When should Muhammad Ali have retired permanently?

[beenKOed]

Anytime before he turned pro.

[Manos de Piedra]

Nothing from Bill Paxtom yet

[brocktonblockbust]

hello Bill??

[Beanflicker]

After the Thrilla in Manilla, he should have set up the 3rd fight with Norton, fought him in early to mid '76 and retired. There was nothing left to prove after complete the trilogy with Frazier and Norton. Jimmy Young, Earnie Shavers, Evangelista... he had nothing to prove against these guys.

Ali retires after completing the trilogy with Norton in early to mid '76 and retires at 34.

[brocktonblockbust]

After the Thrilla in Manilla, he should have set up the 3rd fight with Norton, fought him in early to mid '76 and retired. There was nothing left to prove after complete the trilogy with Frazier and Norton. Jimmy Young, Earnie Shavers, Evangelista... he had nothing to prove against these guys.

Ali retires after completing the trilogy with Norton in early to mid '76 and retires at 34.

Ali willfully took tooo mannny shotttts to the head-bone. Not wise. "I'm GOD!" he thought. "Everyone must bow to ME!" he said over and over again.

Dr. Ferdie Pacheco on why he quit being Ali's doctor: "In 1977, I was concerned about potential liver and kidney damage and noticed that Ali's reflexes were slowing down. I recommended that Ali retire, but Ali continued to fight. Due to this difference of opinion, I left Ali's camp."

[Beanflicker]

It'd be interesting to see how he would have turned out if he had retired in '76 and didn't have that extra 5 years of not only 9 more fights, but 9 more training camps of hard sparring, where he would let guys pound on him to toughen himself up for the fight. Maybe he could pull that shit off as a young man but at 35-40 it must have took years off of him.

[brocktonblockbust]

It'd be interesting to see how he would have turned out if he had retired in '76 and didn't have that extra 5 years of not only 9 more fights, but 9 more training camps of hard sparring, where he would let guys pound on him to toughen himself up for the fight. Maybe he could pull that shit off as a young man but at 35-40 it must have took years off of him.

youre right he let them pound the PISS out of his kidneys and brain. Tim Witherspoon, Larry Holmes, they would rip shots to his spleen, spleen shots are debilitating because the spleen cannot recover---they would strafe his kidneys for round after round in the gym to "toughen him up" How about break him down? More like it. Bad move.
Bundini Brown once asked him "Champ why are you letting them hit you so much?" and Ali said what you said about toughening himself up.