40 Years have passed since Larry Holmes gave Ali a compassionate, if there is such thing, beating 'Till his corner finally called it a day. Anyone remember watching this or reading about, what are your thoughts? Did any one actually give Muhammed a chance, however slim? And was this a fight that Holmes needed or could have done without?
Let's not overlook Ali's sublime performance against Berbick. Had he remained in the game, the early 80's would have looked different.
Even if he'd somehow, by a miracle, beaten mad Trevor, he'd have probably lost to the next guy he faced. Unless he carried on fighting men from the bottom of the heavyweight division, a sort of bum of the month club.
Promotion for this fight was all over TV in the summer of 1980. Ali was given a great chance by many. He'd nearly always pulled out the big ones before, and if he didn't his losses were always close (excepting Frazier 1) and he always won the rematch. His losses against Norton and Spinks were in bouts where he was under prepared. He was prepared for Holmes. Down to 217, talking like the Ali of old... Get set for another Ali miracle. 'Course we in the general public didn't know he "cheated" to lose the weight, had trouble with the speed bag, etc. We knew he got a cut lip early in training (thus the 'stache for a couple months, and basically the only "bad" news that got out, aside from his weight at the start of 1980), and we knew he beat Spinks by a wide margin in his previous fight. Yeah, there were many people who saw this result, losing badly to Holmes, coming. But it wasn't a unanimous consensus by any means.
