First, I'd like to wait until I see this confirmed or a reliable source is shown. George has been nothing but a class act and has, on NUMEROUS occaisions, talked about how Ali outsmarted him and beat him fair and square. So for this to come out now seems rediculous.

Personally, I don't really consider excuses. In my view, there are so many "what ifs" and "could haves" and excuses about any fight that no one can really be certain that are true. But one concrete thing that everyone can plainly see is the result. So really I'm not putting any stock into this.

IMHO George just simply "blew his load" too quick. Ali tricked him into throwing a lot of his energy away. Maybe the atmosphere, the stress and the delay of the fight got to him mentally. Who knows.