October 2, 1980......

I watched this bout live at the Totowa Ice World arena in NJ, now long gone. At one point in round one or two the crowd erupted at it appeared Ali staggered Holmes with a right hand. Aside from this lone cheer all I heard was silence from the pro Ali crowd. Sad night and a sad chapter in boxing history.

 

I watched it live at Leicester Sq Odeon London, very depressing!

 

I watched it live on Closed Circuit at the Convention Center in Springfield, Illinois, with my dad. I still have my ticket stubs. They couldn't get a strong signal, so the image was just black and white. I remember everyone was excited after Leon Spinks stopped Mercado. They played commercials between fights, and Joe Frazier's Miller Lite commercial got the biggest applause of the night. For the fight itself, I recall people cheering when Ali tried to land a right hand at the end of the first. And they got excited when he started one round dancing (for only a few seconds). Otherwise, it was a pretty frustrated couple thousand people. As soon as the fight was stopped, my dad said we had to leave. I think he was nervous people were going to trash the place.

But here's Joe:

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Sad night.

 

Watched it closed-circuit at the Springfield Civic Center ... as with everyone here, the crowd got progressively quieter as the fight progressed. I thought/hoped Ali was playing possum, until that fateful ninth round when Ali was covered up on the ropes and trying to turn away from the barrage of body punches Holmes was landing; that was it. Thankfully, it ended soon after - whether it was Dundee or Herbert Muhammad, it doesn't matter, it stopped the beating from becoming possibly fatal because Ali would have kept going out.

Of all people, Sylvester Stallone put the best words to it - from Muhammad Ali Memories:

"Ali against Larry Holmes. Oh God, that was painful; like seeing your child playing on the railroad tracks with a train coming, and you can't get him out of the way. I just sat there and watched. It was like an autopsy on a man who's still alive. And I also felt for Larry Holmes, because he had a terrible job to do and he knew it. He had to go out and dismember a monument." Well said ...

 

I watched it live too.. I was 10. I didn't know much about Ali but was educated by my older friends about why he shouldn't be in the ring. Very sad day in boxing.

 

Then fought Berbick a few years latter .Ali looked like Chubby checker a terrible night for boxing and Muhammad.

 

I went a couple hours early hoping to catch my hero Roughhouse Fischer fight Michael Dokes and had great hope he might score a lucky KO and jump to the top of the heavyweight rankings. Didn't get to see it and probably didn't want to see Tom get pounded into a lump.

Then I got to see Ali get slowly dissected like Holmes was performing an autopsy on him while he was still alive. Painful and sad to watch at the same time.

Rough night at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis for 15 year old me.

 

what a history-charged place.
you do realize, that elvis presley did his "last hurrah" at the same venue just three years before on june 26th 1977?

 

I totally remember that commercial.

If you watched network TV sports like boxing, baseball and football in the late '70s, you saw a plethora of Miller Light Ads.

Miller Light must have stuck in my sub-conscious because that became my beer of choice.

 

What a sad fight Ali was magical and I kept thinking he was messing around but the beating went on and on.....the older I get I wondered what Ali's corner and the ref was thinking and poor Holmes knew he would be a villain a win the fight and lose fans situation bad deal all the way around

 

Sadly....many of the Great Champs go out on that "One last Shot". Jeffries vs JJohnson, Louis vs Marciano, Ali vs Holmes, Moore vs Clay, SRR vs JGiardello, Nino Benev. vs Monzon, Pep vs Saddler 4, Saad Muhammad vs Braxton, plus SRL and many others of the "smaller fighters".

 

I like it because it tastes great, though some wankers will try to tell you it's less filling. These tend to be the same intransigent plonkers who crack their eggs from the small end.