Requiem for a Heavyweight

By B.J. Phillips

The old challenger's comeback is foiled by the young champ

It was supposed to be Muhammad All's last hurrah, a final comeback to reclaim, at age 38, the heavyweight championship title he had won an unprecedented three separate times over two decades. It was, instead, a sad farewell. Too old, too slow, too punched-out, Ali was pummeled by Defending Champion Larry Holmes for ten long, painful rounds. Finally, Ali sat slumped on his stool in the corner while his handlers told the referee that he would not answer the bell for the eleventh round.

Ali had striven mightily to turn back the clock, coming out of a two-year retirement to train harder than ever. Since his defeat of Leon Spinks in the fall of 1978, Ali had ballooned to a blubbery 254 Ibs. But after he signed (for $8 million) to fight Holmes in a 25,000-seat temporary arena specially built in the parking lot of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Ali retreated to his training camp in the Pennsylvania mountains to whittle away the excess pounds. More than two months of arduous workouts reduced him to fighting trim; he weighed in at 217% Ibs., the lightest he has been since 1974, when he won the title for the second time from George Foreman in Zaire.

So Ali looked lean and fit--until he started to fight. Then it became clear that weight was perhaps the least of his problems. Age had robbed Ali of the speed that had been his hallmark. The dancing feet and lightning hands were slowed. He managed to land a few punches, but when he did, they had no sting. Holmes shrugged them off and bored in. Ali, who once could snap his head away from oncoming punches with microsecond precision, now was tardy, then immobile. Holmes pounded away with jabs that jerked back the ex-champion's neck and with whistling hooks that pounded through Ali's defenses.

From the first round, it was obvious that Holmes was in command. At 30, he is in his prime. A onetime Ali sparring partner who had ascended to the World Boxing Council title in 1978 by crushing Ken Norton, he had since defended his title seven times and won each bout by a knockout, tying Joe Louis' record. Unbeaten in 35 fights, Holmes extended his string with a masterly display of strategy and tactics. When Ali tried to shuffle out of reach, Holmes angled across the ring, cut off Ali's escape and took him to the ropes. When Ali hoisted his hands to play rope-a-dope, Holmes cunningly reached around his cover with furious hooks.

Unable to do much more than try to shield himself after the eighth round, Ali held on with the courage that, through 59 fights, had always carried him the distance. For two rounds, he seemed to be running on will alone. Indeed, Trainer Angelo Dundee had wanted to stop the fight after the ninth round, but others in Ali's entourage objected. After the next round, Manager Herbert Muhammad stepped in and asked Referee Richard Greene to end it. Said Greene: "I would have stopped it anyhow. He was bloody-eyed, and there was an overall lack of response." For the first time in his 20-year career, Ali could not finish a bout.

After the fight, Holmes was a subdued victor. Traveling the world as Ali's sparring partner, he had come to know the former champion well. In the ring, he had been reluctant to end the Ali era in ignominy: "I think the ref was a little slow stopping the fight. I held back for one whole round because I was hitting him at will." In victory, Holmes was equally respectful: "When you fight a friend--to me, a brother--and you do what you have to do, you can't get happiness from it." The next day Ali, his black eye hidden behind dark glasses, refused to rule out the possibility that he would fight again. But he admitted that the bout should have been stopped: "Taking as many punches as I was, I was glad they stopped it. Take your hearts and turn them over to Larry. He's the heavyweight champion--until I return." --By B. J. Phillips. Reported by Peter Ainslie/Las Vegas

With reporting by Peter Ainslie/Las Vegas

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