1972 was the year where Ali self-admittedly got in good fighting shape for the first time since his enforced lay-off of 3,5 years. The Quarry 2 fight is the one Ali pointed to when he once again looked and felt like a fighter. But then with no Joe Frazier in sight for a rematch, he got more and more bored by each next fight, so by the time he fought Norton in 1973 first time, he let his guard down, he didn’t train like he should have, went to late-night parties surrounded by pretty women… the broken jaw was THE wake-up call for Ali, starting from before the second Norton fight in 1973 he started taking it very serious again, knowing that Frazier, Foreman were waiting for him and it would be now or never. He beat Frazier in the rematch and beat Foreman all in 1974, the culmination year of his boxing career. After that, he was on tour again with the Ali world-traveling circus.
The dude was good…. He was adRAFT DODGER plain & simple. Turned his back on his country when it needed him. That goes over as well as a fart in church.
