Who was Muhammad Ali?

Frazier seemed to have a greater impact with his punches. Several times he pushed Ali into the ropes. Ali seemed close to defeat in the eleventh round, but he played it down. Frazier was already heavily marked, but he was able to extend his lead.

For a victory, Ali would have needed a knockout in the 15th round. He went down from a hook from Frazier. In the end, Frazier emerged victorious from the fight.

The ban against Ali was only lifted by the Supreme Court in June 1971. The reasons given by Ali for refusing military service were accepted.

In the Hallenstadion in Zurich, Ali fought against the Hamburg boxer Jürgen Blin on December 26, 1971, who suffered his first knockout defeat in the seventh round.

After the defeat against Frazier, Ali had to earn the right to a rematch for the world championship. He managed to do this after ten consecutive victories, including against Jerry Quarry, Floyd Patterson, Buster Mathis, and Jimmy Ellis. In the fight against Ken Norton in March 1973, he had to endure another points defeat. Later, it turned out that he had suffered a jaw fracture.

In September 1973, the rematch against Norton took place. Since Norton fought aggressively, Ali was in trouble until the end. In the last two rounds, Ali decided the fight in his favor.

Ali won the rematch against the now dethroned Joe Frazier in January 1974. Narrowly, but unanimously, the judges decided in favor of Ali.

“Rumble in the Jungle”
In 40 professional fights, the heavyweight Olympic champion of 1968, George Foreman, was undefeated. He was able to knock out most opponents within a few rounds. At 32 years old, Ali was the older of the two opponents.

The fight went down in history as the “Rumble in the Jungle” because it was to take place in the autumn of 1974 in Kinshasa, then Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The American organizations decided to move abroad to save on taxes.

Due to Foreman’s injury, the fight was postponed by five weeks. Foreman, with his German shepherd, reminded people of the Belgian colonial period and was therefore unpopular with the locals. With his charisma and sociability, Muhammad Ali was significantly more popular.

The fight took place on October 30, 1974. Foreman was physically superior to Ali. Muhammad Ali therefore changed his tactics and voluntarily allowed himself to be pushed against the ropes in the early rounds. He leaned far back with his upper body.

Since the ropes were quite loosely tensioned, the referee ordered them to be tightened. However, Ali continued his tactics. He also taunted Foreman with words. He took Foreman’s punches to his body without flinching.

After Foreman lost stamina, Ali was able to come out of his shell and fight more offensively starting in the fourth round. In the eighth round, he was able to defeat Foreman by KO. Ali had thus regained his world championship title.

Title defenses
His first title defense was against Chuck Wepner, who held out until the 15th round. Ali won by technical knockout. This fight inspired Sylvester Stallone for the movie Rocky.

Ali was able to defend his world championship title against Joe Bugner and Ron Lyle. In the Philippine capital Manila, he fought Joe Frazier on October 1, 1975. After Frazier’s eyes had completely swollen up, his trainer stopped the fight after the 14th round. Frazier suffered a lens opacity, Ali a circulatory collapse. Neither of them could match the performance level they showed in this fight.

On June 26, 1976, Ali faced off in an exhibition match against Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki. The rules were rewritten for Inoki. He fought without gloves. Due to three fouls, Inoki was deducted three points. The fight ended in a draw.

In the subsequent fights against Jimmy Young, Jean-Pierre Coopman, Richard Dunn, and Ken Norton, Ali’s boxing skills had clearly diminished.

In the fight against the 1976 Olympic heavyweight champion, Leon Spinks, Ali surprisingly lost both titles. In the rematch against Spinks on September 15, 1978, Ali won his third and final world championship title. At the age of 36, Ali announced his retirement from boxing after this victory. Even then, his Parkinson’s disease was noticeable with unclear speech.

End of career
Despite Ali having already announced his retirement from boxing, he wanted to become world champion for the fourth time in the autumn of 1980. He faced his former sparring partner Larry Holmes, but he was outmatched.