Muhammad Ali The Greatest is Gone
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That retirement was short-lived, however, and on October 2, 1980, he challenged Larry Holmes for the WBC’s version of the world Heavyweight title. Looking to set another record, as the first boxer to win the Heavyweight title four times, Ali lost by technical knockout in round eleven, when Dundee would not let him come out for the round.
The Holmes fight, promoted as “The Last Hurrah”, was a fight many fans and experts view with disdain, because of what many viewed as a “deteriorated version” of Ali. Holmes was Ali’s sparring partner when Holmes was a budding fighter; thus, some viewed the result of the fight as a symbolic “passing of the torch.” Holmes even admitted later that, although he dominated the fight, he held his punches back a bit out of sheer respect for his idol, and former employer.
It was revealed after the fight that Ali had been examined at the Mayo Clinic, and the results were shocking. He had admitted to tingling in his hands, and slurring of his speech. The exam revealed he actually had a hole in the membrane of his brain. However, Don King withheld this report, and allowed the fight to go on.
Despite the apparent finality of his loss to Holmes and his increasingly suspect medical condition, Ali would fight one more time. On December 11, 1981, he fought rising contender and future world champion Trevor Berbick, in what was billed as “The Drama in the Bahamas.” Because Ali was widely viewed as a damaged fighter, few American venues expressed much interest in hosting the bout, and few fans expressed much interest in attending or watching it.
Compared to the mega-fights Ali fought in widely known venues earlier in his career, the match took place in virtual obscurity, in Nassau. Although Ali performed marginally better against Berbick than he had against Holmes fourteen months earlier, he still lost a 10-round unanimous decision to Berbick, who at 27 was twelve years younger.
Following this loss, Ali retired permanently in 1981, with a career record of 56 wins (37 by knockout) and 5 losses.
In retirement: Ali was diagnosed with some type of Parkinson’s syndrome in the early 1980s, following which his motor functions began a slow decline. This was eventually determined to be Pugilistic Parkinson’s syndrome, but in the 1980s and even into the late 1990s some doctors (and Ali himself for a time) suggested the the ailment was not degenerative, not Pugilistic Parkinson’s, and even that it was unrelated to boxing – positions now largely abandoned. By late 2005 it was reported that Ali’s condition was notably worsening.. According to the documentary When We Were Kings, when Ali is asked about whether he has any regrets about boxing due to his disability, Ali responds that if he didn’t box he would still be a painter in Louisville, Kentucky.
Despite the disability, he remains a hero to millions around the world. In 1985, he served as a guest referee at the inagural WrestleMania event. Later that year, he was called upon to negotiate for the release of kidnapped Americans in Lebanon. In 1996, he had the honor of lighting the flame at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Every public appearance by Ali is treasured, including his appearance at the 1998 AFL Grand Final, where NFL Hall of Famer Anthony Pratt recruited him to watch the game. He also greets runners at the start line of the Los Angeles Marathon every year.
His daughter Laila Ali also became a boxer in 1999, despite her father’s earlier comments against female boxing in 1978: “Women are not made to be hit in the breast, and face like that… the body’s not made to be punched right here [patting his chest]. Get hit in the breast… hard… and all that.”
The $60 million Muhammad Ali Center opened in downtown Louisville, Kentucky on November 19, 2005 (his 19th wedding anniversary). In addition to displaying his boxing memorabilia, the center focuses on core themes of peace, social responsibility, respect, and personal growth. Muhammad Ali currently lives in Michigan with his fourth wife, Yolanda Williams.
He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a White House ceremony on November 9, 2005. Muhammad Ali has been married four times. His first wife was Sonji Roi, whom he married on August 14, 1964, and she had his first two children, they divorced on January 10, 1966. His second wife was Khalilah ‘Belinda’ Ali, whom he married on August 17, 1967; and she had four of his nine children, they divorced in 1977. His third wife was Veronica Porsche Ali, whom he married on August 19, 1977, and she had two children with him, one of which was Laila Ali; they divorced in July, 1986. His fourth and current wife is Lonnie Ali, whom he married on November 19, 1986, and they adopted a son named Asaad. His children are: Rasheedah, Jamilla, Maryum, Miya, Khalilah, Hana, Laila, Muhammad Jr. and Asaad. He also learned Taekwondo from Jhoon Rhee.
Ali lives in Scottsdale, Arizona with his fourth wife, Yolanda “Lonnie” Ali. They own a house in Berrien Springs, Michigan, which is for sale. On January 9, 2007, they purchased a house in eastern Jefferson County, Kentucky for $1,875,000. Lonnie converted to Islam from Catholicism in her late 20s.
On the 17th of August 2009, it was voted unanimously by the town council of Ennis, Co Clare, Ireland to make Ali the first Freeman of Ennis. Ennis was the birthplace of Ali’s great grandfather before he emigrated to the U.S. in the 1860s, before eventually settling in Kentucky. On September 1, 2009, Ali visited the town of Ennis and at a civic reception he received the honour of the freedom of the town.
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