Is it possible that Floyd Mayweather was technically a better boxer than Muhammad Ali

[CodeBreaker]

Would you agree that Mayweather was the better technical boxer than Ali?

[E-Thug]

Yes it's true. As gifted as Ali was, he made a lot of technical mistakes.

As i say, Mayweather is better but Ali is greater, much better resume

[Scipio2009]

There's no technically about it, Floyd Mayweather was a better boxer than Muhammad Ali.

[Illmatic94]

Yes Floyd is better skill for skill. Ali took alot of beatings. you can count on one hand all the flush shots landed on Floyd in 20 years.

[GhostofDempsey]

Yes, Floyd is a much better boxer than Ali. Many fans don't realize how technically flawed Ali was, and how much he relied on his reflexes against big, slow, lumbering HWs. Ali did too many things wrong, that he would not be able to get away with in lower weight classes. He leaned back from punches, moved back in a straight line, kept his hands at his sides, rarely went to the body. He could get away with it while fighting slower or smaller opponents.

[OctoberRed]

Yes, Floyd is a much better boxer than Ali. Many fans don't realize how technically flawed Ali was, and how much he relied on his reflexes against big, slow, lumbering HWs. Ali did too many things wrong, that he would not be able to get away with in lower weight classes. He leaned back from punches, moved back in a straight line, kept his hands at his sides, rarely went to the body. He could get away with it while fighting slower or smaller opponents.

But most fans wont admit that. To them nobody was every better than Ali.

[billeau2]

Confusing different concepts here...

The OP is asking about technical ability BUT there are two ways to interpret this:

a) Mayweather was better in applying conventional boxing in the ring.
b) The technical building blocks of boxing, being what they are, made Mayweather a better fighter somehow.

Certainly Mayweather was gifted and used technical approaches in an orthodox fashion when compared to Ali. Ali, much like Jones depended upon reflexes and a different approach to fighting that was individualized by comparison to a great technician like Mayweather.

But in summation I don't think one can say Mayweather was better, or worse, because of his technical skills.

[Mexican_Puppet]

There's no technically about it, Floyd Mayweather was a better boxer than Muhammad Ali.

I agree with you

[Anthony342]

The OP is asking about technical ability BUT there are two ways to interpret this:

a) Mayweather was better in applying conventional boxing in the ring.
b) The technical building blocks of boxing, being what they are, made Mayweather a better fighter somehow.

Certainly Mayweather was gifted and used technical approaches in an orthodox fashion when compared to Ali. Ali, much like Jones depended upon reflexes and a different approach to fighting that was individualized by comparison to a great technician like Mayweather.

But in summation I don't think one can say Mayweather was better, or worse, because of his technical skills.

I'd say a little better overall though, no? The only thing would be that trainers don't really teach that shoulder roll in boxing gyms. Ali seemed to so a lot more things wrong though, so I'd give the technical advantage to Mayweather.

Speaking of dropping of the hands, I remember Anderson Silva doing this a lot and this cost him when he got older and his reflexes slowed, eventually even costing him the UFC middleweight title he held for 7 years. I was reminded of this when fans in the MMA section posted some clips from a few years ago from youtube, which led me to another clip on there of the Silva-Weidman 1 fight, ending in that huge upset KO.

What is it they say in the fight game? Oh right, protect yourself at all times, keep your hands up, don't disrespect your opponent and remember to use all the skills that got you to the dance. Some fighters seem to only do one or two things later in their career and abandon others. Whitaker seemed to do less body punching later on, for instance or only occasionally. Cotto finally started throwing that left hook to the body again when he started training with Freddy Roach. Some of these guys seem to learn new skills, but that doesn't mean they should forget the old ones, you know?

[QueensburyRules]

--- Obvious TUE the better boxing skills, but he's like an amalgamation of the cowardly lion, scarecrow, and tinman of Oz lacking essentials, hence propped up by MGM and Haymon who cannot even stand in the light of the public.

Ali also heavily propped up by suits, but at least linked closer to a bygone era where fighters usually fought most contenders and took their lumps like men of yore.

In natural talent, Ali dwarfs TUE in spite of mentally being unable to harness all that horsepower. Verbally, Ali mullers TUE 7 days a week and twice on Sundays!