RCM Historical Boxing: Anatomy of Muhammad Ali versus Lyle Alzado Fight Poster
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Boxing posters, long a staple of many a boxing gym, are as much a part of sports memorabilia and Americana as most sports knickknacks. With the advent of computer technology, where sporting events are sold more so by streaming, pay-per-view, and online ticket outlets, it is not as common to see posters advertising sporting events as was once seen in storefront windows and public places as in decades past.
The late Muhammad Ali, then 37, former world heavyweight champion, versus the late Lyle Alzado, then 31, the defensive tackle who won Super Bowl XVIII with the Denver Broncos, squared off on July 14, 1979, at Mile High Stadium in Denver, Colorado, in an eight-round heavyweight exhibition, three-minute rounds, with the three knockout down rule in effect. Alzado weighed in at 243, the lightest of his sports career. Alzado was managed by Bobby Lewis, who coached the U.S. Olympic Team in Munich, Germany, in 1982.
Alzado, a 44-1 amateur and former Midwest Golden Gloves tournament champion, out of the ring for ten years when he embraced football, fought a faded but still mentally coherent talking Ali, who admittedly did not prepare for the bout. This was probably a mistake, as Alzado not only went the entertaining distance, but made Ali look bad in the process. Ali’s subsequent issues with Parkinson’s and tremors, and Alzado’s brain tumor (he claimed it was caused by years of anabolic steroid use) were not necessarily caused by this bout, which did not have headgear. Needless to say, this sort of weird bout could have helped them either in the long run. It was a strange televised boxing exhibition, in the days before anybody knew who Mike Tyson was (Tyson is currently on the geriatric exhibition trail).
The point of this historical lookback has less to do with the bout, more do to with the poster. A five-bout undercard was featured before the Ali-Alzado NBC-televised main event. The undercard needs to be understood in its historical context. Hometown Denver 23-0-1 heavyweight contender Leroy Jones stopped Minnesota journeyman James J. Beattie in the fourth round of the preliminary bout to the main event. It would be the final bout of Beattie’s 40-10 career. Beattie had gotten stopped in three rounds by Scott LeDoux five months earlier. Jones would lose his next bout to Larry Holmes in 1980 and suffered a detached retina, in effect ending his career, though he did win one comeback bout. After Jones, Holmes then fought and defeated Scott LeDoux and Muhammad Ali later in 1980, and that is the connection.
On the undercard, 13-2 Denver super welterweight J.J. Cottrell drew with 13-1 Billy Parks, (also spelled Billie Parks) also of Denver, over eight rounds. Parks lost his last seven bouts, including a ten rounder to contender Vilomar Fernandez, none of them in Denver, and finished his career 24-8-4. Cottrell lost his last 18 bouts, including getting knocked out by middleweight contender Alex Ramos in the first round, getting stopped in the fifth round by former world middleweight champion Julian Jackson, getting stopped in the eighth round by Tony Ayala Jr., and losing a ten-round decision to former world cruiserweight champion Marvin Camel, a Flathead tribe Native American.
Denver’s southpaw welterweight contender Larry Bonds knocked out debuting Colorado unknown Rodolfo Mendoza in the third round. Eighteen months later, Bonds fought Sugar Ray Leonard in the Carrier Dome in Syracuse for the World Boxing Council World Welterweight title, getting stopped in the tenth round. Bonds’ last bout was a 15 round split decision win over Tony Biglen in Denver in 1991. This 15 rounder was not for a title of any kind, and Bonds finished his career at 32-5-1.
Denver heavyweight Dave Sidwell went to 4-0 with a four-round decision win over Fred Grogan, also known as Fred Muhammad, 1-3, also of Denver. Neither heavyweight ever fought again.
Denver featherweight James Ortega went to 5-0 with a fourth-round stoppage of debuting Saul Fernandez of Los Angeles, California, who finished his career 0-3. Ortega reached 10-1, including a 15 round decision win over Pat Duran for the World Super Featherweight Championship of the now-defunct World Athletic Association in 1982. Two losses in 1983 ended the career of Fernandez. The first loss was a ten-round split decision loss in Honolulu to 5-2 Sul Inting. The second loss was a first-round stoppage loss to 19-0-1 Rene Weller in Frankfurt Germany. Weller went on to win the European Lightweight title and finished his career at 52-1-2. Considering the early loss on the record of Fernandez was a six-round decision loss 0-5 Alberto Cruz of Dallas, Texas, a fighter Fernandez had won decisions over twice previously, the handwriting was on the wall.
Alzado died on May 14, 1992, at age 43, after a battle with brain cancer. Despite the claims of Alzado, the lymphoma in Alzado’s brain was not linked to steroid use. Muhammad Ali’s Parkinson’s led to a gradual decline in his health. In later years after retirement, Ali worked with actor Michael J. Fox, who also has Parkinson’s, and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Disease, to raise awareness and encourage donations for ongoing research. Ali was hospitalized in fair condition with a respiratory illness on June 2, 2016, in Scottsdale, Arizona. His condition worsened, and he died the next day of septic shock.
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