Did Holmes take it Easy on Ali?

He did take it easy. Whether this made things better for Ali is up for debate lol

 

atsch Lets get real he was throwing bombs at Ali and Ali was too stubborn to go down. Larry Holmes held to much against Ali to "take it easy"

 

It's been a while since I've seen the fight, but I seem to remember Holmes not unloading when he could have, signaling the ref to stop it.

Did he "go easy"? Not too easy.

 

There are many who say that he did take it easy on Ali, but at times in that fight, it sure as hell didn't look to me like he was doing so.. In the first few rounds he was moving at full speed and stabbing his former mentor with jabs and crosses that were making me flinch when looking at the film.. At one point he had him up against the ropes, pounding on Ali while Rich Giachetti was shouting " dig in !! "... Perhaps in the later rounds as Muhammad was really looking hurt, Holmes might have backed off a bit, but by this point, the damage was already done.

 

Holmes may have held back on occasions,but he was going all out quite frequently too. He made a very fast start. Even an Ali in the early throes of Parkinsons Disease could take a good punch. In this fight it'd been better if he could n't !!!

 

I think he was overly cautious at times, but he certainly didn't hold back on that shot which doubled Ali over. The fact is that Muhammad could stand up to a helluva punch even in that situation. Berbick later did try teeing off on Ali a few times, but never came close to producing a halt.

Going in, Muhammad's weight caused a tremendous stir, and Dundee claimed he was in better shape than he was for the rematch with Leon Spinks. Cosell asked him if he was might be weakened at 217 (his lightest weight since Foreman), and Ali replied that he had taken the weight off over an extended period of time. (50 pounds in six months.) Based upon Muhammad's later performance against Berbick, I'm convinced he would have lasted the limit with Holmes if he had continued taking his Thyrolar only as prescribed, and even may have won a few rounds in the process. Everybody was saying beforehand that Ali's weight was the key to the fight. Larry probably felt compelled to begin with caution, after Muhammad's weigh-in surprise.

Since typing those first two paragraphs, I reviewed Holmes-Ali from start to finish. If Larry held back for Ali's sake, it was only in the final round when Muhammad was not punching back at all. (He actually did dance away after being doubled over in round nine, attempted return fire with a dozen admittedly weak punches, and this final effort left him completely spent for round ten.)

When Holmes doubled him over, he went for the kill, firing away with a seven punch fusillade, followed by a left-right before Ali shoved him off and danced away. (In round ten, Ali did no dancing at all.) Muhammad actually recovered pretty rapidly. (It was a far cry from the final round of Ali-Lyle, where Muhammad unloaded over 45 unanswered punches before Ferd Hernandez stopped it over a foundering Lyle's protests with nearly two minutes to go.)

At the conclusion of round nine, they touched gloves. This gesture appears to have been the signal for Larry to ease up. When Muhammad's chin appeared open to the right in round ten, Holmes did not take the shot. Ali only attempted one left and one right in this round. He was unquestionably done. If we could compartmentalize this match as a self contained event, the argument could be made that referee Greene made the right non call in not stopping it during round nine (as Ali shoved Holmes off and danced away after only nine punches), and that Dundee was absolutely correct in calling a halt after ten. (During that final round, the referee could have also disqualified Ali for not trying. Whether or not he still had the ability to make an effort, the fact is that he no longer even made the pretense of trying, or preparing to try.)

Cosell's call of this one wasn't bad as I saw it, although of course Howard was broadcasting it within the context of Ali's entire career, not viewing within the confines of that one event, as referee Greene appeared to be doing. (Cosell made repeated note of the deterioration in Muhammad's timing and reflexes during the rematch with Spinks in New Orleans. Taking into account that earlier observation, I thought he was remarkably restrained in not reiterating that extensively during Holmes-Ali, and adopting an early wait and see attitude.)

 

He fought like Larry Holmes. It wasn't his style to go all out on the offensive, although he probably could have afforded to do so because nothing was coming back from Ali.

 

Ive heard this for years from guys who havent even seen the fight and from my memory Holmes did not take it easy on Ali the way Holmes puts it. Larry has at times painted a picture of himself being the ultimate humanitarian which is not the way i remember it. Those early rounds Holmes was really going for it as is his right, afterall it is a prizefight. In the 10th he may not have went 'all out' on Ali but thats a lot different to claiming that he 'took it easy' on him

 

No, he beat the sh*t out of him.

 

at times during the fight i thought he did, but at other times no not really

 

Yeah, but he sorta "killed him with kindness" if you know what I mean.

 

well he certainly didn't go all out. I think he coul have hurt ali more severely then he did. but when I saw him catch him with a vicous right uppercut, and he was blasting Ali for a while and Ali was in his defensive shell.. so I'm not sure. maybe he's just saying this to make him look like a better champ.

 

A few years ago I was talking to Larry about that fight. He said first of all he didn't want the fight because if he wins no one cares Ali is too old. If he loses he is a **** fighter and never should have been champ. He also said he figured he could have beaten Ali back in the mid seventies when Larry was getting the better of him in sparring sessions.

Anyway, during the press conferences Ali does his thing saying that Holmes is no more than a part time sparring partner and not even that great at that. The usual Ali talk. Holmes says to himself wow, looks like Ali is taking me seriously from the look of his weight and because he must have shown Angelo Dundee something to get him to work the corner.

Fight night. Ali comes out looking in great shape. Holmes thinks to himself that he better not underestimate this guy. He was the greatest heavyweight ever. He goes right out to take the play from Ali buy using his jab. A few rounds go by and Larry says that Ali isn't throwing too many punches so he thinks it might be to get him to punch himself out ala Foreman. In the clinches Larry said Ali was weak. Larry said that many opponents would be surprised about how strong Ali was on the inside, but tonight he was easily moved. More rounds go by. Larry says that during one of the rounds he says to Ali, Champ why we doin this? Quit this and lets get out of here. Ali, who Larry says was never a foul mouthed man begins to say **** you. Begins saying all kinds of foul mouthed things to him. Larry was shocked and so too was the ref.

Between rounds Larry is telling the ref to watch Ali, he won't quit and I don't want to hurt him. Ali keeps baiting Holmes with the cussing and a couple of times Larry says he teed off on him to get him to shut up but he wouldn't. Larry said he looked over and said to Angelo something but Ali's corner told him to **** off.

Finally Angelo DID decide that Ali was taking too many hard shots and stops the fight. Larry visits Ali in the hotel later on. Ali is laying there on the bed relaxing and Larry asks him if he hurt Ali, he didn't want to, to which Ali replies "then why did you" with a smile. Larry said he took a taxi home and sat in the back seat crying all the way home.

I think that Larry was taking Ali seriously and started out as if Ali could be in old form. I also believe that Holmes thought that Ali could be saving himself for later and tried to take some out of him to the body. Also, if Ali was cussing at him I am sure that made Larry pissed, so at times I think Larry was giving his best but at other times I think he passed on some opportunities. He alerted the ref and commented to Ali's corner also but to no avail. So I don't know what he should have done. Not tried, quit, try to get Ali out of there...what? Tough situation. From the way he described it, it sounds like he did what he could without compromising himself or the match.

 

Ali did'nt look in great shape, all of his muscle tone had gone. He was on medication leading up to the fight, and he lied to his trainners sayings "They where just vitamin pills"