Quote Originally Posted by No Contest
I was thinking his record would be about 61-2 my resoning is that he wins about 2 fights per year those 3 years, and isnt as haggard by the time he fights Spinks, Holmes, and Berbick. I subtracted those fights reasoning that he would retire before those.
Ali generally fought much more frequently than that. In 1966 he fought five times, and by only March of 1967, when he was banned, he had already had two bouts that year. In 1971, his first full active year in his comeback, he fought four times, and in 1972 he fought six times!

I see you are retaining Ali's loss to Frazier in 1971. Of course this is just an academic exercise, but if Ali had not been banned, he would most probably have faced Frazier in '68 or '69, who would have been a (if not the) leading contender, which would have favoured Ali much more than March 1971 following his inactivity. Conceivably they might have met two or three times by the early '70s! Who knows how Ali would have changed his style without the enforced inactivity. He may have seen off Frazier by the early 70s, remaining unbeaten and threatening Joe Louis's record number of defences well into that decade. Alternatively, he may not have adapted to a gradual erosion of skills in the same way that he did with his inactivity; he may have taken his contenders too lightly on the back of an unbeaten run, or earlier wars with Frazier might have taken their toll; he might not have had his jaw freakishly broken by Norton, but he may not have conceived of the rope-a-dope against Foreman, who would have been a mere contender, and the fight might have occurred earlier and probably not in Zaire! Just some food for thought...