who would you say was to blame for Ali's condition?

Sad, but true......

 

Earnie Shavers.

 

very tacky to blame Shavers or any other fighter. Ali could have quit, but despite his convincing of the world that he was this multi-faceted guy, in the end he was a fighter and had little impetus to do anything else.

 

It is not really fair to blame others is it , Ali had such an ego nobody could of told him to retire

 

I don't think Ali himself would blame anyone else so why should we?

 

ali should have retired after foreman or manilla

 

Part of it is a function of the time in which he fought. Understanding traumatic brain injury is constantly evolving. Until recently, the powers who run American football have had the temerity to deny the causal link between head trauma and its long-term consequences. I can recall training as a youth doing drills and in which you would practice keeping your eyes open has someone landed jabs to your head.

Ali was certainly a product of his time. I recall seen footage of him sparring taking countless blows in order to toughen up and increase his punch resistance. It was not uncommon to hear about how seriously he had prepared for a fight by the number of rounds in which he had sparred.

Early in his career he often discussed that he did not want to end up like many of his Punch-Drunk predecessors , yet like so many he could not accept that he could no longer do thing that you always been able to do better than anyone else.

 

That's not a bad job. His dad made a decent living too. :good

 

I don't blame anyone, not Ali, Shavers, Frazier, Foreman or anyone else.

 

Parkinsons is genetic mostly.
So you could blame his forefathers

 

If it was completely boxing related then obviously Muhammad himself had his own choices to make. I've always believed,though,that if Herbert Muhammad had persuaded him to quit a lot earlier,the great man would have taken heed. But Herbert had dollars as his main motivation.


I reckon Pacheco had it spot on when he said that had Ali packed it in after Manila,it could have made a signifigant difference. Post 1975 was when Muhammad slowed up a lot and taken too many headshots. Yes,after the three and a half year lay off he did take more punishment than before exile but between 1970-75 not as much as 1976 onwards.

 

Boxing, the hardest game, he stayed in way too long.

 

I think also a lot of it was his sparring sessions where he would toughen himself up by taking punches. I have always felt he should have retired after Manila. It would have been a great way to go out. I do think there was still a strong possibility he would still get Parkinson's though.

 

It's still a very imprecise science tho, some get hammered forever and a day yet retail their faculties and are quite clear all the way to old age. Others can take less and end up far worse.

Have to say tho that takng punishment to the head can't exactly be doing you any favours.

 

Ali couldn't let go of the glory and being relevant it seemed. Facing retirement and being out of the limelight seemed like something he didn't want to face, then you get the delusion that he thought he could beat prime Holmes, which was encouraged so there must be a little blame for those around him for that. I read somewhere that he knew he lost it a bit, he said something like "everyone loses their way at some point in life" unless I got wrong quote.

he chose to go on even though he must have felt half the fighter he was, but I still think those close to him could have made it harder for him to go on, but instead they seemed to encourage it, being as deluded as he was.