A look back at the Muhammad Ali-Lyle Alzado exhibition bout of 1979. Alzado's helmet throwing incident occurs after this exhibition but I've included it to illustrate his intimidating reputation.
Lyle did well... had he ever been a boxer by profession and had the 20 plus years of boxing experience Ali had, in my opinion, he would have beaten Ali. He was too tough to be phased by Ali's punches and just needed more training. The announcers were all biased toward Ali's performance. Should have been the other way around since he came out of nowhere to fight the champion of the world! Ali would have gone down if they were both boxers.
He’s a big bastard eh. This is approximately what would have happened with any tough guy from any other sport other than boxing who thought they could beat Muhammad Ali. And this is a shadow of the great Ali. He would never win another fight. Still the Greatest heavyweight ever. Bar none.
Clearly Ali was toying with him. The first 30 seconds shows you that Ali could've knocked him out in the first. Ali wasnt even throwing any punches the first couple rounds. He had Alzado in the corner for the whole fight. He couldve teed off on him, but didnt for some reason. Maybe he took it as a show than a fight, maybe he took a dive. But any one who thinks that Ali lost has no idea, he was taking it easy barely throwing punches.
Alzado lost to journyman Ron Stander in the amateurs. He believed that his weight training and the fact that he was juiced to the gills (by his own admission) would allow him to easily handle Ali. He was wrong. Ali was very very strong and of course was far more skilled.
Lyle was actually a pretty good boxer. I saw some impressive head movement in the second round. He showed up in great shape and Ali was just going through the motions for a quick payday and totally out of shape. I never bothered watching it until now and I thought Lyle gave a good account of himself. RIP both legends.
Alzado was terrible. He pushed every punch. Zero weight transfer in any of his punches. Stationary as a tree. Legs out of position to get leverage. He knew nothing about boxing at all.
By all accounts Lyle was a PHENOMENAL athlete!! However he tried performance enhancing drugs and became addicted or dependent on them. Plus he was always pushing the envelope on the drugs he took, the duration and the dosing. He had Hall of Fame talent.
Ali was very entertaining At the end Ali really showed Alzado has no business in a boxing ring. Letting the guy know there was no way he could hurt Ali even if Ali put his hands down
Thats the same routine he pulled in damn near every fight, and Alzado pulled on him all night. Clearly Alzado, who was regional Golden Gloves semi-finalist in his amateur days, did have business being in a boxing ring. Curb your religious hero worship.
That's funny Rich i pulled up this fight the other day after an Alzado video came up in my feed. Reminded me that he boxed Ali. Pretty comical now but at the time people couldn't get enough of Alzado!
You should do a video, perhaps even a series, on all the shady managers/agents etc. who have ripped off and often ruined the careers of so many fighters.
Awesome Rich!!! Never even knew about this one. I was only a few months old when it happened. Two great athletes who always gave back to their fans and communities.
Ali looked pissed off that Lyle went that hard on him. He went to talk to Ali at the end and Ali didn’t say anything back and turned his head. But even old and out of shape, Ali’s footwork and ability to keep Lyle at range was crazy.
@@TheBatugan77 He thought it was just for show. lyle got pissed and tried to hurt him as if he was worth fighting Ali at all, so Ali got mad. Lyle was extremely lucky he was fighting an old out of shape decaying Ali.
Ali regretted not being shape almost instantly, treated it as serious as death, and barely made it through. That won't stop the hero-worship addicts from gushing, without ever watching the fight, about how he performed like a benevolent and merciful god.
What the fuck are you blabblering about? Ali had parkinons by 74' and was totally unfit for any fighting by this point. Ali did go easy on him and would have knocked him down dozens of times if it had been in the 60's. Lyle tried to hurt ali a few times here and was getting pissed because of the roids and still couldn't do anything
This is original Fury-Ngannou fight. Ali was obviously old and terribly out of shape but the fact that he could not beat a guy who was not a boxer made boxing look bad. As he was still considered top Heavyweight at the time. No wonder boxing fans do not want to remember that this thing ever happened.
Ali was The Greatest, but when Fury puts on a fight against the champion from a different fighting style - some claim he was making a mockery of the sport!!! They're prize fighters, fans should respect when they can get the biggest prize. Critics will always be such.
