Yes. Holmes had to work with all of Ali's best sparring partners before sparring with Ali himself. Here is a short piece with Holmes talking about meeting Ali and how He sparred with Ellis and Ali's other top sparring partners. He was an outstanding amateur prospect learning the tricks of his brutal game when Muhammad Ali first came into his life. "The first time we met was in Easton, Pa., in 1971," he recalled. "I was still an amateur, and he was already the biggest name in sports. I invited him to my hometown to put on an exhibition bout with me to raise some money for our boxing program. He came rolling in town in that big bus of his, and he invited me to come along. We road all over town, and I felt like I was on Cloud Nine I respected and worshiped him. I'd sit in that dressing room and listen to him talk like God was preaching to me." When Holmes later became Ali's sparring partner in preparation for Ali's historic "Rumble in the Jungle" with George Foreman in Zaire, the relationship had changed dramatically. "Ali would introduce me to all the press as 'the future heavyweight champ.' But the other guys in his entourage treated me like bleep. I was just another piece of beef to them. Ali would first make me work against his best sparring partners, tough guys like Roy Williams and the ex-champ Jimmy Ellis. If I survived against them, then he'd go after me." https://imgur.com/WXmitrG https://imgur.com/9xTPq2L
