Has a boxer ever been in a worse condition before a fight than Ali before he fought Holmes?

I don’t have a specific case off-hand but I’m absolutely certain the answer would be yes.

 

I still expect the answer to be a resounding yes off-hand.

 

Ernie Schaaf is said to have gone into the Carnera fight latent meningitis which weakened his brain and he was killed from blows sustained from the fight as a result.

 

Benny Lynch - 4 months before his final fight against Aurel Toma he was flyweight champion. Against Toma he weighed in at 131 1/4 and was said to be flabby and doe-eyed. He was knocked kicking for his only KO loss of his career in the 3rd round owing to the dire effects of alcoholism.

Mando Ramos - the night before his fight with Chango Carmona, Jackie McCoy was called to bail him out of the L.A. drunk tank. You don't show up for a fight against Carmona with a hangover and expect to escape. Carmona knocked him to a pulp. Cut him to pieces, broke his nose and gave him a concussion. Ramos left the ring on a stretcher that night.

 

Ali’s preflight condition has to be right up there as one of the worst - particularly relative to the opposition at hand, said context already addressed (see earlier post).

Quarry had to be in very bad shape for his last fight, it was equally criminal allowing him to take that fight.

Billy Miske had Bright’s Disease which, it seems, impacted worse at different times.

I assume his being allowed to fight at various times during his later career would’ve been questionable.

However, Miske was fighting to support his family which his boxing peers understood.

As at the time he fought Dempsey I don’t know that Miske wasn’t compromised - possibly one of his trough periods due to his mainstay illness.

Dempsey did the right thing putting Miske out asap rather than extending the beating.

I think Miske later beat Bill Brennan but I also recall that Brennan’s purse was initially withheld?? due to an interpreted lack of effort.

 

Definitely not. He had no business being in that ring that night. Holmes didn't take it easy on him either, Larry hit him with some vicious shots.
It seems in later years that Larry almost seemed apologetic for beating him up, but not the night of the fight. I like Holmes and got his autograph back in 1987, but I have to admit it was sort of nice to see Larry get his own by Mike Tyson.

 

Jackson before Jeffries, maybe. He had tuberculosis.

 

The fight should not have been sanctioned but a lot of merde has gone down over the decades along those lines in the sordid history of the sport we all love.

 

Oliver McCall was probably physically fit for the Lennox Lewis rematch — not peak or prime shape but certainly not grossly out of shape — but mentally he was in no condition to fight and he was in with a very, very dangerous man (no matter how good his chin).

Once when cleaning the dressing rooms up after a local show we put on, there was one guy who asked for his own dressing area and the only way to accommodate him was to put him a small storage closet. Found an empty whiskey bottle with his hand wraps on the floor, and seeing him in the ring that night it makes sense that he probably downed it before the fight and not after.

Dude had some substance abuse problems but I hear he’s moved far away and doing well.

 

While there was no official testing done, McNeeley seemed to have some damage before he fought Tyson

 

Paul Briggs had no business fighting Danny Green.
Not the same level of competition but probably one of the best examples of a fight that shouldn’t have been allowed to take place.

 

probably Mike Tyson but due to mental problems which can sometimes be worse than physical problems. I believe he was diagnosed with serious mental problems in 1997 which was revealed when he tried to get his license back after Holy II. It turned out that he was addicted to various stimulants and psychotropic drugs, which slowed him down and had a negative impact on his training. In fact, a serious commission should not have allowed him to fight in sports, but there was really a lot of money to be taken and Tyson was the hottest name in sports.