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

Discussion in 'Classic Boxing Forum' started by mark ant, Oct 27, 2020.


  1. mark ant

    mark ant Canelo was never athletic Full Member

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    Watch when Ali touches his face in this short interview, clearly something was wrong by 1978 here.
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  2. Reinhardt

    Reinhardt Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    He failed a physical before the Holmes fight, it was covered up. He couldn't stand on one leg for long or touch his nose, If this had been a field sobriety test he'd have been arrested for drunk driving. I suspect the Berbick fight was held in the Bahamas to avoid a real commission stopping the fight. Ali's corner people , Dundee and others are slime for going to the ring with him , a fighter who has brain damage and they knew it!!!
     
  3. Bujia

    Bujia Well-Known Member Full Member

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    Where’s the evidence of this? Is it from the same documentary you all seem to be referencing?

    Hell, I should ask the same of @Saintpat.
     
  4. Bujia

    Bujia Well-Known Member Full Member

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    OK, if most of you on this thread are in agreement with Mark based on this kind of ****, I can categorically say you’re all a bunch of tin foil hat wearing looney tunes and I’m happy to be in the minority.
     
  5. Reinhardt

    Reinhardt Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    Yes, it is from the same documentary, you might want to watch it before making comments .
     
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  6. Cecil

    Cecil Boxing Addict Full Member

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    So I take it you’re saying that Ali had no other issues and he was simply a shot fighter?
     
  7. Saintpat

    Saintpat Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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    I don’t know anything about the documentary but it is absolute fact that:

    1) The Nevada athletic commission made Ali to go the Mayo Clinic, the top medical evaluation center in the U.S., to get cleared before allowing the Holmes fight

    2) Ali did, indeed, go to the Mayo Clinic for a complete mental and neurological evaluation

    3) Dr. Ferdie Pacheco cited the reason for Ali not fighting as kidney breakdown, not Parkinson’s (he absolutely did not diagnose or suggest that at this time, although in retrospect he liked to act as if he did)

    3) The Mayo Clinic’s check-up said no kidney problems and Ali was in excellent physical health

    4) The neuro exam showed some worrisome things BUT the clinic’s chief neurologist determined there was no specific reason to deny Ali the right to fight — in short, he found some troubling things but not troubling enough to say he could not fight

    5) The Mayo Clinic’s report advised the Nevada commission that Ali was good to go. The report was provided to the commission, which granted a license.

    Now if the documentary says that the Mayo Clinic report said something other than what it did ... then that’s pretty interesting. But to look at it in retrospect and say the top doctors in the land should have come to a different conclusion is pretty much bull****. We know a LOT more now about Ali’s healthy decline and Parkinson’s than we did then, and not one person (including Pacheco, Ali’s personal physician for decades) had suggested Parkinson’s at that time.
     
  8. Bujia

    Bujia Well-Known Member Full Member

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    Jesus Christ. No. I’m saying nobody knew anything about Parkinsons or a disease at the time.

    There may very well have been other problems. He may well have already been in the early stages of Parkinson’s. You cannot blame anyone for not knowing is my point. He wasn’t diagnosed until 6 years after the fight in question.

    A video of him rubbing his face a decade before that (seriously?) is not evidence that he was suffering from a debilitating disease that whole time and that everyone knew about it all along.

    Nothing shown in this thread is enough to make me even pause for thought. Quite the opposite, in fact. I feel like I’m being trolled with every video or post Mark makes.
     
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  9. Cecil

    Cecil Boxing Addict Full Member

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    Sorry, I thought you were coming from the angle that people were making excuses for Ali losing.
    Ali was shot anyway besides all the other ****.
    He should have retired after the Thrilla.
     
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  10. Dubblechin

    Dubblechin Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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    Well, the Nation of Islam needed an infusion of money. Ali gave half of his money to them. One of their members promoted the fight. Ali didn't have a boxing license in the United States. I believe the UK also denied him a license.

    So they took the fight to the Bahamas, where there was no athletic commission or anything resembling one. (Which is why they used a cowbell to signal the end of the round and why all the boxers on the card shared the same pair of gloves). I believe I read someone even forgot the keys to open the gates of the park where the matches were held. Nobody knew where they were. Just a complete train wreck.

    It was a money grab by Ali's religious leaders and manager (the brother of his religion's leader). That's all.
     
    Last edited: Oct 28, 2020
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