There's been a few comments re the great man's Parkinson's disease on here recently. When were the earliest signs spotted ? He definitely had it around the time of the Holmes fight. Some say they noticed it as early as the first Spinks bout. The first I knew that something was wrong was in 1979,between the second Spinks and Holmes bouts. Ali was over here on a shortlived 'retirement' tour,and he hosted a show on ITV called Muhammad Ali's Greatest Hits. I was under the impression that he had a sore throat and cold,but a few weeks later he had the same sound in his voice. A thousand curses upon the powers that be that allowed him to fight Holmes and Berbick :fire Thoughts ?
Actually, they say Ali has Parkinson's Syndrome, not Parkinson's Disease, although they are very similar. I have seen video of Ali talking right after his first loss to Spinks, and he definitely sounded impaired. Even clips of Ali in 1977 sounded funny; his voice had a thickness to it, almost as if he had molasses stuck in his mouth. It's a shame that he was allowed to fight Holmes and later Berbick. How could a world renowned medical facility, the Mayo Clinic, clear Ali to engage in a heavyweight championship prizefight? In today's world, no way would that Muhammad Ali be allowed to fight at all.
Because he was evaluated as a regular 38-year-old undergoing a physical, deemed a healthy specimen for functioning in the everyday world. Early Parkinson's syndrome symptoms, which were certainly there, were not detected as such by physicians who, while authoritative in their specialties, were not knowledgeable of the telltale signs of a shot -and ill-fighter.
The doctors still should have denoted the speech slowness or at least have an idea of what Ali sounded like a few years earlier.
Mid-70's he was showing signs as the heavy blows of Frazier, Quarry, Foreman, Norton, Shavers. and even Spinks became evident. And Don King was there pushing him on. What fight was it after that Ferdie said "no more"?
I once read that he said that sometime after Manila, as soon as the team started talking about taking on Shavers he called it a day. I guess he figured it was one thing taking on a guy like Coopman or something and extending the ride on the gravy train, it was another thing taking on a guy who could knock down buildings with his hands considering Ali's degradation.
Im pretty certain it was the 3rd Norton fight, 99.99% sure. Yankee stadium i think, when was that? Sept 76?
