When should have Muhammad Ali retired to avoid Parkinson's disease?

He should have hung them up after the thrilla in manila.

Ideally, after beating Foreman in Zaire. Probably the biggest sports moment ever at the time and still one of the biggest ever today. He had finally reclaimed the world title exactly ten years after he first won it, did so by beating a guy that was thought to be unbeatable (members of Ali's camp were even teary-eyed thinking he was gonna get seriously hurt), had already avenged his losses to Frazier and Norton, etc. Or maybe he should have rematched Foreman like Foreman wanted and then rode off into the sunset after beating him again. I get that the Thrilla In Manilla is a classic fight, but it's also been attributed to Ali's Parkinson's more than any other fight.

I think he achieved his zenith after the foreman fight and even though he won the 3rd against frazier the decline was there....I know the spinks fight was a third world title win but it was to do with the fact spinks was not a very good world champion....zaire was his crowning moment for me and he never surpassed that....but he loved boxing it was his life and the ring was home.....he achieved things in life that none of us could ever dream to.....and his passing signals one shining thing that he is the best sportsman that's ever lived and even though he's passed away his aura and legend will continue .....amazing man and in the UK we idolised him

I don't think that Parkinson's can be brought on by boxing. Because of the disease it is difficult to say how much he actually is brain damaged, if at all. But I would've liked to see him retire at the very least before the Holmes' fight, maybe before the first Spinks' bout. I agree with this comment.

Don't get me wrong I'm glad the thriller in Manila happened for a fans perspective but that fight was very damaging to Ali's health and he continued to take beatings after that fight. Unfortunately for Ali's health too is the fact that he had one of the greatest chins in boxing. Ali could take punches all night and too many times he did to. Watching Angelo Dundee pull Ali out of the Holmes fight was one of the saddest moments, Ali should never have been there that night. Dundee didn't want to train him either, he said in an interview later that he only trained Ali because in the fight he'd be the only person around Ali that would pull him out, and that's exactly what he did. Damn, the Holmes fight is symbolic of all the things wrong with the sport. You got Don King and Kris Kristofferson (not sure who came up with that one?) lying through their teeth on the broadcast and trying to sell it as a competitive fight while Ali is getting beaten from corner to corner. A seriously damn depressing and shameful moment in boxing history.

I don't know so much about when he should have stopped. What I do know though, is that the popular theme of outdoor fights in hostile environments couldn't have been healthy. Ali fell out after the fight in Manila and Foreman went crazy in Puerto Rico. Outside of that, the Ali vs. Frazier trilogy provided two fights that would have taken pieces of any man. And I'm sure Ali would have never changed a thing about those fights. Fights I and III were legacy defining wars.

I remember reading somewhere that Ali's private doctor was interviewed and that he thought Ali should have retired five years earlier than he did. Which means 1976 You might be on to something. In 1976 Ali fought Jimmy Young. Check this out (interview after the Jimmy Young fight) http://www.boxingscene.com/forums/showthread.php?t=713389 VasyLomachenko

I don't think that Parkinson's can be brought on by boxing. Because of the disease it is difficult to say how much he actually is brain damaged, if at all. But I would've liked to see him retire at the very least before the Holmes' fight, maybe before the first Spinks' bout. boxing had nothing to do with his Parkinson Stop bullsh*tting, fellas. Ali's Parkinson's was caused by taking too many punches in the head from big punchers like Foreman and Shavers... Big punchers who are heavyweights. http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll203/greatfind/ALISPORTSILL.jpg From BoxRec (http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Larry_Holmes_vs._Muhammad_Ali)... "Three months before the fight, Ali was ordered by the Nevada State Athletic Commission to go to the Mayo Clinic for a neurological exam. The exam was not made public at the time but contained the following results: Ali was a little off when he tried to touch his finger to his nose, he had trouble coordinating his speech, and he couldn***8217;t hop on one foot well. Nevada approved the fight with Holmes based on this exam." That terrifies me.

Ali took a tremendous amount of punishment in the Foreman fight. Just listen to Big George describe the beating he gave to Muhammad. Skip to 55:10

I think id rather have my health Live fast and short like a God or live long while being just another guy. I know I'd go for the former.

If that were true then Ali would have traded his health for his entire legacy in boxing. I'd rather become one of the greatest sportsment and one of the most famous people ever lived and then get the disease instead of just becoming another good fighter and keep my health. I think id rather have my health

BEFORE the first Frazier bout. That was one of those bouts that took something very large out of both boxers. If that were true then Ali would have traded his health for his entire legacy in boxing. I'd rather become one of the greatest sportsment and one of the most famous people ever lived and then get the disease instead of just becoming another good fighter and keep my health.

Before the Thrilla in Manilla, I can honestly say I've never seen an interview with Ali where any of the symptoms of Parkinson's syndrome were present. But from 1976 onwards you can hear the odd slur in his speech or see the 'vacant' expression that is a characteristic of Parkinsons. There are times in his own movie 'The Greatest' where he is much different from how is was in 'When We Were Kings' from three years previous. The strange thing is, his symptoms weren't consistent......even in the late 70s. I've seen interviews in 1978 where Ali seemed fantastic, and others where you could believe he might be showing some symptoms of the syndrome. By 1980, you can see in the Ali/Holmes documentary that there was a marked change in him from 1975 though......and an even greater change by 1981 in the post fight interview after the Berbick fight. Despite taking no further punches, he was much worse again in 1988 for 'Champions Forever'. So it is debatable if his Parkinsons was started by boxing, or made worse by boxing. His condition has definitely deteriorated over the years. If one fight could be blamed I'd say the Thrilla in Manilla. But his plight might have been the same whether he retired straight after or before this fight. We'll never know.......

After the Foreman fight he had nothing to prove after that. I think that Thrilla in Manila 1in 1975 took a beating on Ali's brain

BEFORE the first Frazier bout. That was one of those bouts that took something very large out of both boxers.

Him and Michael J. Fox just didn't know when to retire from boxing.

Ali not only needed to fight during that time because of the money because he had been married, divorced and sued multiple times by former wives for alimony and child support but he also craved the spotlight. He loved and enjoyed the notoriety and recognition of being heavyweight champion so he could use it as a platform in order to speak out on various social issues because had he not been the champ, then no one would have cared one way or the other of what he was trying to say.

Don't get me wrong I'm glad the thriller in Manila happened for a fans perspective but that fight was very damaging to Ali's health and he continued to take beatings after that fight. Unfortunately for Ali's health too is the fact that he had one of the greatest chins in boxing. Ali could take punches all night and too many times he did to. Watching Angelo Dundee pull Ali out of the Holmes fight was one of the saddest moments, Ali should never have been there that night. Dundee didn't want to train him either, he said in an interview later that he only trained Ali because in the fight he'd be the only person around Ali that would pull him out, and that's exactly what he did.

Pretty much. The third Frazier fight did his health no favors. Things could have been different if he retired before that fight took place. Beating Foreman in Africa would have been the perfect ending. He would retire having beaten every guy he'd faced and capped it off with one of the greatest moments in sports history.....but of course that would never happen, I imagine being the champ and all that comes with it is like one of the most addictive drugs you could take. Frazier and Shavers took what was left of Ali but that's not to meant all the hours and hours of sparring, the busy schedule, fighting more often than most current heavyweights, it was ridiculous. Then came the humiliation of Holmes As you said though, Ali loved the limelight, he loved the money, he loved the women, he loved the crowd, he loved boxing and he loved the fact that he could help others with the profile that he had. It was all too much, plus he had too many voices whispering in his ears, telling him he was the greatest, how could the greatest lose?

After the Thrilla in Manila in 1975, he should have retired but instead had gone on to fight for six more years. That one night n Manila almost singled-handedly ruined what was ever left of his boxing career. He would never be the same person after that bout again.