The bout was competitive. I think I had Berbick up by about a couple of points. I think this was a 10 rounder
I think that if Ali beat Berbick, he'd be regarded again as a top 10 contender who just beat a Berbick who had beaten John Tate and gone the distance with a prime Larry Holmes. That would put him up against a 1982 Mike Weaver who had just fought a too-close boring bout with Quick Tillis and who would go on to lose early (albeit with the ref's help) to Dokes at the end of the year. Weaver was in his prime from late 1978 to late 1980 (or early 81, but he didn't fight to prove it). After that he fought to a spirited draw against Dokes in the rematch, had a few surprising KO wins, and lost to guys he wouldn't have lost to in his prime. If Ali had enough left to beat Berbick he possibly has enough left to decision Weaver. But he didn't have enough left to beat Berbick, so the whole discussion is pretty much irrelevant.
I was there at ringside and the general concensus believe it or not was that Ali had done enough to win! That being said I'm glad the judges went against him as it would've gave him this false sense of security that he still had what it took to hang with the big boys.
I don’t know how much stock can be put into it, but Ali was taking thyroid medication and dehydrated himself, since he was struggling to get his weight down going into the Holmes fight. “Muhammad Ali said Tuesday he was taking a double dose of a thyroid drug in the weeks preceding his fight against champion Larry Holmes and the drug caused him to lose the World Boxing Council heavyweight championship match. Ali, who received a clean bill of health from doctors after two days of tests at UCLA Medical Center, told a news conference he began taking the drug Thyrolar several weeks before the Oct. 2 fight and the pills first made him 'quicker and stonger with my old great reflexes.' Ali, 38, said he then decided on his own to double the daily dosage, from the 3 grains prescribed by Dr. Charles Williams of Chicago to six grains daily. He said he later began feeling slow and weak but never considered that it was due to the extra dose of drug.” “Ali said he dropped his weight from 265 pounds to just 217 ? pounds over a 5-month span before the championship fight. 'It was 100 degrees before the fight and somewhere around 80 during it,' Ali said. 'And after 10 rounds, I hadn't sweated a single drop. There was absolutely no sweat coming out of me.' 'In my opinion, Ali suffered from heat exhaustion due to the weight loss, dehydration, the 100-degree heat and the medication,' said Williams, who has been Ali's doctor since 1973. 'When he was 225, I wanted him to stop losing and start building himself up. But he just kept losing and at one point hit 216. His whole system was off but he kept telling me he felt fine. I knew he wasn't alright and the whole entourage wanted him to lose more weight. I also gave him vitamins and salt tablets.“ https://www.upi.com/Archives/1980/1...Tuesday-he-was-taking-a-double/6780339739200/
I thought Ali performed well and could have won the decision. He could have continued on a few more fights and made a real statements in the 80's heavyweight landscape.
No he didn't, and no he wouldn't have been a force in the 80's . Parkinson's was showing its ugly head in Ali prior to the Spinks fights . He was a shell of himself in the Berbick fight. No way in the hell he should've been allowed in a boxing ring after 1980. And actually, he should've retired after Manila. But he was a Major money maker for TV, the promoters, his manager, his corner men, the N.O.I , his family, Howard Cosell, everyone around him were more concerned about what they could put in their pockets and not his physical wellbeing . Thus we have the Berbick fight.
