Buzzbox, your assessment skills are worse than miserable... Armstrong was beaten many times because he led with his face... Nobody ever came close to beating Valero.. Nobody lasted the distance with him in 27 professional fights, including 8 World Championship fights in 2 divisions.. Valero easily dominated and stopped 25-1 Tony DeMarco, after DeMarco slashed a savage 3-inch cut on his brow with an elbow. A cut that had Valero bleeding like a stuck pig.. Armstrong's record after 27 fights against nobodies was pretty poor because he was wide open.. and he was matched with scores of patsies.. When he fought somebody like Ray Robinson, Beau Jack, or guys of that quality, he got pummeled ... hence 21 losses.BoxBuzz wrote:Without going into a lot of details here, I'm going to call BS on your assessment skills.
Your "judgment" on things like Valero being one of the greats, Wilt being able to easily defeat Ali, and in your writings you often give serious credence to "swan song" fights, such as Ali-Holmes, Tyson-Holmes, McBride-Tyson....(just to name a few) as helpful in developing a benchmark for judgement of fighters careers, pretty much puts you out of the game in "assessing" if this fight ever had legs.
This proposed fight was just to stir up some drama, and give some writers something to talk about....particularly in Wilt's pursuit of a fatter contract.
However for the record, your take is the following.....Great Big Famous Basketball player humiliates Undisputed Boxing Champion, by chasing him down, and having him cower in fear over the idea of signing to fight him.
Most peoples take would be the following....Big Smart Basketball player, AND Boxing champion conspire together to grab some headlines, and stir interest in both of their careers toward making more money in their chosen professions. No such fight was ever seriously entertained, and IF such a fight was ever going to happen...Wilt would have HAD to get some skin in the game. And sign a contract that was rather tilted toward the champions wishes/wants/desires....because he was the champion, and also the most famous person on the planet. Wilt never really wanted the fight, like you say, he was a pragmatist, and milked it to up his NBA contract numbers. He also upped his brand by being in the same room as Muhammad on a few occasions.
And seriously, you'd have to pay Ali a lot in that case, because when he wins, he gets laughed at, and if he loses he gets laughed at. Sort of a win/win for Wilt only.
It would go down as a "brand destroying moment" in the mold of "Foreman vs The Bums"
There may be some other scenarios one might be able to imagineer, but the one YOU have signed on to is just a bridge to far to have credibility.
As far as swan song fights go.. Tyson-Douglas wasn't swan song.. and Ali-Norton wasn't swan song.. Fights like Tyson-McBride are made because when your abilities decline you fight super weak opposition to get easy wins.. The Tyson folks offered McBride the fight.. McBride's wasn't looking for Tyson
You specialize on making up scenarios that never exist anywhere except in your disjointed mind... The idea of Wilt and Ali conspiring to grab headlines is a non-starter. Wilt and Ali were natural rivals and didn't like each other. Both made extremely uncomplimentary statements about the other in their books, Wilt ripping Ali for an amazing lack of intelligence in his book, and Ali calling Wilt an "Uncle Tom" in his book...
Chamberlain had more than one career.. He was an actor, commercial pitchman, film producer, businessman, and a member of the Volleyball Hall of Fame, because he was also outstanding in that sport.. But after about a thousand people mentioned the idea of him being an unbeatable boxer.. Wilt began to explore the idea.. After talking to a number of Boxing professionals who said he was a natural and couldn't miss, he told the media he would love to fight Muhammad Ali and win the Heavyweight Championship of the World. He also said, "As immodest as this sounds, with enough training and boxing practice, I don't think anyone could beat me. Boxing appeals to me because it's an individual sport. I get tired of having 3 to 5 guys converge on me when I'm on the Basketball court. I've determined the best course for me is going straight for Muhammad Ali and knock him out. That's what I intend to do."
The strategy worked. The press went straight to Ali and wanted his comments on Chamberlain challenging him. Ali said he would welcome the fight and that's when he made up the "timber" line.. Ali was prone to making exaggerated statements. He also said he would put Liston into orbit with a punch, and as he passed in front of the moon we'd see "The eclipse of the Sonny" ... Everything went better than Chamberlain ever hoped so far as publicity and public interest -- until it actually came down to Ali signing the negotiated contract to fight him.. Ali simply wouldn't sign because he didn't want to get killed.. Cus D'Amato warned Chamberlain, "To get any top guy to fight you will be very hard. You need to low key it." It didn't work.. Ali was scared to death.
