Not soley, but it didn't help. I believe it worsened his condition. He may have only been in a "Michael J. Fox" type of state had he retired about 6 or 7 years earlier. Sorry, if that sounds rude... not my intention.
Ali had the "****" beaten out of his head by some of the heaviest punchers of the 60's and 70's.....plus Holmes and Berbick did a job on him for good measure. Ferdie his doctor quit in the mid-seventies because he knew too. No one is speculating on the Quarry Bros. what happened to them.
No one really knows if he did or didn't Parkinson's is characterized by the decrease of dopamine in the niagarastriatal pathway and eventually the degeneration of the dopamine receptors themselves in that pathway. The pathway is located deep within the center of the brain and trauma from a sport like boxing could cause it.
Ali started taking professional punches to the head in 1960 when he turned pro, but he had been boxing since he was like 8 years old. When you add up all the punches he took during sparring sessions/training camps (yes, even with headgear on), his showing physical symptoms in 1975 or 1978 is really not that surprising. Even when Ali was young and fast, he still got hit, both in sparring and during fights. For many years the Ali spin doctors would say that boxing had nothing to do with it (heck, even Ali said that), but all the medical professionals (at least the reputable ones) all say something different.
Anthony is 100% correct. Ali has Parkinsons SYNDROME, which is different from onset Parkinsons disease and is caused, in this case, by head trauma.
I never saw any symptoms with Ali back in 1975. First I remember was just before the second Spinks fight where I could hear slurring of words and Ali refusing to talk at times with his camp telling everyone it was Alis way to show how serious he was training for that fight.
I think Ali started to have some signs of issues even after the first Frazier fight, in which he took hellacious bombs throughout. Listen to how punch drunk he sounds after the fight in interviews. I've seen some footage of Ali's hand slightly tremoring even in 1971.
Its the same thing And if boxing really caused it then we'd see more fighters with it like we do with dementia
Ali doesn't have dementia because he's not demented. His mind is as sharp as ever, according to the people around him.
Remember reading in his biography - Muhammad Ali his life and times - which I got the day I met him and had a bit of a play fight with him haha - his doctor I think suggested or said that he thought Parkinson's might be caused or made worse by certain pesticides and stuff like that - and he said Ali's childhood home in Louisville back on to some crop field which were regularly sprayed with the certain pesticide - but really I don't know enough about it to be able to comment with any assurity to be honest
But everyone is different. Not all smokers get lung cancer or heart disease; not all obese people get diabetes or heart disease. But smoking and obesity are major risk factors (causes) of those diseases. Ali's brain chemistry and biology were different than TEx Cobb's or Joe Frazier's or George Chuvalo's. People are built differently and don't always respond to certain stimuli or environmental factors the same way.