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Ali showed up in the early 60's with a unique style and the ability to change styles at will. In all other sports I've seen, youngsters try to emulate heroes like this. And they are often successful. So I expected Ali to influence younger boxers to fight like he did. It never happened. More than 40 years later, there hasn't been even one Ali disciple appear. I can't believe it's because nobody tried. No, it's because nobody else, in all that time, has the physical skills to do what Ali could do. Neither, can I find any evidence of anyone else being able to do it in the last 100 years. Can the same be said about ANY other fighter? Nope, Louis was a enough better than what we'd seen before that he was deemed great. But Ali took it to the next level like Louis couldn't have imagined. The fighters of that day were all similar in build and mentality. Rarely over 6' tall and around 200 lbs. with the ability to deliver heavy blows and absorb them. Louis was the best of them. But Ali brought another dimension to the table like noone had before. He could hit you as much as he wanted and you couldn't hit him at all if he didn't want you to. He toyed with all but the very best of the day. Just made complete fools of them by dropping his hands and sticking out his jaw daring them to try to hit him. And they still couldn't. Not even Frazier although he tried the hardest by charging Ali repeatedly. And he paid for it. Ali battered him unmercifully until Frazier just couldn't get off his stool for the final round. So if you have any doubts about just how great Ali was, go watch the Thrilla in Manila and the Foreman fights. Then go watch a film of Louis. Joe Louis was great for his day but Ali would have chopped him up into little pieces. As he would any other fighter over the past 100 years. And no clones have showed up in the last 40 years. The guy was simply one of a kind.
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