Venue: Croke Park, Dublin, Ireland, 19th July, 1972.
The prmoter Harold Conrad had
always wanted to put on a Heavyweight fight in Ireland and
did so, obtaining a guarantee of $200,000 for Ali to fight
Al Blue Lewis, a game ex-con from Detroit.
Muhammad Ali had flu begore the
bout and should have pulled out but being Ali, he did not
want to disappoint. Conrad was dismayed to find that several
thousand spectators had crashed the main get and obtained
admittance without paying.
The actual fight was a good one
compared to some of Ali's lacklustre comeback bouts. He dropped
Lewis in the fifth (the round he predicted victory in) but
then took his time moving to a nuetral corner. The referee
extended the count to fifteen seconds allowing Lewis time
to recover.
The ninth round proved exciting
too, as Ali, then Lewis landed heavy blows. At the end of
the tenth though, Ali told his trained Angelo Dundee that
he was desperate to pee and a sustained attack at the start
of round eleven halted the resistance of Lewis.
It took a further twenty five
minutes for Ali to reach the toilets as the ring was invaded.
