All the old detractors came out of the woodwork where they had been lurking. That loud-mouthed punk had finally got what was coming to him. No one believed that he could come back again, except Ali. The experts wrote him off as too old and too slow.
In probably one of the last fights televised live on Network television Ali danced around Leon Spinks for fifteen rounds. Bobbing and weaving, he hit Spinks at will. It didn't matter that his punches lacked the power they once had, what mattered is that he couldn't be touched. He was still up on his toes in round fifteen, effortlessly holding his opponent at bay with jabs to the face and fancy footwork.
Up in the broadcast booth, Howard Cosell, who had covered Ali's fights for longer then anybody else in the media, couldn't help himself. There had been times when the two men had been at odds with each other, but not now. As Ali put on a boxing clinic Cosell became less and less the objective media representative and more the fan. At one point in round fifteen he did something I'll never forget: (for a variety of reasons) he recited chunks of the Bob Dylan song "Forever Young" in recognition of Ali's achievement that night. (This wasn't the last time that Cosell would break out of his sportscasters' role and reach out to the audience: on the night John Lennon was murdered, he was working Monday night football. All of a sudden the commentary stopped. He came back on the air and made the announcement of what had happened, and said he didn't think it appropriate to continue on with the commentary, and just let the game run on its on.)
That fight was pretty much it for Ali's career. Larry Holmes was waiting in the wings, and became the next champion. Heavyweight boxing hasn't been the same. Those same people who probably dumped on Ali have finally realized what a unique person he was, and how much money he made them. Without his presence the sport has once again been relegated to the fringes of the sports sections. The lightweights and the featherweights have their followers, especially amongst the Latino population in the United States, but they don't have the glamour of the heavyweights.
Article comments
1 - Lamar Cole
Muhammad Ali may be frail in body but not in spirit. Even now, he still has the heart of a champion.