I'm not convinced that they were because I've never seen any other former boxer show those symptoms. I think Parkinson's syndrome was something Ali would have suffered from even if he had never been a boxer but perhaps his boxing career exacerbated the symptoms.
It's hard to say that boxing has directly affected Ali´s health. Parkinson's disease seems to be partly related to the genetic factor. One thing, however, we can safely say: Ali already suffered from Parkinson's in the mid-1970s, and his bouts since 1977, especially with Shavers, Spinks and Holmes contributed to his clinical deterioration much more rapidly than normal.
Ali was born January 17, 1942. Frazier FOC 1971, Ali is 29 Frazier 2 1974, Ali is 32 Foreman fight 1974 he is 32 Frazier 3 1975, he is 33. The odds are highly great, that if he was a Stockbroker in Downtown NYC, at 33+ years old, his personal physician would not have been urging him to get out of the Security Traders profession.
I suspect that they were. No other heavyweight champion in history, has fought a similar number of world class opponents, with the sole exception of Joe Louis. Joltin Joe generally put them away a bit quicker, and did not depend upon his chin to win fights latte in his career. Something had to give!
Undoubtedly yes. His motor skills were clearly in decline (boxing related or otherwise) in the late 70s. Continuing to box in that physical condition without doubt contributed to the sad state the great man ended up in. RIP legend.
Holyfield is very confusing because he almost seemed to get mad if you didnt hit him. He was in tons of wars in 2 weight classes over 2 decades against top competition. Doesn't seem to sound too much worse. Yet his contemporary bowe faced way less punchers and took less punishment and he has slurred speech and diminished motor skills. Or look at james toney, defensive wizard, competed in 5 weight classes and over 70 bouts and was never KOd. Rpy Jones, glass jaw, knocked spark out multiple times and kept fighting way longer than he should have. He also competed in a similar nimber of weight classes. Yet Toney is the one with speech and reflex issues and Roy is as eloquent as ever and even does commentary. I could go on. I think its genetics.
Have you been around a lot of fighters? I grew up around a ton of fighters and even had quite a few fighters as roommates over the years and have seen very similar gradual declines like Ali suffered and even seen it in some of my former football teammates that went pro. Ali was showing a lot of signs of pugilistic dementia as early as 1973 and was told to retire in 1975, but didn’t and was warned that he was risking his later quality of life, but Ali like most boxers was stubborn and continued his career. Bobby Chacon, who I got to know pretty well because he was a friend and former sparring partner of my trainer gradually declined and showed very similar symptoms to Ali as have many fighters that you never hear about, since the media doesn’t talk about it very much. Even a friend that I went to school with Chris Holdsworth, who fought in the UFC and is still relatively young is already showing signs of neurological damage.
without being a doctor or having any real medical background its hard to say, i believe it's genetics.
