When was muhammad alis last fight

Donald Romeo, the Nevada commission doctor, made no move to stop it. Trainer Angelo Dundee was the one who called the fight to a halt, and the next day, Ali said, "Under the conditions with me taking so many punches, I'm glad it was stopped. Ali admitted he had a desire to fight again. If it happened, Dundee said he'd be there to have someone who cared about Ali in the corner if he got in trouble. A search of records later revealed Cornelius was a felon facing an outstanding warrant for his arrest in Atlanta on charges he violated terms of probation received for a conviction on five counts of theft.

The promotion was rife with allegations of governmental corruption in the Bahamas, shady financial dealings and utter ineptitude in terms of promoting a major heavyweight fight.

Several undercard fighters, including middleweight Thomas Hearns and heavyweights Greg Page and Scott LeDoux, also threatened to pull out. Negotiations that reached Prime Minister Lynden O. Pindling resulted in him prevailing upon Victor Sayyah, a Colorado real estate and insurance executive with holdings in the Bahamas, and Bahamas World Airlines chairman Everett Bannister to agree to underwrite unpaid promotional expenses.

Satellite Sports president Sheldon Saltman, the cable telecast operator, threatened to pull out just over a week before the fight, he said, because no one had been paid to build the temporary stadium that was erected behind second base on a rundown high school baseball field.

Sayyah came through with the money to get the production to fight day. As I wrote after the weigh-in, "The aging Islamic warrior tried on his old uniform and popped all the buttons. Against the former heavyweight champion of Germany in Zurich, Ali cut Blin over both eyes before catching him with a decisive right in the seventh. The first fight held in Asia between two top ranked heavyweights was a dull affair. There were no knock downs for the Tokyo crowd and it ended in a routine points win for Ali.

Despite some ferocious assaults Ali failed to put Chuvalo on the canvas in their second meeting and had to settle for a points win. Another of Ali's sparring partners, Lewis looked down and out in the fifth at Dublin's Croke Park but fought on before the referee put him out of his misery in the penultimate round. In their second meeting, seven years after the first, the two boxers fought for the National American Boxing Federation title at Madison Square Garden.

Ali, defending that title for a fourth time, cut Patterson above his left eye in the sixth round and by the end of the seventh it had swollen shut. The referee ended the fight — and soon afterwards Patterson retired.

The world light-heavyweight champion, Foster, visited the canvas six times before Ali delivered the knockout blow in the eighth round. After securing a narrow win over Britain's European heavyweight champion Ali later declared that Bugner could be world champion if he carried on boxing as well as he had.

For only the second time in his career Ali tasted defeat — and had his jaw broken in the 11th round — as Norton took the National American Boxing Federation title, in the first of their three fights, on a split decision. In the first rematch six months later Ali came out on top — also on a split decision — after some furious exchanges between the pair during the fight.

The Dutch champion, Lubbers, absorbed a lot of punishment but Ali could not nail his man. He won on a unanimous decision but his display raised serious doubts about his chances of being able to beat the world champion George Foreman to regain the title. The filling in the sandwich between the Fight of the Century and the Thrilla in Manila hardly whetted the appetite.

Ali stayed out of trouble and Frazier failed to get under his arms as he had in the first fight at Madison Square Garden, complaining that Ali was holding in the clinches.

Frazier was rocked by a straight right in the second round but neither could land a decisive blow and Ali received a unanimous points verdict. The Rumble in the Jungle ended in pandemonium as Ali, having absorbed the best of Foreman's punches, floored the champion with a left-right combination to regain the world title against the odds. After Ali had easily outfought Wepner in the first eight rounds the title challenger had the temerity to knock Ali down in the ninth.

Ali responded devastatingly. In the opening rounds, Ali did not fight aggressively unlike Lyle, instead conserving his energy for later rounds. In the 11th Ali produced a series of punches that Lyle could not cope with, forcing the referee to call a halt. The second fight between the pair was a one-sided affair, although Bugner managed to hold on for the full 15 rounds before Ali was given a unanimous points victory.

At first, he called himself Cassius X before settling on the name Muhammad Ali. The boxer eventually converted to orthodox Islam during the s. Ali started a different kind of fight with his outspoken views against the Vietnam War.

Drafted into the military in April , he refused to serve on the grounds that he was a practicing Muslim minister with religious beliefs that prevented him from fighting. He was arrested for committing a felony and almost immediately stripped of his world title and boxing license.

The U. Department of Justice pursued a legal case against Ali, denying his claim for conscientious objector status. He was found guilty of violating Selective Service laws and sentenced to five years in prison in June but remained free while appealing his conviction.

Unable to compete professionally in the meantime, Ali missed more than three prime years of his athletic career. Ali returned to the ring in with a win over Jerry Quarry, and the U. Supreme Court eventually overturned the conviction in June Ali had a career record of 56 wins, five losses and 37 knockouts before his retirement from boxing in at the age of Often referring to himself as "The Greatest," Ali was not afraid to sing his own praises.

He was known for boasting about his skills before a fight and for his colorful descriptions and phrases. In one of his more famously quoted descriptions, Ali told reporters that he could "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" in the boxing ring. A few of his more well-known matches include the following:. After winning gold at the Olympics, Ali took out British heavyweight champion Henry Cooper in He then knocked out Sonny Liston in to become the heavyweight champion of the world.

Ali recovered quickly, but the judges awarded the decision to Frazier, handing Ali his first professional loss after 31 wins. Dubbed the "Thrilla in Manila," the bout nearly went the distance, with both men delivering and absorbing tremendous punishment.

However, Frazier's trainer threw in the towel after the 14th round, giving the hard-fought victory to Ali. Another legendary Ali fight took place in against undefeated heavyweight champion George Foreman.

For once, Ali was seen as the underdog to the younger, massive Foreman, but he silenced his critics with a masterful performance. He baited Foreman into throwing wild punches with his "rope-a-dope" technique, before stunning his opponent with an eighth-round knockout to reclaim the heavyweight title. Some claimed that Liston had bet against himself and took a dive because he owed money to the Mafia.

Liston said years later in an interview that he feared for his safety from Nation of Islam extremists who supported Ali. As a Catholic, I am fighting Clay he persisted in calling Ali by his birth name as a patriotic duty.

I am going to return the crown to America. The skinny: Chuvalo, a Canadian, is widely regarded as having the best chin in boxing history, having never been knocked down in 93 fights. The skinny: After the controversial first fight, the second was for the world title, but it was fairly anticlimactic. Cooper, who had a tendency to suffer cuts, succumbed again to his weakness, and a bad cut over his left eye stopped the fight after six rounds.

Ingemar Johansson had said London would have struggled to beat his sister. The skinny: Ali continued his European tour. He was tired and stressed by a return to the USA to continue his fight against the military draft and was nowhere near his best.

He cut Mildenberger in the fourth and dropped him in the fifth, but the German rallied to cause Ali discomfort as the champion worked to finish off the fight. In the 12th round, with Mildenberger on the ropes, referee Teddy Waltham stopped the fight. Ali must have been grateful. When Ali heard, he gave Waltham the money from his own pocket. The skinny: Williams, 33, once a formidable fighter, was worn out by this time.

Ali became concerned that Williams might be badly hurt if the bout went on too long. That night, he was the most devastating fighter who ever lived. The skinny: Before a record indoor fight crowd of 37,, Terrell, who held the World Boxing Association belt, insisted on calling Ali by his old name, Cassius Clay.

Big mistake. By the middle rounds Terrell flinched every time Ali drew back his fist. The skinny: Just before the fight, Ali lost his appeal against his 1-A classification for the draft and was ordered to appear in Louisville on April 11 for induction into the U. In the first heavyweight title fight in the Garden in 15 years, Ali dropped Folley in the fourth round, then knocked out the year-old in the seventh round with a quick right.

The skinny: Quarry was a tough heavyweight who was perfectly capable of winning the heavyweight title that was held by Joe Frazier. He was not intimidated by Ali, but when he suffered a deep cut over his left eye that his corner was unable to close, referee Tony Perez called it after the third round. The skinny: Ali needed a court order to allow him to fight in New York. His opponent was the rugged Argentine known for not listening to his trainers Gil Clancy for this fight.

Ali had predicted a ninth-round KO and tagged Bonavena on cue, but when he moved in for the finish, Bonavena threw a desperate left hook that shook Ali. By the 15th round, with both men exhausted, Ali threw a heavy left hook that knocked down Bonavena, then dropped him twice more for the KO. The boxers were to split it. Ali called Frazier an Uncle Tom and suggested that any black person who supported Frazier instead of him was a traitor to his race. Frazier fumed and trained like never before.

Frazier won the early rounds and was relentless throughout, winning a unanimous decision in one of the fiercest fights of all time while handing Ali his first loss.

The skinny: A month before the bout, the U. Ellis was a sparring partner who had fought more than 1, rounds against Ali. But Ali stung Ellis with a straight right in the fourth round and treated the rest of the fight as if it were a sparring session, and the referee stopped the fight in the 12th round after Ali threw another hard right, sending Ellis into the ropes.

It has been said that Ali took it easy on Mathis, hardly training for the fight, which went the distance. Ali was criticized by some for not finishing Mathis.

But he said he would not hurt a man just for the benefit of the writers. The skinny: Blin was a former butcher from Hamburg. The German got up, but his corner threw in the towel. The skinny: This was the first major prizefight held in Asia. Foster, like Ellis, was a former Ali sparring partner. Ali weighed in at , 1 pound under his heaviest to date. Ali won the rounder but in disappointing fashion.

Many doubted he would find the form needed to regain the title. The skinny: In his second fight against the Canadian, Ali hit Chuvalo at will, but the bout still went 12 rounds. Ali was loathe to hurt fighters that he could beat easily. So it was with Chuvalo.