Last night the Madison Gamblers had movie night. Mitch's turn. We watched Ali vs. Holmes. Truly sad. Ali had =nothing left=, but he convinced himself, at the age of 38 (ancient for a boxer) he could beat his former sparring partner. I watched the bout in Brockport. He had me convinced too.

Twice, during the "fight", Larry Holmes looked at the ref--"Please stop this."

The Ali who stood over a prone Sonny Liston roaring, "Get up, chump! This thing ain't even started good yet!" (You know the photo.) That guy was gone.

Mitch is a tennis athlete. And he understood it completely. "Mike, you don't look in the mirror. You look at your past. You think you're still the same guy."

Holmes said later, "I did not want to hurt him. He gave me my chance. I owe everything to Ali. I did not want to hurt him."