Word: muhammad
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...both; he was everything. Elegant when the fight was not, eloquent when nothing needed to be said, except maybe one thing. "I'm very sorry that I'm not what you expect," said Holmes after it was over. "I'm sorry that I'm not Muhammad Ali... that I'm not Joe Louis." He even apologized for not being Leon Spinks. "I was not born to be them." But he is the Heavyweight Champion of the World. He was born to be that. Holding up the World Boxing Council belt, Holmes paused a long moment...
Since the days when he was a sparring partner for Ali, Holmes has mimicked Muhammad, intentionally or not. "He even tries to talk like him," says Angelo Dundee, "but he can't." As Arcel puts it, "He has lived in the shadow of Muhammad Ali's mouth." When not trying to sound like Ali, Holmes sounds kinder. In his guttural, good-humored speech, he declares, "I'm the baddest thing since peanut butter and jelly," and laughs lightly. Then he stops laughing. "Earnie Shavers and Renaldo Snipes may have knocked me down, but I got up and took care...
...brought to Cooney's Palm Springs camp several weeks ago to stir publicity, Cooney was taken aback by the husky raspiness of Ali's voice, the depressingly common effect of too many punches. "It scared me a little," Cooney confesses. Bugner sees it differently. "It's that Muhammad's down in the pits now," Bugner says quietly. "He can still raise his voice, but he's afraid to. The old Muhammad would have been shouting, This guy's an amateur and the other guy's my old sparring partner!' But he couldn't say three words." As Bugner knows...
...announces his retirement, feeling he can no longer give the sport his best shot. From the crowd on the museum steps jumps the Mohawk-coiffed, feather-bedecked Clubber Lang (played by Newcomer Mr. T, a.k.a. Lawrence Tero). The top contender harangues the champ with an intensity from somewhere beyond Muhammad Ali, demanding a title shot. Mickey, who has coached Rocky's career from the beginning, tells the fighter the awful truth: his title defenses have been against opponents he could easily whip. Lang, he suggests, would be too much to handle. "The worst thing that can happen...
...gates in Pacific Palisades, slightly to the left of Beverly Hills, film memorabilia vie for space with fine art in rooms accented with rich woods and polished brass. A mammoth Leroy Neiman portrait of Rocky hangs near a Rodin sculpture, a boxer's headguard inscribed "To Sly from Muhammad Ali" rests near Andy Warhol oils. Another treasured possession is a worn photo album that the star uses to document his "roaches to riches" story. Stallone, dressed in running shoes and warmup suit, puffing on a Dunhill briar pipe, leafs through the pictures of his pre-Rocky days, a ritual...