Absolutely. Nothing to even discuss. Dundee could not stop Ali fighting on, true enough. He did not have to be a party to it, though. I'm surprised that Dundee receives so little flak. Ali was patently damaged in 1980 and Dundee made a very nice payday 'training' him to face a beast like Holmes. Blood money. I despise Dundee and the rest of Ali's 'circus'.
Eddie Futch trained both Larry Holmes and Michael Spinks. When they fought eachother, Futch did'nt want to chose between them and just decided to bow out of the fight and let Holmes and Spinks each hire different trainers. You want to talk about true character, his name was Eddie Futch.
Yes, Mark, September '76 would have been an intelligent time for Ali to walk away (although I don't think Norton bashed Ali's brains in at Yankee Stadium). Not one of Ali's subsequent fights truly enhanced his legacy, did they? No chance of Dundee walking away from Ali in '76. Money was more important to him than Ali's health.
That's true. On the other hand, "If I don't do it, someone else who can't protect Ali as well from his own recklessness will" is arguably better, since the goal isn't profiting from it, but minimizing the damage Ali does to himself. That said, since most people here doubt that Dundee cared much about protecting Ali (as opposed to getting a seat on the gravy train), I doubt the above distinction even matters.
Dundee didn't even stop the Holmes fight of his own volition ,he acted on a signal from Herbert Muhammad. He may have convinced himself he stayed to protect Ali, but he will never convince me.
