Editing Jimmy Young (boxer) (section)

===The Ali–Young fight===
{{main| Muhammad Ali vs. Jimmy Young}}
Young achieved widespread public recognition when he fought [[Muhammad Ali]] at the [[Capital Centre (Landover, Maryland)|Capital Center]] in [[Landover, Maryland]], on April 30, 1976, for the world heavyweight title, although boxing circles had already noted his ability. Ali weighed in at 230 pounds, the highest for any of his fights up to that point (he would weigh 236.25 pounds in his fight against [[Trevor Berbick]]), and was consequently slow and immobile throughout the bout. Seven years younger and 21 pounds lighter, Young adopted a strategy of fighting aggressively from a distance, landing numerous light blows while dodging and parrying Ali's [[Counterpunch (boxing)|counterpunches]], and using his body blows, which had little power behind them but were effective at scoring points. At close quarters, Young would turn passive. In addition to retreating whenever possible, Young often kept his head ducked very low in order to deter Ali from landing blows at his head and risk censure from the referee for "[[rabbit punching]]". On several occasions when Ali was inside and Young had his back to the ropes, Young intentionally put his head or upper body out of the ring beyond the ropes to compel the referee to step in and separate the fighters. As a novel boxing tactic this divided opinion between its being a way of neutralizing Ali's game, to its being seen as an unsportsmanlike way of causing tactical stoppages every time Ali possessed an advantage. At one point during the bout the referee did initiate a count due to Young's being outside the ropes. The fight went the full 15 rounds resulting in a controversial one-sided unanimous decision in favor of Ali. Referee Tom Kelly scored it 72–65; judges Larry Barrett and Terry Moore had it 70–68 and 71–64, respectively.<ref name="Boxrec.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=000276 |title=Boxing Records Archive |website=www.boxrec.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020515123557/http://www.boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=000276 |archive-date=2002-05-15}}</ref>

[[Ken Norton]], (a rival of Ali) who was commentating at ringside, had the fight even on his own scorecard. Former [[The Ring (magazine)|''Ring'']] editor Lester Bromberg called the decision a "travesty". [[New York Daily News|New York ''Daily News'']] reporter [[Dick Young (sportswriter)|Dick Young]] said: "[Ali won] by the grace of three hero-worshipping fight officials. I believe many people, the voting officials among them, refuse to believe what they see when one of their super-heroes doesn't function as expected." After the match's televised broadcast, many viewers called to the network to complain about the decision, and Ali's career trainer [[Angelo Dundee]] went on record as saying this was Ali's "worst fight". After the match there were calls on Ali to retire from the sport from quarters of the sport's media.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=A7-hzOuI2KQC&dat=19760501&printsec=frontpage|title = Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Google News Archive Search}}</ref>