Rodney Bobick ~ "If I Can Beat Up Muhammad Ali, then......"

[Tuan_Jim]

Muhammad Ali seems to consume your every thought.

It's cringeworthy, watching you battle your problems on a public forum. Please get help.

[HomicideHenry]

Reminds me of a story around that same time frame, of when Ali was preparing to fight Joe Bugner for a second time, and Ali quipped to news reporters that "Sparring partners are the lowest form of life", to which Ali's main sparring partner (for that fight) Tony Doyle landed three consecutive right hooks on Ali and had the champion stunned--- and it made newspaper men think that Ali may be in serious trouble against Bugner, who just recently fought Doyle. Come fight night, wasn't the case, Ali easily decisioned Bugner.

Just because someone looks good in sparring or even in an exhibition bout doesn't mean that the other man is indeed washed up--- and anyone who knows Ali's sparring tactics will know that even in his prime years, he often laid on the ropes and let opponents beat and bang on his arms and body, so he would be used to getting hit, if and when the occasion ever did come about in a fight. Of course, in his prime Ali never really gave anyone a chance to test his chin, but he was conditioned for taking punishment even then.

The only time in his training camp, that I would go in the face of the logic I just stated, is in around 1978-1981 when Ali was getting lazier and lazier in the gym, and was becoming slower and slower and his reflexes were shockingly disappearing at a rapid rate. 1975-1977 he still had something left, which he displayed against Frazier, Wepner, Lyle, Shavers, Norton, and of course cannon fodder opponents like Dunne and Coopman. Following that time, though, the only person I can say Ali looked good at in anything was when he had that 1979 exhibition bout with Lyle Alzado, who hadn't put on a pair of boxing gloves in twenty years.

Speaking of sparring/exhibition bouts around this time.... anyone have film or pictures of Ali's exhibitions with Scott LeDoux and John L. Gardner? I know I've seen film of Ali around that time doing an exhibition with three men in one night, and one happened to be a 17-18 year old Michael Dokes, and that was an interesting match.

[gilgamesh]

Muhammad Ali seems to consume your every thought.

It's cringeworthy, watching you battle your problems on a public forum. Please get help.

He's so sick he can't even take the time to acknowledge your post because it wasn't Ali enough for him.

[Caractacus]

from what I remember,Angelo Dundee hired Rodney Bobick as a sparring partner for Ali,
when Ali was traing to fight Richard Dunn.
reportly Ali was hard on Rodney Bobick as this was rather unuasual as to they way he usually sparred
(I also think Rodney fought a lot like Duane and they were using him that way too if those two
were to fight in the future).

[Kalan]

Of course, in his prime Ali never really gave anyone a chance to test his chin.

You don't say... I guess that left hook from Sonny Banks that knocked Ali on his can didn't test his chin... Or that left hook from 185-pound Henry Cooper that floored Ali and almost knocked him out, that didn't test it... Ali was 29 when he fought Joe Frazier. His chin was tested by brutal left hooks in that one and his jaw blew up like a cantaloupe from the impact.. He was only 31 when 10-1 underdog Ken Norton shattered his jaw... If that didn't test his jaw, he still had to have it wired shut for several weeks until it healed.

Now Gennady Golovkin is a guy who has never been floored or hurt in 386 amateur and professional fights... That's a little different history than Ali.

[Caractacus]

BTW Whatever happened to the orginal article/interview with Rodney Bobick that was posted that started this thread in the first place ?

[littlepug]

Which forums was bobick on ?