If Ali had retired after Manila.

I'm sure I would still rank him the same on my all-time list whether he retired then or not. The truth is we don't know if his health would be any better today if he had retired after the third Frazier fight. I don't think he hurt boxing by continuing on...not in my eyes anyway. He did what he felt he needed to do to get the money he needed. I'm fine with that.

 

Cosell witnessed Larry's match against Arrington on the Norton-Young undercard, Holmes-Robinson on the Foreman-Young undercard, and other recent bouts of his from ringside. A startled and excited Howard made it very clear at the end of the opening round of Holmes-Shavers I that Holmes suddenly seemed a vastly improved fighter from what he previously showed against Arrington, Robinson, Houpe, Prater, Williams, Rodney and Duane Bobick, going back to 1972. Cosell made it clear that the first match with Earnie was when Holmes truly came of age, and not before. (Critics can accuse Howard of simply repeating was was told to him through his headset by Alex Wallau, but the fact is that Cosell was a ringside eyewitness to countless historical bouts over a number of decades. He'd seen enough of Holmes over the previous half dozen years, going back to Larry's amateur days, to be more than qualified to judge what he was seeing Holmes do against Shavers.)

Holmes was in the perfect place at the perfect time. The Holmes of Arrington would indeed have been too green for Norton.