Does Larry Holmes deserve the bad rap for pummeling Muhammad Ali?

This. Nobody can blame Larry for the Ali fight, since Ali would’ve just fought someone else. Larry’s biggest problem is he has a bad habit of saying outlandish things, but doesn’t like facing backlash or criticism afterwards.

 

Oh please. Nobody "dangled" anything in front of Ali. Arum was all set to stage John Tate vs. Muhammad Ali in the summer of 1980, but Tate got knocked out in his tuneup.

Ali's second choice was Weaver ... again Bob Arum was to promote ... but Weaver ended up getting saddled with a WBA mandatory defense against Coetzee.

Holmes was Ali's THIRD choice.

Ali was coming back in 1980 regardless of who the opponent was. Just like he was coming back in 1981 no matter who the opponent was.

Bob Arum paid Ali to retire in 1979 so Arum could stage the WBA heavyweight tournament to crown his successor, and Arum was supposed to promote Ali against the winner of that tournament (Tate) in 1980. And it all went according to plan, until Tate lost the tuneup.

Don King wasn't involved in the planning of any of that. That was all Arum and Herbert Muhammad.

Ali wasn't sitting in a rocking chair on his alfalfa farm like Jim Jeffries and he never had to be begged to come back into the ring.

And, when Ali lost to Holmes, Herbert Muhmmad put him right back in the ring again - in a Nation of Islam promotion - and the usual suspects (Herbert, Dundee, Bundini, etc.) all came along for the ride.

Ali's trainers and Ali's manager and the athlelitc commissions and even Ali himself are rarely blamed.

And they deserve ALL of it.

 

I'd study up a bit mate.

In the lead up to their fight he called Bey, who was born of interracial marriage, a "half breed".

He'd called Bey a "white boy" earlier, saying "everybody knows white people bleed".

He spoke badly about Coetzee, Thomas and numerous others but the above was worse i reckon.

As to the thread title Holmes just did what any other boxer would have done with Ali. I think Holmes being "hated" for beating Ali has reached mythical proportions. He's not hated for that, and if he was it would be in a very minor capacity.

 

He cheated on his wife and banged another fighter's wife, that's why I dislike him.

 

I think Bey was white!

 

Larry took it easy on Ali. Larry Holmes is a good man. He doesn't say the political thing he tells the truth. That bothers some people.

 

Oh sure..king never dangled anyone...he was famous for dangling briefcases of cash to retired fighters ....he did it 8 years later to larry too...who took a savage beating too..your a don king dangling denier dubblechin.lol..regardless of 3rd choice...ali being manipulated into facing holmes was always dons agenda....regardless of arum....u think king was gonna sit by while arum flirted with ali..?...don got in there 1st thats what counts...so include dons role rather than whataboutery

 

Hes a good man...but its his loud vulgarity in interviews thst bothers people...and the sour grapes....thecway he constantly tries to discredit george foreman...in a recent interview with Vlad...he totally cancelled ignored foreman like he never existed...as he talked of 1970s.....petty

 

No.

He was put in a no win situation.

It's not his fault Ali was completely shot.

Going in the matchup was in high demand and it was his biggest payday and opportunity to be legitimized .

 

Ali couldn`t even punch a speedbag when training to fight Holmes and struggled to touch hjis nose in the medical before the fight, he looked like he was fighting in slow motion v Berbick.

 

Ali wasn`t shot, he had parkinson`s disease and couldn`t even balance on one leg.

 

Ali was really in decline by the mid 70`s, Holmes would have beaten him then.

 

Bad shape? Could Ruiz touch his nose before he fought AJ? Don King with a piece of garbage who admitted ripping Ali off.

 

I see.

 

As much as I admired the great Muhammad Ali, he had no business in the ring with Larry Holmes at that stage in his life. Ali was not a mandatory challenger, it was just a money fight for prestige. Ali let greed get the better of him, and satisfied some blood thirsty fans as well as a greedy promoter that could care less about Ali. A great fighter should know his limitations, and to those blood thirsty promoter and fans, maybe they should have entered the ring against Larry Holmes. Ali should have remained retired, very few can be successful in their comebacks, not all.