Masterful, magical Ali will forever be champion of boxing’s greatest era

The last of Ali’s seven fights in Las Vegas was staged in the Caesars Palace parking lot, where an estimated 25,000 boxing fans hoped to see a 38-year-old Ali try to turn back time. Instead, an undefeated Larry Holmes used Ali as a punching bag.

“Holmes took it easy on him,” longtime Las Vegas oddsmaker Michael “Roxy” Roxborough said. “I think by the third round Holmes knew he was going to win the fight.”

There was no dance left in Ali’s legs and no thunder left in his fists. The fight was stopped after the 10th round, with a battered Ali losing every round on the judges’ scorecards.

“Ali was on the ropes, doing the rope-a-dope, but the poor guy couldn’t even put his hands up,” Las Vegas bookmaker Jimmy Vaccaro said. “In a strange way, I don’t remember people booing him. He was still their man.”

Vaccaro, running what was then the Barbary Coast book across the Strip from Caesars Palace, recalled booking heavy action on Ali. Holmes closed at around a minus-180 favorite, Vaccaro said, yet tickets on Ali were written at about a 25-to-1 ratio. In those days, betting tickets truly were hand written.

“We had every window open, and it was nonstop people,” Vaccaro said. “It was like a Super Bowl weekend. Holmes opened as a big favorite, and he should have been, but there was no Holmes money.

“There were rumors going around the day before that Ali had strained himself or wasn’t feeling well, but that didn’t stop the betting public. It was a huge day. We probably won $100,000 on that fight.”

Ali, a world heavyweight champion who dominated boxing in the 1960s and 1970s, died Friday at 74. He fought Parkinson’s disease for three decades. After the bout with Holmes, he stepped into the ring only one more time, losing to Trevor Berbick in 1981. Ali finished his career 56-5, including a 5-2 record in Las Vegas.

“Ali was done by the time boxing got big here,” Roxborough said.

The sport flourished in the ’80s and ’90s, when big fights drew Super Bowl-type betting action in Las Vegas, and much of its popularity was launched by Ali.

AN UPSET, AND A FIX?

In 1964, in Miami Beach, Florida, Cassius Clay said he “shook up the world” by upsetting Sonny Liston. Soon after that historic fight, Clay converted to Islam and changed his name to Ali. His two victories over Liston are still talked about for various reasons.

“Liston had that Mike Tyson mystique about him,” Roxborough said. “The first square punch he landed, it was like hitting someone with a sledgehammer.”

With a criminal past, an evil stare and ties to organized crime, Liston was respected by oddsmakers and feared by everyone but the top contender to his heavyweight title. Clay lit up Liston with jabs and outclassed him with his speed. Citing an injured shoulder, Liston did not come out for the seventh round, and Clay won by TKO.

“He was a 6-1 underdog back in the day when there really weren’t any big prices on fights,” said Roxborough, who listened to the fight call on radio. “If he doesn’t win that fight, his career takes a whole new trajectory. That launched his career.”

It also was Liston’s demise. There were immediate suspicions the fight was fixed. In 2014, the Washington Times reported the FBI had investigated Liston’s mob ties and a possible fixing scheme, but nothing was proven.

Ali and Liston met for a rematch in 1965 in Lewiston, Maine, the setting for arguably the most controversial fight in boxing history. Liston was knocked out in the first round by what appeared to be a phantom punch.

“I went back and looked at that a lot of times,” Roxborough said. “I can’t find anybody who booked it for any serious money. Of course, Ali was the better fighter. Liston probably knew he was going to lose, and he just couldn’t see the reason to get up. In boxing, when you think you’ve seen everything, something else happens.”

I watched replays of both fights, and it looked like Liston took a dive in the rematch. I agree with retired Las Vegas Review-Journal boxing writer Royce Feour’s assessment of both fights:

“I don’t think at all the first fight was fixed. Ali was too fast for Sonny,” Feour said. “Yes, the second fight looked very suspicious. If that wasn’t a phantom punch, I don’t know what was. The second Ali-Liston fight didn’t even look like a well-done dive by Liston. It appeared so obvious it would have to have been the worst executed fixed fight in boxing history.”

‘THE GREATEST’ OF ANY ERA

After losing to Joe Frazier in 1971, Ali won rematches in 1974 and 1975. Nothing we will see in boxing in this era can approach those incredible battles.

Ali’s upset of George Foreman in 1974 — “The Rumble in the Jungle” in Zaire ended in an eighth-round knockout — was one of his finest moments.

“Ali was so smart and so good,” Vaccaro said. “Who thought 40 years later we would be talking about these things?

“It was Caesars Palace that actually brought the big fights to Las Vegas before anybody. But the luster is completely gone from boxing, and I’m not talking like an old-timer.”

With the passing of Ali, we remember a great fighter, a great man and boxing’s greatest era.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports betting columnist Matt Youmans can be reached at myoumans@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2907. He co-hosts “The Las Vegas Sportsline” weekdays at 2 p.m. on ESPN Radio (1100 AM). Follow on Twitter: @mattyoumans247