Do you think Ali believed he could beat Holmes in 1980?

Muhammad Ali may or may not have thought he could win over Larry Holmes. I really do not know one way or the other.

Of course he took the fight for the money.

I do believe Muhammad thought he would do better against Larry than he did.

 

Hell no.

 

To be contrarian i think he did which probably shows how much denial he was in. He probably didn't even realize the drugs made him even lesser than he already would have been.

 

I don't think he would have gone into any fight if he thought he could not win it.He said as soon as the fight started he knew he was in trouble,but he didn't quit,he did his best, as woeful as it was.

 

No he knew he could not win and so did his corner. Larry could have easily finished that fight much earlier.

 

The first of Don King's great sins.

 

No I don't think he did. Wonder if those around him thought he could actually beat Holmes!

 

Great question.

I’m not sure if Ali necessarily saw himself as a lock to win by that stage of his career.

Part of Ali’s psychological process was to always talk himself up - which was as much a positive projection to the public as it was to build/reaffirm his own confidence in himself.

He didn’t cut the weight properly so either he had to understand the illusory nature of his appearance or he was in complete denial of that obviously fatal short cut also.

Ali said he felt like he had nothing in the tank after the first round - I would think there had to have been pre fight hints during Ali’s prep that told him he was a far cry from his old self - hard to be believe that it was an epiphany that only came to him during or at the end of round 1.

Seriously though, it’s impossible to say concretely one way or the other - at the least I might say Ali likely didn’t have the same level of materially based self belief he had for the Liston and Foreman fights.

Even at his best, in supplement to his proven abilities, Ali always held a strong faith in intangibles and higher powers being in play - by the time he fought Holmes his confidence was probably anchored far more in those intangibles than at any other time in his career.

 

Did he think he would be able to beat Liston? Or Foreman? Ali's stubbornness that made him the HW GOAT also made it a horrible career-ending. Money played a role, but I do believe Ali thought he had a chance to be a 4x HW champ.

 

It is a great question, I find myself pondering it. Hard to really say whether he believed or not, I think you could strongly speculate both directions.

 

Think of all the **** that they had him hyped up on, alongside not having anybody to advise him that he might be too far gone for once. I have no doubt in my mind that Ali thought he was gonna win.

 

No he didn't, but I think at 38 he thought he could least 'play it by ear' and he never thought Larry could really hurt him. Denial at its best, but he alse knew he was weak days before

 

Re>nothing in the tank after the first round … I will again mention something I brought up in another thread today, Ali had been dosed prior to that fight with thyroid medication that he didn’t need by a quack Nation of Islam doctor. That’s the reason he came in so light, but it’s also the reason he could barely hold his arms up and there was a legitimate danger that he could have keeled over dead in that fight without Holmes landing a punch. Holmes was going to beat his ass anyway but that’s one reason it was such a debacle.

But to answer the question, yes I think he thought he could win.