Drama in the Bahamas: Muhammad Ali's Last Fight

(Hardback)

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Description

On December 11, 1981, Muhammad Ali slumped on a chair in the cramped, windowless locker room of amunicipal baseball field outside Nassau. A phalanx of sportswriters had pushed and shoved their way into thistiny, breezeblockedspace. In this most unlikely of settings, they had come to record the last moments of themost storied of all boxing careers. They had come to intrude upon the grief.

"It's over," mumbled Ali. "It's over."

The show that had entertained and wowed from Zaire to Dublin, from Hamburg to Manila, finally ended itstwenty one yearrun.In Drama in the Bahamas, Dave Hannigan tells the occasionally poignant, often troubling, yet always entertainingstory behind Ali's last bout. Through interviews with many of those involved, he discovers exactly how and why, afew weeks short of his fortieth birthday, a seriously diminished Ali stepped through the ropes one more time toget beaten up by Trevor Berbick.

"Two billion people will be conscious of my fight," said Ali, trotting out the old braggadocio about an event solacking in luster that a cow bell was pressed in to service to signal the start and end of each round. How had itcome to this Why was he still boxing Hannigan answers those questions and many more, offering a unique and telling glimpse into the most fascinating sportsman of the twentieth century in the last, strange days of his fistic life.

Reviews

"Hannigans book excels here with well-chosen quotations painting the unique status, even among athletes, of the boxer." --The New York Times Book Review

Its a brilliant piece of reportage, full of quirks and factoids from an almost unrecognisable time and place. If it was fiction, it would be thoroughly enjoyable. The fact that its all appallingly true makes it too grim for that. --The Irish Times

Released shortly after the death of The Greatest, this requiem for a heavyweight should enjoy a wide readership among boxing fans and a general audience. --Library Journal, starred review

Boxing is not like baseball. A ballplayer who comes back for one too many seasons risks embarrassment. A boxer faces far worse dangers. After his October 1980 beating at the hands of Larry Holmes, Muhammad Ali should have exited the sport. But he didnt. He needed one more fight, one final sad exhibition of courage before calling it quits. Dave Hannigan traces the reasons why, and the men who allowed it to happen. Drama in the Bahamas reads like a train wreck, making one want to turn away and not watch. But it details a reality in the sport. Randy Roberts, author of Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship Between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X and Joe Louis: Hard Times Man
"Hannigans book excels here with well-chosen quotations painting the unique status, even among athletes, of the boxer." --The New York Times Book Review

Its a brilliant piece of reportage, full of quirks and factoids from an almost unrecognisable time and place. If it was fiction, it would be thoroughly enjoyable. The fact that its all appallingly true makes it too grim for that. --The Irish Times

Released shortly after the death of The Greatest, this requiem for a heavyweight should enjoy a wide readership among boxing fans and a general audience. --Library Journal, starred review

Boxing is not like baseball. A ballplayer who comes back for one too many seasons risks embarrassment. A boxer faces far worse dangers. After his October 1980 beating at the hands of Larry Holmes, Muhammad Ali should have exited the sport. But he didnt. He needed one more fight, one final sad exhibition of courage before calling it quits. Dave Hannigan traces the reasons why, and the men who allowed it to happen. Drama in the Bahamas reads like a train wreck, making one want to turn away and not watch. But it details a reality in the sport. Randy Roberts, author of Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship Between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X and Joe Louis: Hard Times Man

Author Bio

Dave Hannigan is columnist with the Irish Times (Dublin), the Evening Echo (Cork) and the Irish Echo (New York). He's a professor of history at Suffolk County Community College on Long Island, and resides in Setauket, New York. This is his ninth book.