Although it was a sad event when The Greatest retired forever, the fight itself had reminders of what once was. Ali vs. Berbick was not a great fight inside the ring, but all the surrondings made it tremendously dramatic. There was no upside, nothing was gained, beyond perhaps a chance for some people in the Bahamas to meet Ali in the flesh where they otherwise wouldn’t have, but I doubt any of them, if they were his fans, would have accepted that in exchange for this fight happening. This was Ali's last boxing match. The Only Place You Need For Boxing Discussion Online. The Cleto Reyes gloves show heavy use and are inscribed Berbick Fight, Dec 10-19-82, Nassau Bahamas in the Champ's own hand. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Berbick was over 12 years younger than Ali, with Ali being a avid follower of boxing history surely knowing that a whisker away from 40 years old was far too old for a comeback, with Ali planning to try to challenge for the Heavyweight Championship of the World if he had won this fight; an idea that seems as equally farcical and tragic in hindsight. [2], In the early rounds Ali tried putting together some combinations, but these proved ineffectual and he was pushed back on the ropes. Ali winced. The fight was estimated to have been watched by a record 2 billion viewers worldwide. Trevor Berbick, who lost heavyweight title to Mike Tyson and was last to fight Muhammad Ali, was found dead in church courtyard after suffering an attack with a … Ultimately, fewer than 7,500 people witnessed this fight. Trevor Berbick was the last fighter to face Muhammad Ali in the ring. Witherspoon also worked as a regular sparring partner for Muhammad Ali But there was also a dark side to Trevor Berbick. Ali was 39 years old at this time, and Berbick was 27 years old. Berbick landed five rights inside to the body as they clinched and broke. Sport. He was a two-time world heavyweight champion, having held the WBC title in 1984, and the WBA title in 1986. Ali said "The stage is set for me. Berbick, a 27-year-old Jamaican who now lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, opened with some good punches in the first round, let Ali hit him late in … The judges scores came in, both Clyde Gray and Jay Edson scored it 99-94 whereas Alanza Butler made it 97-94. [2] Sportswriter Hugh McIlvanney, who witnessed the fight, wrote: .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, Berbick is the kind of lumbering, slow-armed swinger [Ali] would have first embarrassed and then demolished in his dazzling prime...To see [Ali] lose to such a moderate fighter in such a grubby context was like watching a king riding into permanent exile on the back of a garbage truck. Often in trouble with the law, he once spent 15 months in prison for rape. There’s no silver lining to the cloud on the incomparable legacy of Muhammad Ali’s legacy that was this fight. Adding to the general aura of farce around the fight, the fans that did decide to attend the fight couldn’t even be let into the venue at first, as they had lost the key to the main entrance, and there wasn’t a bell to ring to signal the start and end of the round at the venue, so eventually a cow bell was used as a replacement. 22:00. ( Log Out /  All in all the fight was delayed by around 2 hours, and again the whole event walked the line between tragedy and farce; as it would be utterly laughable if this wasn’t the last outing of the most famous and potentially the greatest boxer of all time, and more importantly someone who was beginning to suffer from Parkinson’s disease. Because of the paucity of paying spectators Berbick refused to fight unless he was paid upfront. However, ONTV aired the fight, with it airing at least in Cincinnati, Ohio. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. The fight started more than two hours behind schedule. He was the kind of fighter that Ali would have utterly destroyed in his prime to put it blunty, but here, in 1981, Ali was nowhere near good enough and, despite standing in a bouncing, mobile stance, moved around the ring depressingly slowly. Larry Holmes cried in the ring after beating Ali; and that should have shown the boxing world that there was no longer anything to be gained from facing the greatest. ( Log Out /  When the key was found, it was discovered that there were no boxing gloves at the venue. The one blessing was that he was steadily exhausted rather than violently hurt by the experience. Sep 24, 2010 194,266 Mike Tyson vs Trevor Berbick - Full fight 1986 - WBC Heavyweight Championship. Trevor Berbick. Trevor Berbick holds an interesting place in boxing history. This was Ali's last boxing match. Ali weighed in at a career heaviest 236lbs, and none of that extra weight was muscle. Full fight stats, opponent information and results - BoxStat.co Advanced Boxing Stats The other glove is signed in gold ink, Muhammad Ali. One reporter described him as Michelin Man. Ticket sales were seriously poor, with a significant amount of them having to be sold at a discount, but in the end only around 7500 fans were in attendance at the Queen Elizabeth Sports Centre that night in December 1981. Muhammad Ali vs. Trevor Berbick was billed as “Drama in Bahama.” The undercard featured Thomas Hearns vs. Ernie Singletary, Greg Page vs. Scott LeDoux, Earnie Shavers vs. Jeff Sims, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad vs. Michael Hardin, and Pete McIntyre vs. Mike Fisher. Ali vs Berbick - The Last Hurrah is a must have for any Muhammad Ali fan! Ali said he wanted to fight WBA heavyweight champion Mike Weaver. In the fifth round, Ali landed some solid jabs and then a right-left-right combination on Berbick, but by the sixth round Ali had tired and started getting hit. Mike Tyson - Muhammad Ali - Bernardo Mercado - Larry Holmes - David Bey - Greg Page (boxer) - Pinklon Thomas - Nobuhiko Takada - John Tate (boxer) - Melvin Foster - Hasim Rahman - Shane Sutcliffe - Trevor Berbick vs. Mike Tyson - Boxing at the 1975 Pan American Games - Jimmy Thunder - Mike Tyson vs. Michael Spinks - Buster Douglas - Mike Tyson vs. … Ali started the fight dancing round and flicking out his jab, as he promised, but Berbick came back at Ali throwing large shots aimed at Ali's head . Trevor Berbick vs. Mike Tyson, billed as "Judgment Day", was a professional boxing match contested on November 22, 1986 for the WBC Heavyweight Championship. I love this sort of situation". The tape shows you the prefight press conference, in a hotel in the Bahamas, recorded with not great tecnical expertise, besides a very slurred-peaker and slow Ali, trying to convince boxing experts that he still had a shot of being the first four time … We’ve seen many boxers throughout history go on too far, and I can only imagine that for Ali, the biggest star in boxing ever and one of the most famous people in the world at the time; retirement must have left a big hole in Ali’s life, and I can’t imagine how it must have felt to have gone from one of the most adored people in the world, to probably seeming like he was old and irrelevant. 17:51. In this Dec. 11, 1981 file photo, Muhammad Ali takes a punch from Canadian Trevor Berbick during the first round of their 10-round bout in Nassau, Bahamas. Muhammad Ali vs Trevor Berbick on December 11, 1981. Rutashubanyuma JF-Expert Member. 0:43. This DVD evokes emotion as you watch Ali enter the ring silently, as if being led to the gallows. Berbick had some success in pro boxing, and is famous for being, along with Larry Holmes, the only boxer to ever fight both Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson. Background. Larry Holmes defends his WBC Heavyweight Title against Trevor Berbick on HBO In the last fight of his career, Muhammad Ali takes on Trevor Berbick in the Bahamas. Sadly, throughout history, many boxers have either not known when to quit, or been plagued with the urge to return to the ring after their time, and sadly Ali was no different. [3], "Drama in Bahama: Muhammad Ali v Trevor Berbick - in pictures", The Rumble in the Jungle (Foreman vs. Ali), The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay, I Am the Greatest: The Adventures of Muhammad Ali, Ferdie Pacheco (personal physician, cornerman), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Drama_in_Bahama&oldid=985136705, December 1981 sports events in North America, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 24 October 2020, at 05:17. MUHAMMAD ALI VS. BERBICK FIGHT WORN GLOVES A pair of boxing gloves worn by Muhammad Ali in his historic last fight vs. Trevor Berbick, December 11, 1981 in Nassau, Bahamas. Tim Witherspoon (born December 27, 1957) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1979 to 2003. Everyone should have been able to see that Ali was not going to be able to win this fight, yet it still took place. Berbick stepped in missing a left hook. There was no pay-per-view television; no American network had even made a bid. Even before the Holmes fight over 12 months earlier, Ali had been struggling with vocal stutters and trembling, which of course was the beginning of the Parkinson’s he struggled with for the rest of his life. Ali could have resisted the urge to keep chasing further glory and the need to fight his dwindling finances.… Ticket sales for the fight were so slow that the promoters ended up offering them at a heavy discount. Ali vs Berbick: The Final Goodbye There can't have been a more depressing end to a boxing career than how Muhammad Ali signed out on a truly memorable and often historic run in the sweet science. Ali had hoped to use this fight to earn a title bid against Mike Weaver the World Boxing Association Champ. The fight was only 10 rounds but by the end Ali was utterly exhausted and getting hit at every turn, with the fight ending in a lopsided decision win for Berbick. Trevor Berbick VS Muhammad Ali (Queen Elizabeth Sports Centre, Nassau, Bahamas, 1981-12-11) Ledavdave. The fight was promoted by Nation of Islam ally James Cornelius, who wasn’t doing much of a favour to the Nation by letting Ali take more punishment to a brain that was alleged to already be showing cognitive decline. By the last round, Ali was completely exhausted. He briefly held the World Boxing Council heavyweight title before losing it to Mike Tyson in 1986. Drama in Bahama was a ten-round boxing match that took place between Muhammad Ali and Trevor Berbick in Nassau, Bahamas on December 11, 1981. Nicknamed “Drama in the Bahamas,” the fight between Muhammad Ali (39) and Trevor Berbick (27) marked the end of Muhammed Ali’s career. Change ), The Unbeatable Sonny Liston: How Ali Changed The Narrative. Berbick wasn’t an elite Heavyweight of the time, but he had gone 15 good rounds with Larry Holmes earlier that year, whereas Ali had been thoroughly outclassed and then stopped after 10 by Holmes the year previous. He did beat Ali, but it was Ali’s last fight and he was already … Berbick wasn't able to knock Ali down and the final bell went. Trevor Berbick, left, and Muhammad Ali seem to have an equal reach as they slug it out during a Friday night boxing match in … Ali kept pumping the jab but he looked a bit awkward. Ali did some acceptable work in the first 5 rounds, but by the 6th he was utterly spent and it took all he had just to survive in there with the uninspiring Berbick. Muhammad Ali “Slapped” by George Foreman At Quarry vs Shavers – This Day December 14, 1973 Muhammad Ali Last Fight vs Trevor Berbick December 11, 1981 Muhammad Ali Magnificent – KOs Cleveland Williams This Day November 14, 1966 In the actual fight, Ali started in a somewhat lively nature, throwing some combinations in the opening round, while Berbick had a pretty slow, plodding style across the whole fight. Ali was 39 years old at this time, and Berbick was 27 years old. Trevor Berbick (1 August 1954 – 28 October 2006) was a Jamaican professional boxer who competed from 1976 to 2000. [1][2][3], Prior to the fight, Ali claimed that he had been declared fit by "even the best white doctors. "[2] Nevertheless, the venue for the fight—Nassau in the Bahamas—was chosen because no American state would grant Ali a boxing license after his performance in the match with Larry Holmes. There was also no bell to signal the end of a round; ultimately a hastily procured cowbell had to be used for this purpose. He’s one of just two boxers to fight both Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson, the other being Larry Holmes, and was a big part of an often-overlooked era in the sport in the early 1980s.. One journalist at ringside said it was “like watching a king riding into permanent exile on the back of a garbage truck.”. [2], The promoter of this fight was James Cornelius, a convicted felon with links to the Nation of Islam. Ali's Health. The fight was released on VHS in 1997 as Muhammad Ali vs. Trevor Berbick - The Last Hurrah - Drama in Bahama. Berbick walked forward to Ali for the last few rounds and Ali had no ability to do anything about this, let alone fire back with good enough offense of his own; and then the final bell was rung and Ali had been beaten, and spent the final fight of his unprecedentedly successful, star-studded career looking old and awful. Muhammad Ali Parkinson Interview 1981 (better sound) Rocky Khurasani. … Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Ali vs. Berbick was not a great fight inside the ring, but all the surrondings made it tremendously dramatic. Cornelius ordered Berbick’s promoter, Don King, himself not exactly an exemplary figure for good, clean business in boxing, to be beaten up when he arrived in The Bahamas trying to claim some of the profits as the fight featured his fighter. Muhammad Ali vs. Trevor Berbick was billed as “Drama in Bahama.” The undercard featured Thomas Hearns vs. Ernie Singletary, Greg Page vs. Scott LeDoux, Earnie Shavers vs. Jeff Sims, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad vs. Michael Hardin, and Pete McIntyre vs. Mike Fisher. Berbick vs Ali. Result; Holmes defeated Ali by 10th round TKO: Larry Holmes vs. Muhammad Ali, billed as "The Last Hurrah", was a professional boxing bout contested on October 2, 1980 in Las Vegas for the WBC Heavyweight Championship. Ali said he wanted to fight WBA heavyweight champion Mike Weaver. Posted by Laurence Gill 25th Oct 2020 Posted in Ali-tober Tags: 1981, Ali vs Berbick, Bahamas, Berbick, Boxer, boxing, Caribbean, Heavyweight, Muhammad Ali, Retirement, USA Sadly, throughout history, many boxers have either not known when to quit, or been plagued with the urge to return to the ring after their time, and sadly Ali was no different. ( Log Out /  It was released on DVD in 2002. 39 years ago today, Muhammad Ali took to the ring in Nassau, Bahamas for the last fight of his career. The tape shows you the prefight press conference, in a hotel in the Bahamas, recorded with not great tecnical expertise, besides a very slurred-peaker and slow Ali, trying to convince boxing experts that he still had a shot of being the first four time heavyweight champion ever. Ali vs. Berbick was not a great fight inside the ring, but all the surrondings made it tremendously dramatic. The fight went the distance with Berbick winning through a unanimous decision on points. Rutashubanyuma JF-Expert Member. When King arrived in Nassau to demand his share of the profits from this fight, he was greeted by two friends of Cornelius who administered a sound beating to King.[2]. This highlights the kind of bad faith surrounding the creation of this fight; and anyone who has the right to consider themselves a true friend of Muhammad Ali would have had no part in getting him back in a boxing ring. It was a two-tape set that included the entire fight, a pre-fight press conference, and interview footage. Ali was retreating as Berbick stalked. Hopefully, Ali vs Berbick can just stand as a staunch, shocking reminder to all boxers the world over, that no one can defeat time, and that there is nothing to be gained, and so much to be lost; from staying in, or returning to, boxing beyond your time. 'Keep the left up.' When people arrived to see the fight they found they could not get in because the key to the main gate had been misplaced. Ali surprises many by fighting awkwardly but effectively and winning many rounds over the first half of the fight; however, the three-time Heavyweight Champion tires badly and allows Berbick to win the last five rounds mostly on activity. Ticket sales were equally lacklustre, even in the Bahamas, where presumably any big boxing fight taking place there would attract serious local attention. Berbick landed a right and they clinched and broke. I don’t know if Ali was able to be convinced not to fight again, but everyone who knew him should have been trying, and honestly perhaps Trevor Berbick should have declined the fight, although that’s easier said than done, I’m sure, especially when considering he was getting to fight against the most famous boxer ever. ( Log Out /  No American Network even bid to broadcast the fight, although it was shown in some cities in the country, so there was no Pay-Per-View, only some small Closed-Circuit revenue. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. Dec 12, 2011 #9 Like this left, which Ali does well to avoid . Although he won a few rounds, Berbick won over the 10-round distance through a unanimous decision on points. Ali kept missing that left jab. [2], The fight took place in the unfinished Queen Elizabeth Sports Centre. As many had before him, and I’m sure many will again, Ali came out of retirement to fight again. The second round began. Ali's weight just before and during the fight was 236 pounds. First, as we have already covered this month, against Larry Holmes, which he should have never done, but at least then he had been World Champion in his last fight, and finished on a win before the Holmes fight. He won the WBC heavyweight title in 1986 by defeating Pinklon Thomas, then lost it in his first defense in the same year to Mike Tyson.Berbick was also the last boxer to fight Muhammad Ali, defeating him in 1981.. As an amateur, Berbick won a bronze … The Berbick case, as with other internationally recognised murder victims, spawned various rumours as everybody tried to fill in the information gap. However, a problem arose since Don King had signed up Berbick for a three-fight deal. The fight went the distance with Berbick winning through a unanimous decision on points. Berbick … Berbick didn’t lose any of the last 5 rounds on any of the judges scorecards, being able to hit Ali more and more as the rounds went on; Ali was backed up to the ropes multiple times throughout the final few rounds, but there was no rope-a-dope to be seen, only an old man holding his guard in front of his face and getting hit, with Berbick luckily not a skilled enough fighter to deliver a devastating knockout as any other top heavyweight would have been able to. Drama in Bahama was a ten-round boxing match that took place between Muhammad Ali and Trevor Berbick in Nassau, Bahamas on December 11, 1981. The tape shows you the prefight press conference, in a hotel in the Bahamas, recorded with not great tecnical expertise, besides a very slurred-peaker and slow Ali, trying to convince boxing experts that he still had a shot of being the first four time … Mike Tyson defeated Trevor Berbick in 1986, one of the only men to have beaten Ali Credit: ... Muhammad Ali: The Life of a Legend by Fiaz Rafiq published by … However, none of that was the case for when Muhammad Ali took on Trevor Berbick on December 11th 1981, when Ali was just a month of so away from 40 years old; the fight was billed as The Drama In Bahama, but it’s not really remembered by that name as the quality of the fight just didn’t live up to it, and the depressing reality that the fight only took place there because no Commission in the US would license Ali to fight, rightly so. Sep 24, 2010 194,266 2,000.