Ali's fight doctor to speak in Galway

THE man who spent 17 years as the fight doctor to the greatest boxer the world has ever seen will recall his experiences for a Galway audience when he speaks in the city next week.When Ferdie Pacheco met the young Cassius Clay in his office in Miami in the early 1960s, the man who would go on to become the world’s greatest boxing legend was “just another fighter with a cold”.That day, the physician could never have envisaged what was to lie ahead of him in the next 17 years in his role as Mohammed Ali’s fight doctor and cornerman— the massive highs of success and the tragic lows of Ali’s disintegrating health.Today, the powerful, former heavyweight world champion still suffers from mild brain damage and Parkinson’s disease. Most of this damage could have been avoided, according to Pacheco, if The Champ had quit boxing after his bout against Joe Frazier on October 1, 1975, in Manila, regarded as the best fight in heavyweight history.“I knew that the “Thrilla in Manila”was the last stop on the road to boxing damage. After.....