What Ali fights did you actually watch?

[actjac]

Given the fact that average age of boxing forum posters is about 25-26 a great percentage here were not even born but if you were which Ali fight(s) did you watch live on TV?

[Tony1244]

The fights I watched while they happened are:

Ali vs Wepner-MSG where I saw Ali on the big screen and Norton vs Quarry LIVE

Ali vs Lyle-On regular TV at home as a kid.

Ali vs Frazier 3- White Plains NY closed circuit theater

Ali vs Jean Pierre Coopman-On regular TV at my aunt's apartment in Florida.

Ali vs Young- On regular TV at home as a kid.

Ali vs Dunn- On regular TV at home as a kid.

Ali vs Ken Norton 3- On closed circuit, Palm Beach Auditorium, West Palm Beach- Rednecks there not happy with decision.

Ali vs Evangelista- On regular TV at home

Ali vs Shavers- On regular TV at home.

Ali vs Holmes- Fox theater Atlanta, GA closed circuit

[MachoTime]

Given the fact that average age of boxing forum posters is about 25-26 a great percentage here were not even born but if you were which Ali fight(s) did you watch live on TV?

I watched a plenty Ali fights on TV. Starting with the Quarry comeback fight. I know I didn't see the first Frazier fight "Live" or the Foreman fight "Live" because they were live fights on closed circuit/satellite T.V.

I'm pretty certain the Spinks fights were live events. But I'm not 100 percent certain, just almost certain. If a Ali fight fight was on T.V back in the day 70's I'm pretty certain I had seen it live or taped...The Norton fights etc....

I recall the Holmes, Berbick fights being PPV. I didn't see those until way later.

My first taste of Boxing was watching Joe Frazier in 69 I believe. I was like 9 or 10 years old.

[Tony1244]

I remember being glued to the radio for round by round reports on Ali vs:


Frazier 2
Foreman
Bugner 2

[SteveO]

Counting TV and visits to closed circuit cinema showings (great days), I watched all of them since the first Ali-Liston fight.
Some of the earlier Ali fights (Archie Moore etc.) I've watched on VHS or DVD.
Exception: I've never seen the Ali-Berbick contest, but I don't think I've missed much.

[DaveyMac]

If you are 50 or over you most likely watched all of them during your lifetime. It didn't matter who he was fighting when I was kid America stopped to watch.
You have to remember there were really only the three networks then. So we had much fewer choices and so EVERYONE watched certain things. They just stood out. Ali fights were one of them. They were big time stuff!

[ldlamb]

I was alive but too young to watch the important fights like Foreman or Frazier 3.... Or even Spinks fight.

Unfortunately, the only fight I watched at or near the time it really happened was Holmes.

[Tony1244]

Oh yeah I also saw the Ali-Spinks fights on TV as well.

The rematch I watched at a party but I don't remember where. It must have been a good party.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

I have his career set on DVD and watched everything live since Lyle that was on TV. I did not go cc for the Holmes fight.

[Tony1244]

I have his career set on DVD and watched everything live since Lyle that was on TV. I did not go cc for the Holmes fight.

Good decision. I watched Holmes-Ali with my high school buddy when we were in college. A vain attempt at reliving the past all the way around.

[MachoTime]

I have his career set on DVD and watched everything live since Lyle that was on TV. I did not go cc for the Holmes fight.

I have a career set on VHS. It's a boxed set I have stored away in storage somewhere. Maybe when I get around to it I'll get the DVD set. I don't recall if the career set I have had the Berbick fight on it cause I purchased that one. The Berbick fight one on VHS has the undercard on it. Im pretty certain Hearns was on the undercard.

[Tomasino]

I'm 37, I've watched his career DVDs and vhs all my young life. At one time I must have seen almost all that's been filmed of him. I dont remember it all now.

[handsofstone]

Im 31 so he was retired before i was born but the ones ive seen off the top off my head are......

Frazier 1,2 and 3
Foreman
Liston 1 and 2
Norton 1,2 and 3
Cooper 1 and 2
Williams

And ive seen loads of highlights of his other fights,i counted the other day how many DVDs of his i have and its about 30 albeit most docus

[gilgamesh]

vs Liston 1 and 2
vs Norton 1 and 3
vs Frazier 1 and 3
vs Foreman
vs Oscar Bonavena
vs Jerry Quarry 1 and 2
vs Ron Lyle
vs Larry Holmes
vs Cleveland Williams

I've seen bits and pieces of other fights of his, but I didn't watch the whole fights

[Tony1244]

vs Liston 1 and 2
vs Norton 1 and 3
vs Frazier 1 and 3
vs Foreman
vs Oscar Bonavena
vs Jerry Quarry 1 and 2
vs Ron Lyle
vs Larry Holmes
vs Cleveland Williams

I've seen bits and pieces of other fights of his, but I didn't watch the whole fights

Ali-Norton 2 was a relative Slugfest of the 3.

[gilgamesh]

vs Liston 1 and 2
vs Norton 1 and 3
vs Frazier 1 and 3
vs Foreman
vs Oscar Bonavena
vs Jerry Quarry 1 and 2
vs Ron Lyle
vs Larry Holmes
vs Cleveland Williams

I've seen bits and pieces of other fights of his, but I didn't watch the whole fights

Ali-Norton 2 was a relative Slugfest of the 3.

I've always meant to watch it. Maybe sometime this week I'll seek it out. I'd like to watch the Earnie Shavers fight too.

[Kalan]

I watched all his fights from the time he fought Doug Jones.. which was a very competitive fight... The opponents who performed the best were Jones.. Chuvalo.. Cooper.. Frazier.. Norton.. Young.. Lyle.. Spinks.. Holmes.. and Berbick ... But Holmes was the only opponent who was a masterboxer. Ali couldn't hit him with a decent punch.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

vs Liston 1 and 2
vs Norton 1 and 3
vs Frazier 1 and 3
vs Foreman
vs Oscar Bonavena
vs Jerry Quarry 1 and 2
vs Ron Lyle
vs Larry Holmes
vs Cleveland Williams

I've seen bits and pieces of other fights of his, but I didn't watch the whole fights

Ali-Norton 2 was a relative Slugfest of the 3.

I've always meant to watch it. Maybe sometime this week I'll seek it out. I'd like to watch the Earnie Shavers fight too.

It's the closest Ali comes to winning.

[gilgamesh]

Ali-Norton 2 was a relative Slugfest of the 3.

I've always meant to watch it. Maybe sometime this week I'll seek it out. I'd like to watch the Earnie Shavers fight too.

It's the closest Ali comes to winning.

Yeah I thought Norton won the 3rd fight. Pretty clearly IMO.

[sweetviolenturge]

The fights I watched while they happened are:

Ali vs Wepner-MSG where I saw Ali on the big screen and Norton vs Quarry LIVE

Ali vs Lyle-On regular TV at home as a kid.

Ali vs Frazier 3- White Plains NY closed circuit theater

Ali vs Jean Pierre Coopman-On regular TV at my aunt's apartment in Florida.

Ali vs Young- On regular TV at home as a kid.

Ali vs Dunn- On regular TV at home as a kid.

Ali vs Ken Norton 3- On closed circuit, Palm Beach Auditorium, West Palm Beach- Rednecks there not happy with decision.

Ali vs Evangelista- On regular TV at home

Ali vs Shavers- On regular TV at home.

Ali vs Holmes- Fox theater Atlanta, GA closed circuit

Cool Tony. It's not often that I come across a memory like my own.
But, now, I'm always going to wonder about that mysterious party on September 15, 1978. The wheres, the whos, the whys... LOL.
Are you SURE that you actually saw the fight that night?

- Jim

[sweetviolenturge]

My personal Ali history is as follows:

Ali - Lyle - Mine was not a boxing household, unfortunately. My father wasn't much of a sports fan, rather he was a sportsman, outside, hunting, fishing, trapping etc..
Anyhow, when I was 13 I went over to a friends house on a Friday night because his mom was going to take us to the movies.
While we were waiting for it to be time to go though, we hung out in the living room where my friend's father had some of his buddies over to watch that night's Ali title defense vs Ron Lyle. And, although I'd never watched boxing before, I got caught up in the pre-fight interviews & Ali's personality. So much so that I was really disappointed when it came time to leave for the movie, because the fight was just about to start.
I have no recollection of what film we went to see, probably because all the while that I was watching it, I was wondering what was happening in the fight.
Oddly enough, though I know that Victor Galindez fought the televised prelim vs Ray Elson that night, I don't remember watching it, so I can't count it as the first fight I ever saw. That would come almost a full year later with...

Ali - Coopman - Don't ask me why it took a year for me to finally watch a fight, but when I did it was on this night when Ali took on the "Lion of Flanders". I watched it at home.
Again, there must have been a televised prelim, but I don't remember it at all. So, Ali's KO5 over Coopman was my first ever fight when I was 14. And, even though I knew nothing about the sport, I knew that Coopman didn't belong in there with The Champ.

Ali - Young - Watched this one at home & was, like many, outraged by the decision.
Saw my first Ken Norton fight on the undercard & pretty much instantly became a fan. Though it must have been because of his interviews cause his one-sided battering of the hapless Ron Stander for a KO5 was rather uneventful.

Ali - Dunn - Watched Ali toy with another over-matched foe on TV at home.
I remember thinking that Dunn would be much tougher than he was for some reason. Maybe I was impressed with his EBU title, I can't recall. LOL.

Ali - Inoki - Man, I wanted to see this one so bad!
Being as young as naive as I was, I had no clue that the bout would most likely be a "work". As a big fan of the Bruce Lee/Kung Fu craze that was still pretty popular at the time & a budding martial artist myself, I was convinced that this was going to be the Fight of the Century. Unfortunately, my parents wouldn't spare the money that it would take to buy a ticket & drive me the 20 miles to Buffalo where it was telecast at the old Aud.
So, I had to wait two weeks for the debacle to be rebroadcast so I could watch it at home.

Ali - Norton III - If I'd wanted to see Ali-Inoki badly, then I wanted to see the Ali - Norton rubbermatch probably three times as much & then some.
Since I'd begun to watch boxing earlier that year, Ken Norton had become my favorite fighter. After seeing him belt out Stander, I watched his KO10 tune up over Larry Middleton & seen him in MANDINGO at the drive in. So, I HAD to find a way to see his third fight with Ali.
I came a lot closer to convincing my parents to let me go see it on CCTV at the Aud, but plans fell through at the last moment. So, I didn't get to see it until I watched it's rebroadcast a week later at home.
And, to this very day, after multiple viewings, I'm still positive that Norton beat Ali that night.

Ali - Evangelista - Watched this non-descript card on TV at home.

Ali - Shavers - Watched this close call by Ali ar home.

Ali - Spinks I - Watched this shocker at home.

Ali - Spinks II - Home again.

Ali - Holmes - FINALLY got to watch an Ali fight on CCTV at the Buffalo Convention Center.

Ali - Berbick - This travesty wasn't even broadcast at any outlets in Buffalo. I had to watch it at home a week later.

[Tony1244]

The fights I watched while they happened are:

Ali vs Wepner-MSG where I saw Ali on the big screen and Norton vs Quarry LIVE

Ali vs Lyle-On regular TV at home as a kid.

Ali vs Frazier 3- White Plains NY closed circuit theater

Ali vs Jean Pierre Coopman-On regular TV at my aunt's apartment in Florida.

Ali vs Young- On regular TV at home as a kid.

Ali vs Dunn- On regular TV at home as a kid.

Ali vs Ken Norton 3- On closed circuit, Palm Beach Auditorium, West Palm Beach- Rednecks there not happy with decision.

Ali vs Evangelista- On regular TV at home

Ali vs Shavers- On regular TV at home.

Ali vs Holmes- Fox theater Atlanta, GA closed circuit

Cool Tony. It's not often that I come across a memory like my own.
But, now, I'm always going to wonder about that mysterious party on September 15, 1978. The wheres, the whos, the whys... LOL.
Are you SURE that you actually saw the fight that night?

- Jim

I think I did. Leon couldn't get it going and either could I. As Dusty Rhodes said to Steve Keirn, "Those were the daze baby."

[badkatt]

i only watched ali v holmes on abc i was 8 yrs old

[Perseus]

The only one I'm sure I watched live was the Spinks rematch, I was 10 years old at the time.
The rest of his fights I just don't remember if I saw them live or on a replay.
I think I remember one or two exhibitions that were live broadcasts?

[King Carlos]

I haven't watched most of today's boxers fights on live TV. Don't think it matters the tiniest bit.