"Drama in the Bahama" - a complete failure

Yeah you should post that alternate dimension fight because on Earth Prime, that was not the fight we saw.

 

Ali could have owned various versions of the heavyweight strap, intermittently, until the emergence of Lewis.

 

Ali could have owned a wheelchair and a polished wooden box as well.

 

Yeah, it did. It wasn't billed as a Nation of Islam PROMOTION, but they promoted it. Their members ran it. It was chaos. They kept the money. Fighters were stiffed. Don King went there because he had the promotional rights to Berbick, and members of the Nation beat King senseless. Shavers had to lock himself in a room with a guy with the cash collected to get money he was owed. It was a cluster ****. They didn't even have a ring bell. Every boxer on the card shared the same pair of gloves. They just kept pulling the gloves off the boxers after one fight was completed and putting them on the next two before they got in the ring. Hell, they didn't even have the keys to open the gates at the ballpark when they got there.

The promoter's "connections" were the Nation telling him his name was going to be used as the promoter. He wasn't in control of much.

It wasn't a professional show by any measure.

 

Whatever happened to James Cornelius? Did he receive a medal for the beating he administered to Don King?

 

These threads fill me with sadness. I reckon I should take solace in the fact he was doing what he wanted and showed great courage, if not great judgment.

 

Ali should've retired after The Thriller In Manilla.

He would have no real controversial decisions in reality because the 2nd Norton fight was a close but clear win for Ali.

I feel like every fight after the trilogy vs Frazier actually hurt his legacy and just made his health progressively worse.

 

Well, he'd been arrested under that name nearly every year in the 10 years leading up to the fight. His bio distributed to the press didn't match his arrest record. And he disappeared after the fight. So, apparently, he served his purpose.

I imagine King got off easy compared to what happened to James.

 

But in the end becoming a 3x lineal champ boosted that legacy.

 

What would be "wonderful"?
Let's see how they beat the sick ATG HW No.1 in decline?
I'm just going to lose and maybe die in the ring.

 

I often wonder the mileage the Apartheid gang would've gotten if Muhammad Ali hadn't retired in 1979 and instead defended against his WBA #1 contender Kallie Knoetze, and Knoetze won the title from Ali.

Gerrie Coetzee wasn't pro-Apartheid, but Kallie Knoetze was. Knoetze was a policeman and he shot a black student protestor once when students were protesting against enforcing the teaching of the white, Dutch Afrikaans language. As the kid was bleeding out, he asked for water. And Knoetze told him to drink his own blood. The kid lived, but his leg was amputated. The story was widely reported as Knoetze was a fast-rising sports star in the country at the time. Knoetze was even charged with intimidating fellow officers/witnesses when a student brought a case against the fighter.

It was one reason why Knoetze was protested by Jesse Jackson when Cayton and Jacobs tried to promote him in the US on CBS in the late 70s.

But I don't know if the Ali who fought Lyle Alzado in '79, granted it was an exhibition, could've defeated the Knoetze who demolished Bobick.

Knoetze wasn't a great fighter by any means. But neither was Ali, at that point.

 

A nice story about apartheid.
I mostly commented on Ali's fights against Dokes, Thomas, Coetzee, Holmes rematch in 1982 and beyond. Since the 'Drama' happened in December 1981.

 

Knoetze was kind of limited but he had an unusual overhand / uppercut combination that he would spam over and over until he landed. Whatever else his faults he possessed crushing power and Ali's defence was gone by then. A really bad matchup for shot Ali. Prime Ali would have jabbed the bejeezus out of Knoetze whose feet were kind of heavy.

 

Seamus sometimes uses irony as a weapon. I'm hoping that he is doing so at this time.

 

Late Stage Ali makes me think of the scene in Creed where Creed tells Rocky his dad died doing what he loved and Rocky says I'm sure he rather be here with you. I know Ali never regretted his boxing career but I know he regretted his treatment of Joe and I suspect he deeply regretted coming out of retirement to to fight Holmes and Berbick.