Muhammad Ali is the greatest legend in boxing – perhaps even in sports in general. But in the fight against Larry Holmes 44 years ago today, the myth of Ali lost its luster.
The fight that should never have taken place ended in the tenth round. Muhammad Ali’s trainer Angelo Dundee intervened after the “Greatest” was humiliated round after round by his opponent Larry Holmes. “The game is over,” he shouted at the referee.
For this “game”, the world championship fight in a makeshift arena in front of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Ali had returned from boxing retirement at the age of 38 after a two-year break – after he had previously not cut a good figure in two fights against Leon Spinks, who had died two years earlier.
On October 2, 1980 – 44 years ago today – the living legend took to the ring under the title “The Last Hurrah” against his former sparring partner Holmes, who was eight years his junior.
Muhammad Ali 1980 only a shadow
Ali was still a money-making machine at this point. Promoter Don King secured him a purse of eight million dollars (six million for Holmes), a horrendous sum at the time, and originally wanted to stage the fight in front of over 100,000 spectators in the legendary Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
The passive, portly Ali who enters the ring in Vegas has nothing in common with the winner of “Rumble in the Jungle” and “Thrilla in Manila”, the conqueror of Sonny Liston, Floyd Patterson, George Foreman and Joe Frazier.
