Joe Rogan Analyzes Muhammad Ali vs. Cleveland Big Cat Williams

I mean, you don't play MMA, you know, it's your life. It's interesting, too, that Ali, you know, I always like to watch that fight with Jerry Corey because it was after three years off. Yeah, man. And you see his body looks different. It just looks softer. You know, if you see Ali versus like Cleveland Williams. Yeah. And then you see Ali three years later. After all that time off, he just doesn't look the same. He was never really the same. He wasn't. But you think about why he did it. Imagine having the Constitution to give away the prime of your fighting career. Do not do that. Yeah, it's very special. Because they wanted him to fight in the Vietnam War. He's like, this is a bullshit. This is bullshit. None of them ever called. He said none of them ever called me the damn word. Yeah. You know what I mean? And I'm not going over there to do that. They took three. It's prime. Yeah. You know, you got that window as a fighter, man. It's like four to six years. And he and half of it was taken. It's kind of amazing, too, that they did that. And then they gave it back to him. They let him fight again. Well, I don't know what was the circumstances. Like, how did they reinstate his boxing? I actually don't remember. I don't know either. But I remember when he fought Frazier, I was like, man, I would have loved to see this fight three years ago. Yeah, man. Because he just was a different guy by then. He was way too flat footed. It just was a different guy. Yeah. Like, well, the Joe, because Joe and Joe and Ali hated each other for real. For real. Yeah. Because he was, you know, Ali was saying horrible. Horrible shit. Well, he's trying to fuck with his head. And that's how you do it. Word. Yeah. He was the original shit talker. You think about it, it's like you you you see Connor and you're like, that's Ali. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? For sure. You know, and like Ric Flair. It's like Ali and Ric Flair. Yeah, there's a little bit of both of them there, too. Well, you remember when Henry Cooper knocked down Ali? That was like the biggest thing in the UK. I heard him bad. And then until Angela Dundee cut the gloves. Yeah. I mean, if it wasn't for that move, Ali could have lost by stoppage in that fight. Absolutely. Very easily. Absolutely. He got fucking crack. Crack fight right on the fucking button and sat down. He was on Queer Street. Oh, 100 percent. Yeah. Yeah. He had a house on Queer Street. He was picking up the mail. Here it is right here. Boom. Let's watch that again. Pause that again. Oh, I mean, that is a fucking picture perfect left hand. I mean, look at him right on the button. He is staggering back to his corner. And it happened luckily for him at the very end of the round. This is in. If that happens in Muhammad Ali back then, right. This is Cassius Clay. Correct. So this is before he fought. Was it before he fought Sonny Liston? I want to say it was. It was. Yeah. Oh, man. Who knows? They cheated him, though. Yeah, they did. They cheated him. It's a different world. Oh, we got to change gloves. They gave him a long ass time. Oh, we got to undo these laces. Cut this tape. Brilliant, though. Yeah. Well, hey, Angelo Dundee, he wasn't a newcomer. No, he was not. He knew what the fuck he was doing. He was great. Yeah. My favorite stoppage of all Ali's fights is Cleveland Big Cat Williams because he hit him with these just welterweight combinations. Oh, he's hitting. Bing, bing, bing. He did it. Bop, bop, bop, bop. Yeah. I mean, he was through it. Really? I never saw anyone throw combinations a heavyweight like that. He threw combinations like Ray Robinson. And the fluidity of them to just pull that fight up. This is it was one of my all time favorite because Williams was a scary fucking dude, too. He was a big puncher. And Ali was just lying on his feet, dancing and driving to the body. No one does that anymore. Yeah. And and Williams just kept pressing forward, pressing forward. Well, Williams was a big puncher. Yeah, he could crack. He just couldn't find Ali. And Ali was so loose in front of him. I mean, look at that. Jab to the body, hook to the head. Beautiful. He's dancing on him. Boom. Check left hook, move around. And then once once he started tuning him up, the jab to the body and then back up top is beautiful, man. Beautiful, man. Yeah. This is art. This is art. It's art because there was never a heavyweight that moved like this. People have to realize this just didn't exist, man. And rarely does exist. The only guy who moves even remotely like this today is Tyson Fury. Tyson Fury can move. He can. And he's huge. Motherfucker can dance. Yeah, he can. He can. Dances and he's six foot, what, nine or eight or some shit. I think he's huge. Yeah, he gets clipped a little too much for me. He definitely gets tagged. Yeah. He got he got tagged by Steve Cunningham from Philly and dropped. That's the cruiserweight. Yes. Which was even crazy. I'm like, Oh, his chin might not be all there. Well, you know what? Cunningham is a shorter guy. And sometimes for those really tall fighters, it's very difficult to punch down. That's how Mike was getting over because he was in the chest. And he was real. Yeah. I mean, that head movement and the peekaboo that, you know, the custom model developed. Pulled up, put the end of that fight up so I could see the combinations that led to the stoppage. See, once once he had Williams in trouble, go big screen. I mean, even then, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Yeah. Like once Williams face had been jabbed off. And Joe, the craziest thing, beautiful. The craziest thing about him is everyone historically has to sit down on their punches to get leverage on the he didn't. Yeah, he's dancing and yeah. I'm on bomb bomb bomb. And he wasn't trying to knock you out with every punch. He was just cracking you. I'm at Papa Papa. And when you're getting peppered, that's fucking rough to deal with. Yeah, rough to deal with. It's frustrating because you're in your head. You're like, if I touch this motherfucker, I'm a hurt him. But you can't touch him. And you just keep getting peppered. And then eventually your legs start wobbling. It's like trying to fight Willie Pepp. Yeah. You know, he was like he had the you know, the footwork of Willie Pepp in a heavyweight. Yeah. I'm fucking hurt. That's another guy that people forgot about. Willie Pepp was one of the rare guys that won around without throwing a punch. Yes. Yes. What the fuck? Yeah, unbelievable. And Adego. Yes. Yes, indeed. We had a lot of good ones back in the day. Not maybe not so much now, Joseph. But, you know, we had a run. We had Lamotto. We had, you know, Graziano. Well, the community got established. Yeah. The problem. People started doing well. Exactly. And then they get soft. Exactly. Exactly. The last guy we had was Arturo Gotti. That's a really rap. Yeah. It's a really rap. And, you know, yeah. Yeah, it's it's that's how it goes, though, right? The early immigrants, the ones that get shit on. You're the ones who come up strong. They're tough fighters. And then, you know, now it's Cubans and Russians. Yeah. Yeah. Because because you come from that that Russian amateur program. Like there's no fucking joke.