Tried to Catch Fog Mist Billy Madison Its Poop Again

This story originally appeared in the Oct. thirteen, 1980 outcome ofSports Illustrated. Subscribe to the magazine here.

Round I had concluded, and Muhammad Ali, slumped on the stool in his corner, knew then what the world would before long discover. The recently regained torso beautiful was no more than a clever counterfeit. Ali was a Ferrari without an engine, a Rolex with the works missing. There was nothing inside. As Ali saturday half listening to trainer Angelo Dundee, sadly he understood that the career that had flare-up and so brilliantly into being twenty years before at the Olympics in Rome would end this night in humiliation and defeat in a Las Vegas parking lot.

The fight—if Ali's painful operation against WBC champion Larry Holmes last Thursday in a temporary stadium erected by Caesars Palace can be called a fight—would continue for another nine rounds. Simply Ali, betrayed by a torso that no longer obeyed the commands of his ego, knew after simply three minutes of fighting that at that place would be no fourth heavyweight title; there would be no miracle. As others had earlier him, he had come back one fourth dimension as well many.

Ali would say later, "All I could think of later on the first circular was, 'Oh, God, I withal have 14 rounds to get.' I had zero. Naught. I knew it was hopeless. I knew I couldn't win and I knew I'd never quit. I looked beyond at Holmes and knew he would win only that he was going to have to kill me to get me out of the ring."

From The Vault: Every Ali Embrace Story

• Cassius invades Britain
• My $1,000,000 Getaway
• Cassius—His Fight And His Hereafter
• The Big Fight: Can Clay Do It Again?
• Cassius Clay vs. Sonny Liston
• The Fight You Didn't Meet
• The Large Fight: Clay vs. Patterson
• Cassius Dirt: The Man, the Muslim, the Mystery
• The Big Fight: Clay vs. Terrell
• Scramble for Ali'southward title
• Ali-Clay; the once and future king?
• The Slugger And The Boxer
• Finish of the Ali legend
• The hereafter is a mist
• The Jaw is broken
• Ali Over again
• Muhammad Ali: Sportsman of the Year
• Boxing's New Barnum
• The Epic Battle
• Ali's Route Bear witness Rolls On
• Ali's Desperate Hr
• The Champ Again
• Expect Who's Back!
• He'southward no Liston. He's no Frazier.
• The Last Hurrah
• The man and his entourage today
• 35th anniversary
• Once and Forever
• Battle of Champions: Ali vs. Frazier
• Who's that guy with Howard Bingham?

Ali, who would be sitting on that aforementioned stool 35 minutes later every bit Dundee signaled give up earlier the start of the 11th round, did not come up into the ring old and fat; he came in quondam and—for him—thin. Too thin. A blubbery 256 pounds just a few months ago, at the counterbalance-in the day before the fight he had balanced the scale at 217 1/ii pounds. And with his graying hair dyed blackness, to outward appearances he had wiped away ten years. But while no 1 knew for sure so, this was to exist his terminal victory. He had won the boxing of the burl but it had cost him—if indeed he had ever had any chance—the state of war. He had gained sleekness at the cost of strength and endurance. It was as though he had trained for a beauty contest and not for a fight.

Equally Keith Kleven, Holmes'south physical therapist, explained: "Getting his weight down, looking fit and trim, became an obsession with him. He idea if his weight came downward everything else would fall into place. He lost at least 37 pounds in a very brusk period. He went too far. When you lose and then much and then fast, after such a dramatic change in nutrition and concrete action, there is a drastic change in the office of the body'south enzymes. Instead of losing fatty, you begin to deplete musculus substance. Forcefulness and stamina are lost. Information technology wouldn't have mattered either fashion, simply against Larry the old human being was only a crush of his former self."

Iv weeks before the fight, as Holmes trained in his hometown of Easton, Pa., for a cursory time it had looked equally if it wouldn't affair if Ali weighed 217, 256 or 300 pounds. That was on the solar day the champion threw a right against sparring partner LeRoy Diggs and felt hurting searing through his paw. It was the same hand he had broken in a tour with Roy Williams in 1976.

Holmes was rushed to the hospital, where X-rays showed there was no fracture this time. Still, at that place was this terrible pain. The dial had acquired a severe bone bruise and soft-tissue trauma in the carpal bones of the wrist and the metacarpal bone junction just above the thumb. After consulting with Holmes'south manager-trainer Richie Giachetti, Kleven treated the fighter'southward hand three times a 24-hour interval for two weeks. He also devised a foam bandage that the champion wore under the record on the hand during his workouts.

"And he wore the bandage at night," said Jake Holmes, the champion's older blood brother. "Then nosotros'd take information technology off in the morn earlier whatsoever reporters showed up. The manus hurt Larry but it kept improving, and we didn't want people making a lot more out of it than information technology actually was."

When Holmes arrived in Las Vegas for his concluding iii weeks of training, there was no visible evidence that he was in annihilation but excellent physical condition. He worked harder for Ali than for any previous opponent. He ran more than, sparred more. In Easton, part of his roadwork was on a hill that soared ix-tenths of a mile almost straight up. In Las Vegas his road was out where the desert grades upward toward the mountains. Near mornings he ran 5 miles at a vii-infinitesimal pace. Every morning he ran with grim conclusion.

During sparring, Holmes worked over his hired easily with cruel intensity, and when he was done he had boxed 210 rounds. "He was averaging 75 punches a circular," said Giachetti. "I counted rounds equally high equally 95. Now you know why he pays his sparring partners $1,000 a calendar week and offers them a $ten,000 bonus if they tin can knock him down. When Ali spars he's playing; when Larry spars he's all business."

While "playing" on an afternoon 11 days before the fight, which would earn him $8 million, Ali, as well, had experienced a sharp pain, in his left arm. He had pulled a muscle. The post-obit morning several members of Ali's staff went to the Desert Springs Hospital and tried to purchase an ultrasound machine and a musculus stimulator. They were asked if they had the required licenses to operate them.

"We'll pay whatsoever cost,' was the reply. "Only give us the machines.'

"Deplorable."

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As has been his habit for years, Dundee, who has trained Ali since his 2nd professional fight, arrived for the final stages of the onetime champion'south preparation. Dundee watched and he frowned, and and so he watched some more and he began to worry. He saw the apartment breadbasket and he was impressed, only everything else he saw left him depressed.

While sipping coffee in his room, Dundee put his fearfulness into words. "The gym," he said, "did you see him in the gym?"

"Yeah, he was doing cipher. Those sparring partners were all over him."

"Information technology'due south non that," Dundee said. "Ali hasn't won a round in the gym since I've known him. He's the worst gym fighter in the globe. But he always showed me flashes: 10 seconds, 15 seconds. Out there I begged him: testify me something. Merely show me a little. It wasn't at that place. He didn't have anything to prove."

In Room 301 of the same hotel Ali was once over again—perhaps for the 100th time, or information technology could have been the one,000th—watching a TV tape of Holmes's lackluster but winning fight against current WBA champion Mike Weaver. Of all the fights Ali could have picked to report, this showed Holmes at his worst. Holmes had been ill from a virus that would have put nearly men in bed when he stepped into the band against Weaver. An 60 minutes before the fight he was injected with a double dose of antibiotics. Information technology was a miracle he could walk, much less fight.

When the tape ended, Ali stared at the flickering light. Then he said, "I got to become out and win the first five rounds to win the judges, to win the people. I've got to go right out and assault him, then stick and motion. That'south why I lost to Spinks. I lost the commencement four rounds and I never got them back. I tin't lose this fight. I've shot off my big mouth likewise much. If I lose, the press will tear me upwardly. Y'all don't think I can lose, exercise you?"

The question hung in the air like the blade of a guillotine.

Factor Kilroy, the administrative aide who brings some semblance of order to the madness of Ali's tumultuous entourage, finally sliced the silence. "It'due south no contest," said Kilroy. "You lot'll eat him alive."

Satisfied, Ali went on, "I've got myself to the betoken where I'yard and so psyched, it's either life or death. I'one thousand a Kamikaze pilot. Holmes is only thinking about his little kids, his big house, his wife and his pond pool. All I'm thinking well-nigh is winning."

On a big mirror on one wall of Suite 4520 in Caesars Palace, Holmes had indeed taped upwards a huge manus-printed sign that said FIRST: MY Married woman, MY CHILDREN, MY Family unit. MY House. P.S. MY POOL.

Over information technology was a picture of his wife Diane and his six-calendar month-erstwhile daughter Kandy, and but to the right of this list of priorities, on purple art board, was an architect's drawing of the home Holmes is having built in Easton. On another wall was a small-scale picture of Ali. Luis Rodriquez, Holmes'south printing representative and friend, had blackened both of Ali'southward optics with dark ink—an accurate prophecy.

Less than 48 hours before the fight, Holmes, his hand healed, and now weighing a fit 211 1/2 pounds, sat in the suite with Kandy planted on his difficult left thigh. She gurgled a sentence and Holmes laughed as he translated. "She simply said I was going to whip Ali," he said.

Then the smile was gone; the moment became serious. "I hear that Ali was in his room at 5 a.k. watching films of my fight while I was sleeping," Holmes said. "Why? Because he'southward worried and he can't sleep. We talked last nighttime. We made a deal. We are going to see in the heart of the band and nosotros are going to fight until one of united states of america drops. I'm non mad at him. In fact, I find him amusing. He makes me express mirth. I'm a nice guy outside of the ring. But no ane should fault my kindness for weakness." Holmes's vox dropped and hardened. "In the band I am a different person. All I've heard since I've been fighting is Ali, Ali, Ali. I'm ill of being compared to him. If Ali killed me in the ring I wouldn't care. All I want to practice is get out there and go the monkey off my back. I want to get him out of there every bit fast equally I can. If I tin knock him out with my commencement punch, then that is what I am going to do."

Despite an unseasonably hot spell in Las Vegas, the night of the fight was relatively cool. No wind had been predicted, merely a slight breeze had come up from the northeast, wafting refreshingly through the 24,790-seat open arena. At viii:07 p.thou., Ali came into the ring. His face up was grim. Seven minutes afterwards, Holmes, appearing even more than grim, followed him.

And so Ali and his sidekick Drew (Bundini) Brown went into their act. The sellout crowd, which had paid a tape $6,200,000, began to chant, "Ali! Ali! Ali!" Grim no longer, Ali lunged as though to attack Holmes but was restrained by Dundee and Banana Trainer Wali Youngblood. "I want you," Ali screamed at the champion, who stonily ignored him. As Jake Holmes held up his blood brother'south greenish championship belt in answer to the crowd's chants, Bundini charged toward Jake, who would probably become off at fifty-fifty money confronting a tank. There was a flurry of bumps and shoves and shouts, and subsequently Bundini decided to harass Holmes from a distance.

Equally the Ali-Bundini human action swirled toward madness, Holmes, continuing to ignore them both, walked over to the box of resin grit. Ali tried to block his way. Holmes shoved him aside. "I just wanted to show him I wasn't there to clown around," Holmes said later. "I was there to fight."

Finally, Referee Richard Green, who was getting fed upward with the crowd scene, yelled to Dundee, "I'1000 going to take them band the bell."

"Delight do," said Dundee.

But Bundini wasn't finished. "I desire to bet $500," he screamed at the Holmes camp.

"You lot got it," said Giachetti, getting to him earlier Jake. The two men shook hands to seal the wager, and with that sanity reappeared. The band was apace cleared, and the fight was on.

Holmes came out with a rush, and Ali tried to fend him off with a wild looping right that missed. Holmes introduced him to his jab, which is a ripping weapon, fired hard and truthful, and is more damaging than most fighters' hooks. And so he hooked Ali to the temple and drilled a correct to the head. The tempo was set; the final chapter of a legend was being written under the darkened Nevada sky.

Ali'southward jab, so bright in the past, was no more than than a tired push. Information technology was both little used and useless. In the first circular he hit Holmes with 1 solid right paw over a jab. "A-li! A-li! A-li!" In the second round he scored with two rights. "A-li! A-li! A-li!" But even the chant seemed to have lost some of its fervor, its hope. From that point on there was nothing, only a condemned man waiting to be summoned from his prison cell.

But Giachetti was taking no chances. When Holmes came back to the corner after the 2d round, Giachetti said, "Did you see that right hand? That's all he's got."

"I saw it," Holmes assured his manager. "I saw it and I said, 'Oh-oh, I better take a footstep back and get serious.' "

"Well, that's the punch I warned yous most."

"I know."

What they didn't know was that Ali didn't have some other right paw in his armory. He was through. All he had left was his mouth. After taking a beating in the tertiary round, Ali followed Holmes to his corner shouting insults. The referee grabbed Ali and pushed him toward his corner. "You're scared to death," Jake Holmes yelled at the retreating ex-champion. Larry Holmes took no notice.

By the fourth round Ali, an wearied man trying to survive, had an ugly bruise under his left eye.

After the fourth round Giachetti told Holmes to work Ali into the centre of the band. "The ropes are the but thing holding him up," Giachetti said. "Go him out where he tin can fall down."

Over in Ali's corner Dundee was begging his man to fight. "I was trying to pump him up," Dundee would say later. "But you can't pump upwardly what isn't there. You tin can't get water out of a dry well."

It had almost ended in the fourth. Near the end of the round Holmes defenseless Ali with a vicious right claw to the kidneys. Ali's knees began to buckle. Holmes thought the fight would end at that moment: "When the hook hit him he moaned and started to autumn. Then all of a sudden he jerked himself upward. His damn pride merely wouldn't permit him fall. There's not another man on earth who would have been on his feet after that punch."

Ali fought the 5th and sixth rounds like a man in a semi-daze. He was continually blinking equally though trying to clear his head. When he wasn't blinking, he just stared, equally if trying to brand out a figure moving swiftly through a fog. The figure was Holmes, firing bursts: lefts through Ali's upheld hands, then thudding jabs downwardly to the midsection. But after each brutal flurry, the champion would stride back as though reluctant to keep battering this man who in one case was his idol and would not autumn.

In the seventh, seemingly rejuvenated, Ali came out dancing, firing the jab, stirring hope in the hearts of the sentimental. But it was just the final gasp of a homo who knows his difficult craft well but doesn't know how to surrender. Ali fired 18 straight jabs; the starting time 17 missed. He danced for a infinitesimal and 15 seconds ... and then almost barbarous from exhaustion. Afterwards that, Ali didn't throw a single meaningful punch. It was as shut equally Ali would come up to winning a round.

After the eighth round Dundee warned Ali that if he didn't start fighting, the referee was going to finish it. In the ninth Holmes hit Ali with a quick, tight correct hook and followed with a stunning right uppercut. Held upwards by the ropes, Ali turned his back on Holmes and, cowering, covered his eyes with his gloves. Information technology was most unbearable to watch.

The fight should have been stopped then. But when Green hesitated, Holmes moved in for the finish. With tremendous will Ali forced himself away from the ropes and—with the crowd imploring "A-li!
A-l ! A-li!"—survived the round.

Barely able to stagger back to his corner, with ugly bruises nether both eyes, Ali slumped onto the stool. "This is your last round," Dundee told him. "One more circular so I'm going to stop it."

At that place was no response.

When the bong rang for the tenth, Ali forced himself to his feet and staggered forward. Holmes was on him quickly: four jabs, a right, a hook, two jabs, a claw to the kidneys, a 3-punch combination almost too fast to follow, and so a barrage that probably would take destroyed half of the heavyweight segmentation. Incredibly, Ali was still on his anxiety.

And then the fight started in Ali's corner. "That's it!" Dundee screamed at Green. "It'south over." Bundini, tears streaming down his cheeks, clawed at Dundee's sweater and begged, "No, one more than round, i more circular."

"Accept your goddam hands off me," Dundee snarled. "He tin can't take any more. He'south defenseless. Go the hell abroad from me. I'thou the boss here. Information technology's over."

On his stool Ali lifted his head as though to protestation; instead he slowly permit his head fall. He said not a word.

The furor was over naught. Green said subsequently that if Dundee hadn't stopped it, he would take.

When he realized that the fight was over, Holmes, tears in his eyes, rushed across the ring and embraced Ali and kissed him on the cheek. "I love you," Holmes said. "I really respect you lot. I promise we'll always be friends. Your house or my house, if you lot always demand me for annihilation, just telephone call and I'll exist at that place."

Slowly they led Ali from the ring to a nearby trailer that had served as his dressing room. He said he only wanted to lie downward for a moment. So Kilroy ordered a limousine to bulldoze the battered fighter the few hundred yards back to the hotel. Upstairs in his suite they asked him if he wanted to undress and accept a shower.

"No," Ali said slowly. "I think I just want to lie down and rest for a little while."

Within half an hour, Holmes and his brother Jake came to the suite and went into the darkened bedchamber.

"Are you O.Thou., champ?" Holmes asked. "I didn't want to hurt yous."

"Then why did yous?" Ali asked, laughing softly.

Holmes hesitated; then, "One affair is really bothering me. They say I thumbed you. The referee came over in the third circular and said your corner said I was thumbing you. Now don't jive me. Did I thumb you?"

"No," said Ali. "Y'all didn't thumb me. I don't know why they said that. I don't know, Larry, something was wrong with me. Either I was too old or I was too light."

"Both," said Holmes. "Now I desire y'all to hope me one thing: that you volition never fight again."

In the darkness Ali began the low chant that had been heard then often in the weeks preceding their tour: "I want Holmes. I want Holmes. I desire Holmes."

"Oh, Lord," said Holmes, laughing. "Jake, permit's get out of here."

Only a few hours later on, at four a.chiliad. Las Vegas time, Ali, his puffed and blackened optics concealed by night glasses, was upwards and existence interviewed by David Hartman on Good Morning America. "Next I want to fight Mike Weaver, the WBA champion," Ali said.

Oh, Lord! World, let's become out of hither.

SI'south 100 Greatest Photos of Muhammad Ali

Neil Leifer

In 1 of the about iconic and controversial moments of his career, Ali stands over Sonny Liston and yells at him later on knocking the onetime gnaw down in the commencement round of their 1965 rematch. Skeptics dubbed it "the Phantom Punch," simply films show Ali's flashing correct caught Liston flush, knocking him to the sheet. Refusing to go to a neutral corner, Ali stood over Liston and told him to "become up and fight, sucker."

Neil Leifer

At 22-years-old, Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) battered the heavily favored Sonny Liston in a bout that shook the boxing world. The fight ignited the career of one of sports' most charismatic and controversial figures, whose bouts often became social and political events rather than merely sports contests. At the summit of his fame, Muhammad Ali was the all-time known athlete in the globe. Liston, one of the nearly feared heavyweight champions in history, was a 1-8 favorite over the young challenger known every bit the Louisville Lip. Simply Clay, here stinging the champ with a right, used his dazzling speed and constant movement to dominate the action and pile up points.

Jerry Cooke

Cassius Dirt punches Zbigniew Pietrzykowski of Poland during their gold medal bout at the 1960 Rome Olympics. Clay defeated Pietrzykowski 5-0 for the lite heavyweight gold medal.

Marvin E. Newman

For the 18-year-onetime from Louisville, here atop the medal stand later his Olympic victory, all roads led from Rome. Clay finished his amateur career with a tape of 100-5 and fabricated his professional debut two months after the Games.

Neil Leifer

Undefeated in his first 17 pro fights, Dirt mugged for the camera before the showtime of his 1963 tour confronting Doug Jones in Madison Square Garden.

Neil Leifer

Trainer Angelo Dundee urged his young charge to become serious before the opening bell against Jones. Clay followed instructions and emerged from a tough fight with a unanimous decision victory. 3 months later on he would stop Henry Cooper and shut out 1963 at 19-0.

Neil Leifer

A seemingly hysterical Clay taunted Sonny Liston during the pre-fight physical for their 1964 tour. He had consistently baited the Large Bear during the lead-upwards to the fight, saying he was going to "use him as a bearskin rug ... after I whup him." The Miami Battle Commission would fine Clay $2,500 for his burst at the physical.

Neil Leifer

"I shook upwards the world!" an emotional Dirt hollered to ringside reporters after his shocking defeat of Liston. And he did simply that, claiming the heavyweight title at age 21 after a clearly beaten Liston, complaining of a shoulder injury, failed to answer the bell for the seventh circular.

Neil Leifer

Draped in shadow, the young king — now known every bit Muhammad Ali — stared down the photographic camera during a photo shoot in April 1965, one month before his rematch confronting Sonny Liston.

Neil Leifer

As Liston lingered on the canvas and the referee, one-time heavyweight champ Bailiwick of jersey Joe Walcott, tried to command Ali, the 2,434 spectators on manus in the Lewiston, Me., hockey arena — a record depression for a heavyweight championship fight — tried to make sense of what all that had happened in less than ii minutes after the opening bell.

Neil Leifer

The celebration over Liston connected. In a chaotic ending, Ali was awarded a knockout when Nat Fleischer, publisher of The Ring, informed referee Bailiwick of jersey Joe Walcott from ringside that Liston had been on the canvas for longer than 10 seconds after Ali knocked him down. The bout remains one of the near controversial in boxing history, with many observers insisting that Liston took a dive.

Neil Leifer

Ali's 2d title defence force came in November 1965, against former two-time heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson. During the build-up to the bout, the normally soft-spoken Patterson earned the new gnaw's wrath by refusing to call Ali by his Muslim name. At the weigh-in, Ali's glare made information technology articulate that he intended Patterson to pay for the disrespect.

Neil Leifer

In cruelly efficient functioning, Ali punished Patterson — who was hobbled by a painful back injury — seemingly toying with the former gnaw throughout the bout, hitting him at will and calling, "What's my name?" before finally winning on a twelfth-round TKO.

James Drake

Capping off a five-fight campaign in 1966, Ali faced Cleveland Williams in the Houston Astrodome on November. 14. Known as the Large Cat, the heavily-muscled Williams was a ability puncher who had racked upwards 51 knockouts in 71 fights. Just he was likewise 33, barely recovered from a gunshot wound sustained the year before, and upward against a young champion very much in his prime. Ali wasted little fourth dimension in unleashing a withering attack.

James Drake

Float and sting: In a display of speed and combination punching unmatched in heavyweight history, Ali overwhelmed Williams from the start. The challenger, here downward for the tertiary fourth dimension in round 2, would be saved by the bell before referee Harry Kessler could count him out, but information technology would only postpone the inevitable.

Neil Leifer

Ali dropped Williams again early in the third circular, and Kessler waved the mismatch over at 1:08 of the tertiary.

Neil Leifer

In a multiple-exposure portrait, Ali demonstrates his signature double-clutch shuffle during a photo shoot in December 1966.

Neil Leifer

Ali sits in the locker room before his February 1967 fight against Ernie Terrell. Like Patterson earlier him, Terrell refused to phone call the champion by his Muslim proper noun. As well like Patterson, he paid a potent price, as Ali punished Terrell for xv ugly rounds before winning past unanimous decision.

Neil Leifer

Outside the Armed Forces Examining and Entrance Station in Houston in April 1967, Ali spoke to the press about his refusal to be inducted into military service. Among those on hand was ABC'due south Howard Cosell, who would be a staunch supporter of the fighter'south opinion. The decision cost Ali his boxing license and his heavyweight title, and he was sentenced to five years in prison house but remained free pending an appeal.

Neil Leifer

In professional exile for 3 and a half years because of his draft example, Ali sought to return to boxing in 1970. He began with a night of exhibition bouts at Morehouse Higher in Atlanta, where earlier going into the ring, he shared a locker room laugh with actor and comedian Lincoln Perry (right), improve known by his phase name of Stepin Fetchit. The friendship between the two black icons would later be examined in an acclaimed play past Volition Power, Fetch Clay, Make Man.

Neil Leifer

After the Atlanta Athletic Commission at last granted Ali a license, the deposed champion went back into serious preparation. He was, as ever, in the capable hands of trainer Angelo Dundee, hither wrapping boxing's most famous fists at the 5th Street Gym in Miami in Oct 1970.

Neil Leifer

With his return to the ring scheduled for October. 26, 1970 in Atlanta, against unsafe contender Jerry Quarry, Ali made information technology articulate to all who would listen that he was on a mission to reclaim the title that had been stripped of him.

Neil Leifer

Reel to spiel: For the ever-loquacious Ali, fifty-fifty a rare moment of down time — like this afternoon in 1970 in a Miami hotel room — was a chance to do some talking.

Neil Leifer

Despite Ali's long layoff, his improvement campaign would include no like shooting fish in a barrel melody-up bouts. He stopped Quarry in three rounds on Oct. 26, 1970, and so, just 6 weeks afterwards — an unthinkably short interlude by today's standards — took on Argentine contender Oscar Bonavena in Madison Square Garden. Here, Ali fires a right at the rugged and awkward Bonavena, who took the fight to the former champion all night.

Neil Leifer

Afterwards a long, often sloppy tour, Ali — here being held back past referee Mark Conn — produced one of the most dramatic finishes of his career, dropping Bonavena iii times in the 15th and final round to automatically end the fight. The win cleared the way for a showdown with Joe Frazier, the homo who had taken the heavyweight title in Ali'south absence.

Neil Leifer

On the nighttime of March 8, 1971, the eyes of the globe were on a square patch of white canvas in the center of Madison Square Garden. There, Ali and Joe Frazier met in what was billed at the time but as The Fight, but has come up to exist known, justifiably, as the Fight of the Century. For 15 rounds the two undefeated heavyweights battled at a furious pace, with each homo sustaining tremendous punishment. In the end Frazier prevailed, dropping Ali in the final circular with a tremendous left claw to seal a unanimous decision and mitt The Greatest his first loss in 32 professional fights.

Neil Leifer

Ali poses with the fight poster for his upcoming fight against Jimmy Ellis during a photograph shoot in July 1971. Ellis was an old friend of Ali's — both were trained by Angelo Dundee — and knew his fighting style well from many rounds of sparring.

Neil Leifer

For those sportswriters lucky plenty to embrace Ali on a regular ground, each twenty-four hours brought surprises and, more oftentimes than not, plenty of laughs. of Trainer Drew Bundini Brown helps Ali railroad train for his fight confronting Ellis. Ali won the bout by technical knockout in the 12th circular to merits the vacant NABF heavyweight championship.

Neil Leifer

The man in the mirror stares dorsum every bit Ali examines himself while preparation for a fight in 1972. He won all half-dozen of his fights that year.

Neil Leifer

The Louisville Lip stands next to George Foreman earlier Ali's fight versus Jerry Quarry in June 1972. Ali won by technical knockout in the seventh round. Foreman at the time was 36-0. Ali would not become his shot against Foreman for more than 2 years.

Neil Leifer

Ali throws a left hook at Bob Foster in their 1972 fight at Stateline, Nev. Although Ali knocked Foster out, Foster did exit his marker: a cut above Ali's left eye, his first every bit a professional person.

Neil Leifer

Foster lies on the canvas after getting knocked down by Ali. Ali knocked Foster downwards four times in the 5th circular and twice more in the seventh round before he was finally counted out later on Ali knocked him down again in the eighth round.

Neil Leifer

Ali sits with sportscaster Howard Cosell before his fight with Joe Bugner in February 1973. Although unable to knock Bugner out, Ali won comfortably by unanimous decision.

Neil Leifer

Ali hits a speed purse while warming up for his tour with Bugner in Las Vegas. Ali prepared ferociously for the fight, training 67 rounds the calendar week leading up to the fight, including half dozen rounds the day before the fight.

Neil Leifer

In a lighter pre-fight moment, Ali poses for a portrait wearing a lid in his dressing room before the match with Bugner.

Neil Leifer

Ali plays with Sugar Ray Robinson'south hair in the locker room before his bout with Bugner. The one-time welterweight and middleweight champion was Ali'south childhood idol.

Neil Leifer

Before the fight with Bugner, Muhammad Ali enjoys a relaxed moment with a poodle at Caesars Palace Hotel. He won the fight with Bugner by unanimous decision.

Neil Leifer

Howard Cosell interviews Ali, with entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. in the center, afterward his victory over Joe Bugner by unanimous decision in. Although the fight was never in jeopardy of getting abroad from him, Ali praised Bugner'south legs and said he could be a champion in a few years.

Neil Leifer

Ali changes the diaper of his son in his bedroom during a photo shoot at the family'southward home in April 1973. Ali had suffered a broken jaw less than a month earlier in his fight against Ken Norton.

Neil Leifer

In the wake of his carve up decision loss to Norton, Ali plays with his son in his bedroom at dwelling house in Cherry Hill, N.J.

Neil Leifer

Ali kisses his girl Jamillah exterior of their home following the loss to Norton, only the second defeat of his career.

Neil Leifer

The Ali family standing exterior their New Jersey abode. To the right of Muhammad Ali are his twin daughters, Jamilllah and Rasheda, daughter Maryum and his wife, Khalilah, property their son Ibn Muhammad Ali Jr.

Neil Leifer

At his training camp cabin, Ali pushes a boulder during a photograph shoot in Deer Lake, Penn., in August 1973. Ali was preparation for his rematch against Ken Norton, who bankrupt his jaw five months earlier.

Neil Leifer

Ali chops forest at his cabin in Deer Lake. He referred to the training military camp as "fighter's heaven" and used it to set for fights away from the spotlight.

Neil Leifer

The fighters weigh in on the This evening Bear witness with Johnny Carson ahead of Ali and Ken Norton's September 1973 fight.

Neil Leifer

Johnny Carson listens to Ali on the Tonight Show three days before his rematch with Norton. Ali would avenge his earlier loss to Norton, winning a narrow dissever decision.

Neil Leifer

Ali poses in front of posters and magazine covers from throughout his career at his training camp cabin in Deer Lake in 1974.

Neil Leifer

Ali poses with members of his family in front of a affiche from his first fight with Joe Frazier. Ali's blood brother, Rahman Ali; mother, Odessa Clay; and begetter, Cassius Clay Sr. stand behind the boxer.

Neil Leifer

Less than three weeks before his rematch with Joe Frazier on Jan. 28, 1974, Ali wraps his hands while wearing a sauna suit at his training camp cabin.

Neil Leifer

Ali holds a newspaper at his cabin in January 1974. He is pointing to a headline that reads, "Frazier On Ali, I Call back He'southward Crazy." Ali and Frazier fought for the 2d time later that month with Ali winning by a unanimous decision.

Neil Leifer

Ali lies on his bed at his motel during the Jan 1974 photo shoot.

Neil Leifer

His smaller incarnation stares straight back as Ali plays with a doll of himself during the aforementioned 1974 shoot at his training campsite cabin.

Neil Leifer

Ali and Joe Frazier fight on the set of The Dick Cavett Testify while reviewing their 1971 bout in advance of their 1974 rematch. Ali chosen Frazier ignorant, to which Frazier took exception. As the studio coiffure tried to at-home Frazier down, Ali held Frazier past the neck, forcing him to sit down and sparking a fight. The tv set set fight amped up apprehension of their January 1974 bout.

Neil Leifer

Exploring a unlike side of the sport, Ali broadcasts the fight between George Foreman and Ken Norton in March 1974. Foreman won the fight by technical knockout in the second circular, setting up the showdown with Ali in Zaire.

Tony Triolo

Ali jumps rope at the Salle de Congres in Kinshasa, Zaire, while training for his heavyweight title fight confronting George Foreman. Both Ali and Foreman spent most of the summer of 1974 preparation in Zaire to accommodate to the climate.

Neil Leifer

While training before his fight with George Foreman, Ali kisses his mother, Odessa Dirt, while his father, Cassius Dirt Sr., looks on. Ali'southward superior strategy and ability to take a dial led him to his upset victory as he captivated body blows from Foreman before he responded with powerful combinations to Foreman's head.

Neil Leifer

Four days earlier the fight, Ali holds the hand of his son Ibn in Zaire. Ali successfully courted the favor of the Zaire crowd, prompting chants of "Ali bomaye!" — translated as "Ali, kill him!"

Neil Leifer

Ali poses in forepart of the Le Militant statue at the presidential complex that was the site of Ali's January heavyweight title bout with Foreman. The fight was originally set for a month earlier, but Foreman suffered a cut near his eye during grooming, forcing a filibuster.

Neil Leifer

Ali stands confronting the railing on the River Zaire watching the sunset four days earlier the Rumble in the Jungle. The fight was sponsored by Zaire to achieve the $5 meg handbag promoter Don Rex had promised both Ali and Foreman.

Neil Leifer

Earlier employing his famous rope-a-dope strategy confronting Foreman, Ali makes a face at the photographic camera. Ali allowed Foreman to throw many punches but only into his arms and torso, and when Foreman tired himself out from the mostly ineffective punches, Ali took control of the fight.

Neil Leifer

Ali points before his bout with Foreman. The victory over his favored opponent made him the heavyweight champion of the world for the first time since he was stripped of his titles in 1967.

Neil Leifer

Ali stares at George Foreman during the Rumble in the Jungle. Ali earned his shot at the heavyweight championship by defeating Joe Frazier in January 1974, avenging a loss three years earlier.

Tony Triolo

Foreman lies down on the canvass as Ali stands in the background during the Rumble in the Jungle. Ali knocked Foreman downwards with a five-dial combination in the eighth round, and referee Zack Clayton counted him out.

Neil Leifer

Big George stares at the ceiling as referee Zack Clayton counts him out in the 8th round. The victory made Ali, one time again, the heavyweight champion of the globe.

Neil Leifer

Ali poses for a portrait after being selected as the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Twelvemonth in 1974. Ali wore a dashiki, a men's garment widely worn in West Africa. He also brought the walking stick given to him past Zaire's president.

Neil Leifer

This time Ali wears a tuxedo, but keeps the walking stick, during the November photo shoot for Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year.

Neil Leifer

Ali talks with Howard Cosell outside of the United Nations Headquarters for a segment on the Wide Earth of Sports. Afterwards that day, Ali held a press briefing to announce that he would donate role of the proceeds from his fight against Chuck Wepner to help Africans in the Sahel drought.

Neil Leifer

Ali talks with Reverend Jesse Jackson outside of the Un Headquarters before a press conference to announce that he would donate role of the gain from his fight against Chuck Wepner to help Africans in the Sahel drought.

Neil Leifer

Ali stands with trainer Angelo Dundee, assistant trainer Wali Muhammad, physician Dr. Ferdie Pacheco and assistant trainer Drew Bundini Chocolate-brown before his bout with Ron Lyle in May 1975. Ali won the fight by technical knockout in the 11th round.

Neil Leifer

Along with Don King and Joe Frazier, Ali sabbatum for a portrait leading up to the Thrilla in Manila. Ali verbally abused Frazier during the buildup to the fight, telling the media that "it will be a killa and a thrilla and a chilla when I get the gorilla in Manila."

Neil Leifer

Ali points at the camera with Don Male monarch and his preparation staff behind him before the counterbalance-in for the Thrilla in Manila in Oct 1975. Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos offered to sponsor the bout and agree it in Metro Manila to divert attention from the turmoil in the country that had forced the imposition of martial law in 1972.

Neil Leifer

Wrapping upwards Joe Frazier proved more difficult than Ali expected, having thought Frazier would represent an piece of cake payday and be unable to live upwardly to his billing. The fight turned out to be a brutal affair.

Neil Leifer

Frazier faces an Ali correct hook in their fight in Quezon Urban center, Philippines. The two fighters traded vicious blows during their 14 rounds. "Man, I hitting him with punches that'd bring down the walls of a urban center," Frazier said. Ali withstood the blows to win by TKO in the 15th round.

Neil Leifer

The tertiary fight between Ali and Frazier, Ali won the bruising battle betwixt the two powerful punching heavyweights when Frazier's trainer, Eddie Futch, stopped the fight earlier the 15th round.

Neil Leifer

A back and forth exchange, Ali controlled the early on rounds of the Thrilla in Manila earlier Frazier fought back with powerful hooks. Ali finished strong, regaining momentum in the later rounds.

Neil Leifer

Ali speaks to the press subsequently winning the Thrilla in Manila bout with Frazier.

Tony Triolo

Ali holds a drinking concoction given to him by Dick Gregory, an advocate of a raw fruit and vegetable diet, in 1976.

Tony Triolo

Before his 1976 fight against Ken Norton at Yankee Stadium, Ali watches a fight on television from his hotel room. A police strike at the time of the fight created a dangerous surround exterior the stadium that all but eliminated walk-up sales.

Jerry Cooke

Norton takes a right claw during the heavyweight title fight against Ali. The tour, which Ali won past a unanimous, merely controversial, decision, was the last boxing friction match at Yankee Stadium until 2010.

Neil Leifer

Ali makes a confront during his fight with Earnie Shavers in 1977 at Madison Square Garden. Hurt badly by Shavers in the second round, Ali rebounded and outboxed Shavers throughout to build a lead on points earlier Shavers came on again in the after rounds. Seemingly exhausted going into the 15th and final round, Ali remained victorious past producing a closing flurry that left Shavers wobbling at the bell and the Garden crowd once over again in delirium over his Ali magic.

Neil Leifer

Ali squares off with Leon Spinks at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel in Feb 1978. Spinks won the fight in a separate decision, catastrophe Ali'southward 3.v-year reign as the heavyweight champion. It was the only time in Ali's career that he lost his title title in the ring.

Neil Leifer

Leon Spinks took eye stage over Ali at the printing conference later on their fight. The victorious Spinks and his gap-toothed grinning were featured on the Feb. nineteen, 1978 cover of Sports Illustrated.

Neil Leifer

Ali lands a straight correct hand to the head of Spinks in the rematch of their title bout in 1978. Ali won on a 15 round decision.

Lane Stewart

Don King pulled the strings again when Ali faced Larry Holmes before their November 1980 fight. King became a key figure in Ali's career, promoting his biggest fights, the Thrilla in Manila and the Rumble in the Jungle.

John Iacono

Ali points at Larry Holmes earlier their bout at Caesars Palace in 1980.

John Iacono

Ali grapples with Holmes during their tour in 1980. Trainer Angelo Dundee stopped the fight in the 11th round, mark the fight equally Ali's only career loss past knockout.

John Iacono

Drew Bundini Brown leans in to speak to Ali, who returned to fight Holmes subsequently a brief retirement. By this fourth dimension, Ali had already begun developing a vocal stutter and trembling hands and taken thyroid medication to lose weight that left him tired and short of breath.

John Iacono

Ignoring pleas for his retirement, Ali stretches before a fight against Trevor Berbick in Nassau, Bahama islands. Ali lost to Berbick in a unanimous decision and retired later the bout, the 61st of his career.

Peter Read Miller

Ali pretends to spar with artist LeRoy Neiman at his home in Los Angeles. Neiman met Ali in 1962 and made many paintings and sketches from throughout Ali'due south life.

Neil Leifer

Block in mitt, Ali poses for a 50th birthday portrait in 1991. Although diagnosed with Parkinson's syndrome 7 years earlier, Ali was still active, traveling to Iraq during the Gulf State of war to encounter with Saddam Hussein in an endeavor to negotiate the release of American hostages.

Neil Leifer

The same year, Ali stands atop of the Sonny Liston rock at his quondam training camp cabin. Ali and his father painted the names of famous boxers he admired on eighteen boulders at the camp.

Peter Read Miller

Ali carries the Olympic torch inside Centennial Olympic Stadium at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Despite trembling hands, Ali had the honor to low-cal the Olympic flame in the stadium.

Neil Leifer

Hubby and wife pose for a portrait during a photograph shoot in 1997. Muhammad and Lonnie married in 1986 and have an adopted son together, Asaad Amin Ali.

Neil Leifer

Ali messes around with actor Billy Crystal during a photo shoot in 2000. Crystal'southward impression of Ali was notorious, and he performed at a tribute to the boxer on his 50th birthday in Dec 1991.

Neil Leifer

Ali lies on the canvas as his son, Assad Amin Ali, stands over him invoking memories of Ali'south victory over Sonny Liston during a photograph shoot in the gym at his farm on Kephart Road near Berrien Springs in 2001.

Walter Iooss Jr.

Tearing rivals in the ring, Ali and Joe Frazier pose for a portrait in the boxing robes they wore the night of their first bout at Frazier'southward Gym in 2003. Ali said later on Frazier's death in 2011 that he was "a great champion."

Neil Leifer

Ali takes a punch from his daughter Laila Ali while sparring before her fight against Erin Toughill in 2005. Laila retired from her own successful boxing career with a professional tape of 24-0.

Walter Iooss Jr.

Ali poses with his fists upwardly for a portrait in 2005.

Neil Leifer

Ali poses with an extended punch in a 2012 photo shoot at his home in Paradise Valley, Ariz., to mark his 70th altogether.

Neil Leifer

Ali sits in front of a 70th birthday cake in January 2012 at his Arizona home. Later that year he appeared at the opening ceremonies for the 2012 Olympics in London to escort the Olympic flag into the stadium, 52 years after he won gold in Rome.

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Source: https://www.si.com/boxing/2015/09/24/muhammad-ali-larry-holmes-fight-si-vault

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