After his easy defeat of Jean Pierre Coopman in February of 1976, Ali returned to action two months later. This time his opponent was slick boxer Jimmy Young at the Capitol Center in Landover, Maryland on April 30. I watched it live on ABC television that Friday night with Howard Cosell doing the play by play, with no idea at all who Jimmy Young was.
As I sat tuned into my 11 inch black and white tv in my bedroom, it was obvious that Ali was way overweight at 230 lbs. He was sluggish and undertrained, and as the rounds progressed, he was being outpunched and outfought by the 209 lb. Young. Cosell was very critical of Ali as usual, but in this case he was correct. Ali had figured it would be a walkover with Young, but had to reach into his bag of tricks to get back into the fight. After 15 rounds, the decision went to the cards, and the judges gave the nod to the champ by a wide margin, which was outrageous. It was simply a case of Ali being the biggest name in boxing, and the sport could not survive without him. The same stuff happened with Joe Louis when he held the title, with judges being told what to do beforehand. If anyone is naive to think that boxing judges aren’t bought and paid for at times, just look at history. It’s a part of what is often a crooked one at best.
Less than a month later on May 24, Ali traveled to Munich, Germany to fight the European champ Richard Dunn. Ali had worked off 10 pounds in training, wanting to erase the stench from his crappy effort against Young, and Dunn was the perfect opponent to do it against. The fight was live on NBC tv, and I turned in to see Ali record what would be the last knockout of his professional career. He stopped Dunn in five rounds, a totally overwhelmed pug with no business being in the ring with the champ.
The third bout of the trilogy with Ken Norton was set for September 30, 1976 at the newly refurbished Yankee Stadium. I didn’t see it live on closed-circuit, but watched in on CBS tv with Brent Musberger commenting on the replay. It was broadcast along with George Foreman’s fight with Dino Denis on Friday, October 15. We had company at our house that night, to celebrate my dad’s 57th birthday, and I sat on our couch with my dad and brother-in-law to watch the it.
Watching a fight where you know the outcome is hard, but it was definitely a close one to call. Norton was the aggressor, hurt Ali to the body on several occasions, and was far stronger for all 15 rounds. Ali did box and move, scoring enough jabs to get some rounds, but was a shell of what he used to be. Styles make fights, and Ken Norton would always have been difficult for Ali to handle. When the judges gave the decision by a narrow margin, Norton was crushed. Ali showed a wry smile of relief, knowing he had dodged a huge bullet.
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