Rest in peace, champ.

The man was a machine in the ring.

Pure 100% badass.

RIP Joe.

Oh, cool!

Heard the news after the Eagles/Bears last night. Window into a different cultural America.

RIP.

The first Ali-Frazier fight was the first fight that I ever bet on. I think I bet a quarter.

Who did you pick?

Ali.

Very sad. It's also interesting how styles can affect a match. Joe Frazier was one of the all time greats but his style could do nothing against Foreman. Yet Ali dismantled Foreman. But Joe gave Ali all he could handle and their last fight, finished them both.

There's a little bit of Frazier in Stallone's Rocky and the third Rocky movie, the first Clubber/Rocky fight, seems inspired by Frazier/Foreman.

Yeah, it was an interesting thing -- Ali was more durable than Frazier but couldn't muster the punching power Foreman did to KO Frazier.

Ali's strategy against Foreman was almost to let Foreman beat himself. If Foreman hadn't have gone bonkers after that fight, who knows if Ali could've beat him in a rematch? Hard to imagine the rope a dope working twice on the same guy.

It's a tough strategy to pull off, though -- "I'll let the biggest puncher in the world hit me until he's too tired to defend himself!"

How many other people could have pulled off that strategy?

That said, if Foreman fought a smarter fight, I think he could probably have won a rematch.

I think you have to be half-crazy to come up with that strategy!

Ali's heart and stamina were very underrated. The flashiness was what got him notoriety but it was the other two things that made him a legend.

I'm sure Rope-A-Dope is why Ali has the shakes.

He really didn't have the capability to fight that way when he came back from his "exile" from boxing. The "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" style of boxing requires the speed and reaction time of youth to pull off. He was tough enough and smart enough to adapt -- unlike Mike Tyson, who couldn't slip under jabs and close the distance with the blazing speed of his young self.