How was Muhammad Ali allowed to fight Trevor Berbick when it was clear there was something wrong?

His speech was slow in interviews near to that fight and his hand movements were slow, he failed a medical and he couldn`t punch a speedbag, there were scars found on his brain after the Shavers fight.

 

At 1:17 It`s mentioned that Ali`s handlers noticed he had lost his speed during his third fight v Frazier.

This content is protected

 

MONEY.....

 

It’s not as straightforward as that: Freddie Pacheco did stop working with Ali and did raise concerns, both privately to Ali and publicly. Ali then went to the Mayo Clinic — considered the best medical facility in the U.S., or certainly one of them — and they gave him a battery of tests which he passed before the Holmes bout.

Pacheco made a public response to the effect of ‘Well if the Mayo Clinic checked him out and cleared him then I’m glad to hear that and wish him the best’ — something along those lines. Later he retroactively questioned that but not at the time.

As for the OP’s question and the Holmes fight, it’s obvious Ali is past it against Holmes and unable to pull the trigger or do much of anything, but that wasn’t seen as Parkinson’s at the time — in fact he performed much better against Berbick and some people think he deserved or at least could have gotten the decision.

It came out after the Holmes fight that he lost all the weight leading up to that and showed up in what appeared to be his best shape in years because he abused a thyroid medication and treated those like diet pils to shed the weight (which it did, but also dehydrated him and slowed his motor skills) ... which of course he didn’t tell anyone about.

And that was what was blamed for his performance against Larry. So he got off those and came in softer against Trevor but looked maybe like a slightly degraded version of Ali from the first Spinks fight in that, his final bout.

Whatever effect Parkinson’s had on him at that stage (certainly slurred and slowed speech), he didn’t ‘shake that off’ after the Holmes fight and somewhat rejuvenate himself for Berbick. That would seem to have been the thyroid medication that he quit taking.

Should he have fought Berbick? Absolutely not. Should he have been licensed to? That’s a trickier question at the time than it is in retrospect as the thyroid medication obviously had something to do with the Holmes loss and the Mayo Clinic had checked him out thoroughly before Holmes and did not diagnose him with Parkinson’s.

(One could argue that if Ferdie had not left Ali, who was determined that he was going to continue to fight after Shavers, he would have been aware of the thyroid medication and now allowed its use before the Holmes fight and saved Ali from the most savage beating of his career, but that’s all hindsight.)

 

Ali failed his medical tests before the Holmes fight, but it was covered up, it was revealed in a documentary.

 

That means nothing at all.

If I’m wrong I’ll apologize for making an ass of myself earlier. I saw a Mark Ant post and went looking for the comedy. So far nothing in this thread has made it apparent that anyone even suspected Ali of suffering from a disease at the time.

In fact, it looks like SaintPat effectively put that to bed.

 

Ali’s report from the Mayo Clinic cleared him to fight. That is not in dispute anywhere. The Nevada athletic commission required Ali to go there to be cleared and the report was sent to the commission, which allowed him to fight based on its findings.

It was not released to the public at the time, but it was not withheld from the commission that used its findings to make its judgment on whether or not to allow him to fight.

 

I’m not sure it was made public beforehand but I think things were brought out afterwards.
I think Ali was taking thyroxine a weight loss drug which causes all kinds of side effects.
I mean Ali was a shot fighter anyway, but that would have done him no good whatsoever.

 

Very truthful accurate post.

 

That is so true, he saw Muhammad Ali go further down hill.

 

It took him a long time to touch his nose with his finger in one of the tests

 

$

They had it take place in the Bahamas where the commission if there was one was lax.

Couldn't have happened anywhere there was a strong boxing commission.

 

I thought it was after Manilla.

 

Was definitely after the Shavers one.

 

This Mayo clinic sounds dicey.