It was the first year since 1959 that neither Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier or George Foreman had stepped into the professional boxing ring. Officially, Ali was still the WBA heavyweight champion in January of the year – he had won that piece of jewellery when he performed his last act of boxing magic to bamboozled Leon Spinks and get revenge the previous September. Ali had the belt, one of the two available, but nobody expected to see him back in a ring – any ring – anytime soon. His boxing life had drained him.

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