First off, we all know that Ali s gonna lose, he had nothing left at all. Holmes stood back on Ali, he didn't want to actually hurt the guy any more than he had to. Marciano would want to club Ali fast and get him out of there. But Ali had pride and would still do every thing not to be kod. Hed try to cover up and hold. It would be frustrating for Marciano but his shots have a accumulated effect. Maybe 8 or 9 round with Alis face showing signs of the punishment, the ref may finally call it off, either that or rocks punches finally take a toll and Muhammad waves no mas!
Sure, Marciano eeks out a decision against the Holmes version of Ali. But what about the Berbick version!?!?!? I smell a new thread. No. No, I don't.
Am I the only one who think Holmes did not spare Ali whatsoever? Ali’s only chance was to hope Holmes punched himself out. Holmes knew that and stay measured. But there’s no way he spared him. He was lasering him with jabs, and stayed on him. Holmes’ trainer can be heard yelling out instructions that Holmes was following. Was his trainer sparing Ali too? Doubtful. He unloaded on Ali using combos with vicious intent. Ali’s chin was great, even in the state he was, and he was eating countless shots thrown with mean intentions. All the way until the fight was stopped. If you ask me, Holmes fought with a chip on his shoulder. The aura of magic was still surrounding Ali, and Holmes was not going to let him pull another rabbit out of his hat. He looked laser focused the entire time. And honestly he went about it the right way.
I watched Ali Holmes live. Funny thing it was the only Ali fight I ever watched where I was rooting for him to win. Watching the bout at the Mendem NJ arena via a grainy closed circuit broadcast it looked as if Ali rocked Holmes at the end of round 1. The crowd went wild! From that point until the fight was stopped utter silence as Larry completely dominated every second. I never felt at any time that Holmes was holding back.
One thing to add. Jerry Cooney's management badly wanted to fight Ali. Marciano would have badly beaten the1980 Ali. It could be ugly outside of the ring if Ali said racists things, which he probably would have to promote this fight. When Ali fought Wepner, Ali told Chuck to call him that derogatory word. When Wepner refused, Ali just made is up and said he called him you know what.
I think he took the name Rocky from Marciano there was a poster of Marciano on Rocky`s wall in the scene where he tells Mickey to go to hell when he wants him to take the rematch v Creed in Rocky 2, plus Rocky is short for Rochigianni, Chuck wouldn`t sound Italian enough, for the Italian stalion, lol.
so really the only connection the Rocky character has with Wepner is he was also a bum who was handpicked to fight the heavyweight champion cos I don’t remember Chuck beating Ali in a rematch and then go on to fight Clubber Lang and Ivan Drago?
The point was Chuck did better than expected against an out of shape Ali who was a legend in the sport by that time, Sly saw the fight and it inspired him to write Rocky, the ultimate underdog movie plus Creed was based on Ali`s persona also as was his jab and move style.