When should have ali retired?

[rightsideup]

His present health status is partly due to his boxing career when should have he hung them up? I think some of his last fights did not contribute to his legacy.

[Xyei]

Probably after the last Ken Norton fight.

[Ray Corso]

For me the Foreman win because he had nothing to prove after that! He took a beaten from Leon and was one round away from being stopped! The Jimmy Young fight was a terrible bout for him too!! When he took his robe off against Holmes I knew he was done because he trained to get his body "looking" good and took alot of bad meds to get there. He was at 217lbs and looked great but he was an empty shell. I remember adults crying in the New Haven Civic Center as the rounds went on and seeing Holmes pleading with the ref to stop it!! I walked out in round 5 I think, its one of the sadest boxing events I ever saw!!! I've seen some terrible things in the sport of boxing, even death inperson!!! I can tell when a fighter needs to stop, its in his eyes. Ray.

[Scott9945]

Probably after the last Ken Norton fight.

That would have been ideal, and the absolute latest he should have retired was after the Spinks rematch.

[Xyei]

I hear you, Ray but if he had retired after the Foreman win, we never would have gotten the Thrilla in Manilla.

[T.Horton]

I hear you, Ray but if he had retired after the Foreman win, we never would have gotten the Thrilla in Manilla.

he'd still be ranked higher than any heavyweight without the Thrilla in my opinion.

what are you wearing?

[T.Horton]

Ending with Foreman would have been ideal in my opinion.

[Sugarj]

Its a difficult subject. I personally started to notice the odd strange symptom in Ali after the Thrilla in Manilla.....never before. Sometimes he'd get that vacant look in interviews that is characteristic of the post retirement Ali. He was certainly never as good again in the ring.

I could believe that the Thrilla in Manilla contributed to the start of what we now know as his 'Parkinson's syndrome'. The only issue is, apparently others in his family have something very similar, despite never absorbing thousands of head punches. At one point Parkinson's syndrome seemed to be thought of in a different light to actual Parkinson's disease, but I'm not convinced Ali's condition is a syndrome acquired soley though head punches.

Whatever he has had, since the Berbick fight has clearly worsened over the years despite the lack of no further brain trauma.........so I could believe that even if he had retired post Foreman; he might have still ended up in the same condition.

If Ali had retired post Foreman we wouldn't have had some excellent fights, Frazier 3, Norton 3, Shavers or the glory of winning the title 3 times against Spinks.

He clearly should have not met Holmes or Berbick.....

[KO'er]

After Ken Norton III IMO.

[Xyei]

he'd still be ranked higher than any heavyweight without the Thrilla in my opinion.

what are you wearing?

What am I wearing?

I'm not saying that he needed that fight for his legacy but it was one of the best HW fights in the history of the sport. It sure did take a lot out of him though and he was never really the same after that fight.