were the two greatest but in different ways. ![]()
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