BoxRec

Tho Ali won fair and square, i woulda like to see Smokin' Joe come out for round 15 of the thrilla. I think Joe woulda KOd him, too.
Consider that Ali was so exhausted that after the ref told him he won he immediately collpased and lay on the floor. Also, Ali landed some ferocios punches and combos but couldnt put down Frazier, whose mouthpiece was knocked outa the ring and right eye was swollen shut. I think Joe woulda summoned all his strength and rallied to put Ali down. Ali woulda been so tired, i think he wouldnt be able to get up.
what do yall think?

That's a pretty bold statement considering that Frazier couldn't even see. I think it's a better thing that the 15th round never happened. I think all we would have seen is 2 minutes of holding and another minute of weak jabs. Doesn't alter the fight at all and Ali still wins.

i think joe wouldve caved to the floor in rd 15. and i like joe alot more than ali.

joe was finished, but ali wouldn never have allowed himself to give in to joe, unless he dropped dead.

Eddie Futch did what he thought was right. It's not like he wanted Joe to lose. If that were the case he could have stopped it a couple of rounds earlier. To call it a betrayal is both harsh and inaccurate.

I do agree with you about Ali pulling Joe's head down. For some reason he got away with that his whole career.

The Young fight was one of the worst performances of Ali's career....He was on the downside of a great career filled with tough fights agaist top competition Yes somtimes he engaged in questionable tactics in the ring but so did all of his rivals...George Foreman, Sonny Liston and Joe Frazier .were all rough customers who would bend the rules too..

terap wrote:"I do agree with you about Ali pulling Joe's head down. For some reason he got away with that his whole career."


Ali didn't get away with that against Jimmy Young.

Young was thoroughly prepared and negated all of Ali's fouls.

Ali was stripped down in that fight to having to box legitimately---and what did he look like once he was LIMITED to legitimate boxing?

Young gave a clinic on handling and exploiting all of Ali's flaws.

OK, OK. But if a guy had 55 fights and got away with an illegal tactic in say...52 of them, would'nt you say he got away with it his entire career.

The 15th round would have been a disaster for Frazier. He couldn't see in either eye. Had the eyes not swolen so bad, Ali would not have had such a good round 12, 13 or 14. He was behind prior to that. Frazier always was a sweller, not a bleeder. In this case it might have been better had he bled. If the swelling hadn't closed his eyes, Joe could well have knocked Ali out. Frazier still had adequate gas in the tank.

Frazier was the type of boxer who would get up and fight back so long as he was conscious. He was already exhausted and couldn't see. Round 15 would have been a disaster for him. There is even some people who say that the corner saved his life by pulling him out.