![]() He held his hands low, he pulled his head straight back exactly as every boxer is instructed not to do, but he made opponents miss by an inch or two and left them off balance and open for his counters. ![]() Ali did so many things technically wrong but had the otherworldly reflexes to get away with all of it. If his offense was unorthodox, his defense was downright absurd. He pumped out jabs and combinations with a speed approximating his pugilistic heroes, welterweight/middleweight icon Sugar Ray Robinson and the less iconic but more directly influential light heavyweight Willie Pastrano. He bounced on his toes with the grace of a smaller man, circling, shuffling, hopping, dipping, ducking, feinting, jitterbugging. At heavyweight, he was a self-styled butterfly in a land of caterpillars. Ali was a middleweight and a light heavyweight in the amateur ranks before he grew into his heavyweight frame (he didn’t crack 200 pounds until his 16 th pro fight), and that informed his distinct fighting style.
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