AND? Do you actually know when Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's? 1984. THAT is when Ali and everyone else knew he had Parkinson's. Who did he fight that year? It's easy to predict the outcome of fights that took place in 1980 from your seat in 2020. Probably wasn't a great idea for several thousand people to go to that Kowanicki-Helenius fight in New York the first week in March, given what we know about the number of people who came down with COVID in New York about a week later. Was it? Didn't hear anyone on the board bring that up at the time. Did you?
all hindsight, mark. the parkinsons syndrome was diagnosed not earlier than 1984. in hindsight everybody of us can see the way he was going. back then he looked slower, often tired, sluggish, slurring his syllables, going through the motions, but still had his old wit and assured everybody that he was - aside from being an old fighter - healthwise ok. the famous majo clinic had declared him fit to fight just one year before. of course, some - if not many - had their doubts. that´s why he was denied a license for the berbick fight in the united states.
I did hear stories about that plane ride back that after the wrestling match with Inoki, Ali was in bad shape worse than any boxing match he'd ever been in.
Was it 1984 that Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's, or was it 1985? I'm only going by memory here, but I seem to recall reading about it around the same time Larry Holmes fought David Bey. The Parkinson's diagnosis was pretty big news at the time.
washington post, sept. 20th 1984: "Ali Diagnosis 'Parkinsonism' Hospitalized former world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali was diagnosed today as suffering from "Parkinsonism," or minor symptoms of Parkinson's disease. ..." source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...nsonism/8548863c-49a7-4cc1-84dd-d54be4e97e32/ times daily, sept, 20th 1984: https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AciAAAAIBAJ&sjid=esgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1458,4822878
Ali said he had Parkinson`s in the presse after the Holmes, I don`t care about some diagnoses you could see he had sevdere parkinson`s in 1983 when he attended Leonard`s retirement announcement. He couldn`t punch the speedbag training for the Holmes fight it`s on the vid I pasted, you could here his speech slowing and his mannerism`s were slow, this is incredible.
in a way you are right. ali admitted that he suffered parkinsonism after the holmes fiasco. in fact 4 years after, in september of 1984. it was an official press statement (see links to american newspaper archives above), that made worldwide headlines. he didn´t before (and i read a lot about the man during the last 40 years, including the hauser, remnick and eig biographies). (if you remember differently, please attest this in revealing your source)