By Boxing Bob Newman
If there is one debate in boxing in which I don’t involve myself, it is arguing who would’ve won between fighters of different eras. The argument can’t ever be proven, at least not based on scientific statistics…and I’m a science guy. Prove me wrong with facts and you win the argument.
Well now, thanks to the efforts of Bob Canobbio and Lee Groves of Compubox, maybe that argument is one in which I could eventually engage. Muhammad Ali: By the Numbers takes a never before seen quantitatively analytical view at the career of “The Greatest.” It’s Modern Science meets the Golden Age of the Sweet Science.
Canobbio and Groves painstakingly bring the reader through the punch statistics of 47 of Ali’s 61 career fights- both thrown and landed by Ali, as well as by his opponents. Groves also utilizes his considerable writing skills to offer insight into each of the bouts- from previews, ringside opinions and aftermath.
More than mere counting of punches from watching old videos of Ali comprised the efforts put into compiling this book. Official commission scorecards, post-fight articles from Ring Magazine and write-ups from other sources were diligently tracked down and utilized.
Now more than ever before, can one truly contemplate the intertwined relationship between Ali’s natural decline due to aging, the fewer punches he delivered and the more he took. There is now numerical evidence to support the inverse relationship between punishment delivered and punishment received- at both ends of Ali’s career.
The 345 page Muhammad Ali: By the Numbers is a must for the boxing geek. While not every fight fan is a numbers person, fans new and old will find the information within fascinating. Vintage Ali fans may either be surprised by the statistical findings or find the info supportive of their long-held opinions on why Ali did or didn’t win a particular fight. Newer tech savvy fans, who may only be familiar with Ali fights from the tales of their fathers, grandfathers or, dare I say it…YouTube, will undoubtedly be satisfied with the newly uncovered data. No matter in which generation you find yourself on the Ali timeline, no matter whether you’re a fan or a hater, there’s something in this tome in which to sink your teeth.
Bob Canobbio co-founded Compubox in 1985 after stints at HBO and Sports Illustrated. He is now full owner and president of Compubox, which has counted punches at shows both big and small in some 40 states and 9 countries.
Lee Groves is a boxing writer, historian, punch counter and researcher at Compubox, award-winning full member of the Boxing Writers’ Association of America and elector of the International Boxing Hall of Fame.