Thread: When should Muhammad Ali have retired permanently?

When he returned to boxing, he fought almost as well as he used to in the 60s. He dogged his way through to the 3-8-71 title fight with Smokin' Joe and took a hideous shellacking, he could have retired there, nobody would have faulted him, he fought like a warrior and took shots no human being should have to take, for 15 grueling rounds from Hell.

But he fought on, and soon thereafter took another hiding from Kenny Norton in early '73. He looked like real crap in that fight, rewatching it a couple of times recently I was shocked how bad he looked, he couldnt get out of the way of shots, Norton shellacked him for 12 embarrassing rounds. Of course he had the broken jaw excuse.

But when he beat Frazier in the rematch in '74 and worked his way back to a title shot with Big George Foreman, everyone assumed he would be murdered in the ring. When he KOed Foreman, THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE PERFECT TIME TO RETIRE. NOBODY WOULD HAVE FAULTED HIM.

But his ego forced him to seek revenge against Ken Norton 2 more times and Joe Frazier one more time. Those 3 fights right there took a heavy toll on Ali's health. Not satisfied, he then had to go on to fight Chuck Wepner, Joe Bugner, Jean Pierre Coopman, Alfredo Evangelista, Jimmy Young, Ron Lyle, Earnie Shavers, Leon Spinks, Larry Holmes, Trevor Berbick, etc.....