The jeers after the fight from the 12,000 crowd at the Capital Centre were loud and painfully unmistakable.
Muhammad Ali had sealed a unanimous, if unmemorable, points victory over Uruguayan-born Spanish fighter Alfredo Evangelista in Maryland, USA.
The Louisville Lip was now 35 and well past his best – although past his best was still too good for his 22-year-old challenger in the heavyweight title bout.
It was Ali's first fight in eight months, after winning his third clash with the tough as teak Ken Norton in the Bronx's Yankee Stadium.
Evangelista had never been past eight rounds in a 16‐bout professional career but would take Ali the full 15 in a fight shown live on prime-time television.
“I did not think Ali could go the distance,” said Evangelista after the fight. “I thought at his age he would get tired.”
Ali had brought along his full repertoire of now familiar tricks to the show. The Ali shuffle was out, the rope-a-dope – that famously drained George Foreman of his power during 1974's Rumble in the Jungle – was employed again. He was still dancing in the 15th round.
A knockout, though, never looked close for either fighter.
Evangelista would take him the distance, something only seven other fighters had done, but Ali was given the verdict comfortably by all three judges.
The crowd, though, made their feelings known at the end, while American journalist Howard Cosell – covering the bout for ABC – described it as one of the worst fights he had ever seen. "I'm sorry, we televised it," he said afterwards.
Ali, unsurprisingly, was unrepentant. "You saw a miracle tonight," said Ali. "A 35-year-old man dancing 15 rounds ... a welterweight couldn't dance 15 rounds."
And he railed against those who had dismissed Evangelista before the fight. “I tried to knock him down,” said Ali, “but he wouldn't fall. Go tell the world. Evangelista is a great fighter.
"He ain't no bum. He moves ... how wrong you were saying this man was nothing.
“This nobody, this Evangelista, I'll bet you my life he'll give Norton hell, if not beat him.
“Nobody? Jimmy Young was a nobody, Ken Norton was a nobody. I made nobodies somebody by fighting them. The trouble is, they are good fighters and I proved it.”
For Evangelista, facing The Greatest was a life-changer. “I was young and strong and he was old at this time,” he would later say. “But he was very intelligent; he knew how to handle the fight. He was special, a legend.
"He made me famous around the world and I will always be grateful for that.”
To the detriment of both body and mind, Ali would face another five fights – winning two and losing three – before finally calling it a day in 1981.
At the end of an incredible career, he had fought 61 times, winning 56 – with 37 knockouts – and losing five times.
