After officially announcing his retirement from boxing in June of 1979, Muhammad Ali started to enjoy the fruits of his labor. He did TV commercials, and was relishing in his role as a celebrity and 3-time champion. Other than training lightly for an exhibition with Denver Bronco Lyle Alzado in July that summer, Ali had nothing to do with boxing anymore.
By early 1980, Ali started to get the itch to fight again. He started to spar in Los Angeles boxing gyms, since he now lived in southern California. Ali saw the WBA champ John Tate as beatable, and announced to the media that he was coming out of retirement at 38 years old. I vividly remember getting Sports Illustrated in the mail with Ali on the cover announcing “Look Who’s Back!” After John Tate was knocked out by Mike Weaver on March 31, 1980, the 3-time champion focused his attention on WBC Heavyweight Champ Larry Holmes instead.
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil was originally planned as the host site for the huge bout, but promoter Don King sold it to Caesar’s Palace for October 2nd instead. A huge temporary outdoor arena was constructed to hold the huge expected crowd for the event, which sat 25,000 people. Larry Holmes had one more fight that summer, an easy decision win over Scott LeDoux in Minnesota on July 7, while Ali had a full medical check-up by the Mayo clinic, and was approved to box again.
I personally gave Ali no chance at all. Larry Holmes was a solid champion unappreciated by the public, and in his prime. The betting line on the bout dropped to only 3-2 in Larry’s favor, which was ridiculous to me. People only saw the fact that Ali had dropped a ton of weight, and looked good physically, which wasn’t enough. People wanted to believe with their hearts that Ali was the same old “Ali”, but the reality was he was shot.
I went to a concert with my mom that night, rather than go to watch the fight on closed circuit. I knew Larry would destroy Ali, and I didn’t want to watch it live. Instead I figured I would settle for a replay on free tv a month later.
Late that night, I listened to local Philadelphia news sports report on the radio, to hear that Ali had never been in the fight at all, and was stopped for the first time in his whole career. ABC showed a replay of the one-side affair on Halloween night, and it was worse than I had imagined. Larry won every minute of all 10 rounds, before Ali’s corner finally stopped the mess. Ali complained that there was something wrong with him while he watched the replay with Larry and Howard Cosell live, and he could do better if he fought again. It was later learned that he had been treated for a thyroid condition he never had, and the medication he took was why he was so tired in the bout.
When Ali hinted that he would return, I was kind of glad, because I hated to see his career end like that. As far as beating Holmes, Ali would have struggled with him in his prime, since Larry was his sparring partner for years, and handled him the gym daily.
October 2, 1980 was not a happy day for Ali fans, and every year when that day rolls around, the first thing I think of is the fight that never should have happened.
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