Professional boxing pundits like Bert Sugar usually rate the 1966 bout with Cleveland Williams as the virtuoso performance of Muhammad Ali’s career. It has always been a bizarre choice, since anyone acquainted with the background of the fight knows that “Big Cat” Williams was a mere shadow of his former self at the time. The big, rangy puncher who had stood in toe-to-toe with Sonny Liston and waged a knockdown-laden war with him had been nearly shot to death by the police in 1964, and consequently lost a kidney. Two years later, Williams was just a journeyman with a name.
When you consider the facts, Williams can’t be Ali’s greatest fight. By definition, the opponent for such a bout must be a true world class opponent, one who brings out the best in Ali leading to a dominant performance by “The Greatest.”
Not Ernie Terrell
The unification fight with Ernie Terrell is often spoken of as one of Ali’s best performances, but not by me. The fight revealed Ali’s arrogant, selfish cruelty as nothing else in his career did. The Louisville Lip was always a somewhat dirty fighter; you can’t watch an Ali documentary without seeing footage of him grabbing an opponent behind the head and pulling him down, he committed that particular foul so often.
But with Terrell, Ali pulled out all the stops. He went straight over to Terrell and thumbed him in the eye so badly as to leave lasting scars. It was blatant, and Ali should have been disqualified on the spot. Given Ali’s unpopularity at the time, that the fight was held in Houston, Texas, and that he would be expelled from boxing later that year, it’s nothing short of miraculous that he wasn’t.
[Also See: Muhammad Ali Record & Career Timeline]
Regardless, Ali’s vicious, dirty tactics left Terrell half-blind. That can’t be ignored when measuring Ali’s subsequent domination of Terrell, however dramatic it was to see Ali maliciously taunt Terrell with calls of “what’s my name, Uncle Tom?”
Not George Foreman
While certainly the biggest win of Ali’s career, the Rumble in the Jungle was not his greatest performance. He out-foxed Foreman, but didn’t out-box him or out-fight him. Whatever else might be said of that historic bout, it cannot be said that Ali dominated Foreman in the ring. He executed a brilliant strategy, and he survived the encounter.
Ali vs. Frazier II
The middle installment of the Ali-Frazier trilogy is the least popular, but a strong contender for Ali’s greatest fight. Think about it: Frazier cleanly beat Ali in 1971, and the two men fought each other nearly to death in 1975. Yet for the 1974 rematch, Ali handily out-boxed Smokin’ Joe. Frazier still had the stuff to beat guys like Jerry Quarry and Jimmy Ellis, never mind that the Thrilla in Manilla was still to come.
When you consider that Ali vs. Frazier II was the easiest, cleanest of Ali’s two wins over Frazier, that Frazier was still dangerous at the time, and that Frazier was Ali’s greatest rival, the choice becomes clear. It is Ali vs. Frazier II, and not Ali vs. Williams, that was the best fight of “The Greatest.”
