age is whatever you think it is. You are as old as you think you are. - Muhammad Ali
float like a butterfly, sting like a bee
Greatest.
I was asked today who would win this match. I’ve been reading around online and have come up with this as my answer:
Ali would win this fight. Hands down. If not because of skill, then because of size and strength. Skill wise though he once challenge a lesser known martial artist to a fight during a sparring session. What Ali demonstrated was that the believed advantage martial arts experts would have over a boxer, the ability to kick, wouldn’t be much of an advantage at all. Ali spent his career mastering the ability to dodge punches thrown by the hardest and fastest punchers in the world. While a kick could cause considerably more damage than a punch it is also considerably slower than a punch. That is pure human anatomy and physiology. For Ali dodging kicks was and would be easier than avoiding punches, and he was the best fighter of all time when it came to dodging a punch.
The martial artist Ali fought landed a few body shots before Ali quickly knocked him out with two punches to the head (harder shots than any martial arts expert would ever have experienced before).
If those pure skill arguments aren’t enough, then just consider size. while fast, Ali was also huge. 6’3” 236 lbs. Lee was only 5’7” 158 lbs at his highest, at one point as low as 135 lbs. Ali also had an abnormally long reach. Normally ones arm reach is considered the equivalent of his height. At 6’3” that would mean 75 inches. His reach, however, was over 80 inches. For Lee at only 5’7” to land any shots on Ali - kicks or with the hands - he would have to come inside Ali’s reach. No one ever survived going inside Ali’s reach. He was one of the fastest punchers fighting has ever seen. Stepping inside his physical reach would spell disaster for anyone. Especially someone small.
One last thing to consider is fight format. A fair fight for the two would likely be an MMA/caged format. Look to the history of MMA fights over the years to see how things generally turn out. Fighters with incredibly high martial arts skills haven’t managed to change the general outcome of MMA fighting. Watch any MMA championship fight and you usually see a match that ends with wrestling on the ground. Martial Arts are great for self defense, but in MMA they haven’t proven to be offensivly successful at stopping opponents who can brawl and wrestle.
If you put two guys on the ground at those sizes, and require a pin for the win. I’m taking the size every time.
”Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” - Muhammad Ali
