When Should Ali Have Retired..?

Yeah. As massive a fan of Muhammad as I am,Fergy,I have Ken winning the third match too.

 

Retiring after beating Coopman would've been kind of perfect to me. He gets the glory of soundly beating the man who beat both of his conquerors and regaining his titles in the process, shows that the win wasn't some kind of fluke and that he still had what it took to be a champion by defending against some good contenders, gets a great trilogy match against the man who handed him his first loss and goes out on a pretty good stoppage in a fight he had been dominating in his fiftieth victory. This way he also avoids the controversial wins over Young and Norton in their third fight, the damage that came from the Shavers fight, losing to a green Leon Spinks, and the losses to Holmes and Berbick.

 

Why is that ?!?
He hadn't been hit that much by that point.

 

I think for the glorious ending of regaining the title and beating the boogie man…retiring after his victory over Foreman would have been a great time to finish.

But on a personal level that would have deprived our local hero Richard Dunn of meeting the great man in the ring in ‘75, which was…win, lose or draw…a superb occasion for most of Yorkshire. Richard Dunn challenging the legendary Ali for the world title! I mean, that was real life Rocky right there, but erm, without the Rocky ending.

All things considered though, yes 1974 in Kinshasa would have been a great swan song for Ali.

 

Hollywood ending was the rumble in the jungle literally, ask Will Smith.

 

Honestly after the Thrilla. There was no reason to fight again after winning the rubber match. He had accomplished all he needed to accomplish at that point.

But fighting after regaining from Leon was really, truly a bad idea. He was really finished by that point.

 

after the thrilla on manilla

 

Which reporter was it in Ghosts of Manila who said in a perfect world Ali and Frazier would’ve linked arms and both walked away after that fight?

The problem with Ali … and I know there are some literalists out there who are gonna grind at me for using this analogy about a Muslim; take a chill pill, there ain’t no better way to describe/illustrate it … is that there were too many hawgs feeding at the trough for him to walk away.

 

After Zaire or Manilla. He'd suffered less damage if it was after Zaire, but Manilla was such an epic finish to the perhaps greatest rivalry in boxing history and it also said so much about both men's character, so I lean that way.

Nothing worthwhile happened after Manilla. Sure, his durability became legendary after taking those bombs from Shavers, but nothing that was worth the damage he took. And mostly he was just a sad shadow of his prime self. Up to Manilla he still had skills left that at least reminded of how he was at his best, but afterwards it was just his guile, experience and toughness - the speed and agility he had left at that point being more of a caricature of what he once had been than anything else.

 

I think they noticed something in his family tree or something, I'll have to find that source

 

Definitely should have stopped after the Holmes fight.

 

The 70's were before me, so I can only "Look" back, but as said before Foreman health wise, but your Ali, You just beat Foreman for the title, are you just going to retire and walk away?? No. Perhaps after Frazier III??? Again you had this epic fight why retire??

 

Quarry. One comeback fight to **** on the next era and retire healthy.

 

I see what you mean. There would always been one more world to conquer but as we're hypothesising here,it's got to be after the Zaire fight. As has been said - a perfect moment to ride off into a very glorious sunset.