On October 3, 1980, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nev., Larry Holmes, then 31 and the WBC Heavyweight Champion, badly defeated a tired, failing Muhammad Ali. The two had been sparring partners in the early 1970s, but unbeknownst to Holmes, the Greatest was in the early stages of Parkinson’s Disease. This is Holmes’ remembrance of that fight:
“Listen, Ali was good, man.
Ali dealt with everybody, the women, the men, everybody. He didn’t f – – k around. He didn’t jive, man. He was a good guy.
[The fight] was difficult, because he was my buddy. I knew I could whup him, because I was doing it in the [training] camp.
You know how in boxing, it can start getting to the guy, so I didn’t want to get to him and hurt him and whatever.
I said, ‘Why are you taking all these goddamn punches? What the f – – k’s wrong with you?’
And he cussed me out.
I said, ‘Don’t take all these goddamn punches,’ and he told me to ‘Shut the f – – k up.’
I never heard Ali swear until he got in the ring with me. All them years that I worked with him in the gym as a sparring partner, he never cursed.
It shocked me.
After the fight, you know, I went to him. I said to him, ‘Man, I still love you, man.’
He said, ‘If you love me, why’d you whup me like that?”
Listen, I’m going to tell you what I’m going to miss. I’m going to miss knowing him. That’s what I’m going to miss. Just knowing him.”
