The thrilla, Norton 3, Shavers. These fights more than likely contributed to Ali's health problems than most later fights but what about the Rumble? How punishing in the long run do you think this fight was? Foreman smashing away, granted on gloves and arms a lot, but still? Remember, only a few years later he was losing to Spinks. Not sure how bad this fight was for Ali's health, opinions?
Doctors do not even know for sure, but I would speculate that yes, with the training for the fight, it did contribute a significant amount of damage to Ali, both at the time, and in due course. Indeed, looking at it with many years of hindsight, I came to the conclusion a decade or so ago, that The Rumble should have been his swansong. If he called it quits I think his reputation would be as or nearly as high as it was post his retirement. And his health would have been better. The Thrilla, NortonIII and regaining the title did add to the resume, but even at the time no one was excepting too much pre fight, from any of those three clashes. And these three match ups I suspect did (much) further damage to Ali's long term health.
Excellent post. When we look at ex how much Ali layed back and let Foreman fire away, and knowing how hard a punch he hard, it's surely going to do some damage. That's the thing with Ali tho, he took so much punishment over the years, but against GF, it's as if he wanted to remain standing, WHAT EVER Foreman hit him with!
Well, no one knows for sure. We do know you can get CTE from persistent thudding shots to the head. High school and college football players in the US can suffer from this. And there were studies years ago in amateur boxing that wearing headgear can contribute to brain damage, because your head weighs a little more with the headguard on, so shots to your head can cause your head to snap back more than it would normally, and more snap means your brain is hitting the inside of our skull more. So, it's possible what really caused a lot of Ali's problems was all the sparring he did in the 1970s when he was fighting four to six times a year and just letting guys pound away on the sides of his head in the gym while he was mainly just covering up on the ropes. Dundee himself said he rarely saw Ali win rounds in the gym in the 70s. That was the excuse Dundee always gave if Ali had a bad fight in the ring and Dundee was asked about his preparation. Dundee would always say he never looks good sparring. Even Tim Witherspoon, who sparred with Ali before the Holmes fight, said Ali was telling sparring partners to hit him in the head ... even at that point. (Side note: Good ol Angie Dundee sucked. LOL)
Honestly, I don't think the Rumble did much neurological damage to Ali. Foreman pounded his body and didn't land that many clean head shots. The fights afterwards and his sparring where he decided to let people hit him in the head from different angles and types of punches to build durability is what really caused him damage.
