sometimes, Ali couldn't see either.....
Well even though this may meet with some very heavy disagreement
I don't think Mike Tyson should ever be considered as a great boxer of all time.
Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, and George Forman would've devoured him before the fifth round.
I'll give Tyson this much he was a power pouncher no doubt, but please don't be deluded to thinking he was the greatest of all time.
Float like a butterfly
Sting like a bee.
Your hands can't hit
What your eyes can't
See
ha ha....i just watched footage of the Ali vs Sonny Liston fight....man oh man!....
There was trash talking all around, and Ali's mouth was in the middle of it all! Most folks predicted Liston would easily knock Ali into the upper deck cheap seats in the first or second round. Sonny Liston pretty easily beat the great Floyd Patterson, setting up the Liston /Ali match up.....Sonny liston was a fantastic legit heavyweight champion fighter with a "lights out" punch. (kinda like "Iorn" Mike?
😛)
Ali was just about alone in his prediction that he would put Liston to sleep in the fourth round.....even Ali's corner thought he was cocky and crazy (which he was!)....
In the first few rounds, EVERYONE was amazed at how Ali danced and eluded and machine gun punched Liston, making it look effortless, and Liston, the Heavyweight champion, looked clearly frustrated and confused...Liston brought a sledgehammer to the fight, but ali brought a jack hammer, and used it with remarkable effectiveness.....
In the one round, Liston was cut pretty good below the eye, and his corner used a very effective but illegal and banned coagulating agent on Listons eye to stop the bleeding. Some how, whether intentional or accidentally, the substance got on Listons glove, and eventually got into Ali's eyes during the bout. Ali wanted to complain to the officials, and it was obvious watching footage that Ali had problems with his sight, constantly blinking and rubbing his eyes....Ali's corner told him that if he complained, the officials would stop the match, and Liston would be deemed the winner by default.
So Ali, while clearly blinded by something, was so elusive that he managed to evade and avoid a haymaker and bomb throwing Liston, until Ali's eyes cleared, and soon Ali went back to work and rapid fire punched liston until Liston was unable to answer the bell in the 7th round....
Folks, I dont know much about boxing, and I don't know who truly is the Greatest of all time, but I just watched Cassius Clay, at age 22, beat the legitimate Number one ranked hammer hitting reigning heavyweight champ......while blind.
![P[a]pi](/data/avatars/m/45/45669.jpg?1704922715){kind=avatar}
) and Muhammad Ali are of the same mind. You could make a case for him being one of the greatest athletes this country ever produced. He lost only one of his first 125 fights as a professional. He avenged every loss he ever had (sometimes multiple times). He could fight you inside or out, was a great tactician, had speed, a killer jab, and tremendous power. His one aforementioned loss was to Jake LaMotta, who he went on to beat five or six times. The last time he won by tko- the only fighter to do this to LaMotta in nearly 100 fights. He also beat Joey Maxim, Henry Armstrong, Rocky Graziano, Carmen Basillo, Gene Fullmer, Kid Gavilan, and a bunch of other notable fighters that probably nobody here knows (including myself). Robinson suffered only one loss by knockout (tko) in his career, when he didn't answer the bell in extreme heat (he was ahead on the cards). He was everything you could want in a fighter.
