The fourth installment of the ESPN “30 for 30″ documentary series (Tuesday, 8pm on ESPN) looks at one heavyweight championship fight that served as a eulogy of sorts for one combatant and the undeserved irrelevancy for the other.

Muhammad and Larry depicts the 1980 heavyweight championship bout between Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes.  Much of the footage was shot at the training camps of both fighters by director Albert Maysles.  Because it featured the symbolic end to Ali’s illustrious career (Ali did fight one more time in 1981, a loss to Trevor Berbick) no one was interested in using the footage.

Bradley Kaplan joined Maysles in co-directing this documentary. Kaplan and Maysles complimented the original footage with interviews with Holmes, members of Ali’s camp including Angelo Dundee and Dr. Ferdie Pacheco, and reporters who covered the fight.

It was evident by viewing the film that Ali was a shell of his former self in 1980 and symptoms of the Parkinson’s Disease, which would ravage him in subsequent years, could be seen through his slower speech and his delayed reaction in the ring.  It was also evident that the only reason Ali took this bout was to feed his ego, and for the money.

To a man, everyone interviewed in the film knew that the odds were against Ali beating the undefeated Holmes, but they all also knew that Ali had beaten the odds in the past and no one would have been surprised by an upset.

Maysles and Kaplan did a good job of weaving the training camp footage with the thoughts of those intimate with the details of the fight.  There was also some new information about Ali that may not have been generally known…principally that Ali did not fair well in an exam conducted by the Mayor Clinic mandated by the Nevada Athletic Commission.  Despite evidence that Ali’s health had deteriorated, the Commission agreed to license Ali to fight.

Also unveiled was Ali’s incessant use of thyroid medication to produce an expedited loss of weight prior to the fight.  This medicine weakened Ali’s already battered kidneys.

The film does a good job in developing much of the back story between the two fighters–including Holmes’ role as a sparring partner for Ali in the early 1970′s and his respect for him.

The result of the fight is well known.  Holmes dominated the bout from the opening bell, forcing Dundee to stop the fight just before the beginning of the 11th round.

The fight signified an unceremonious end to the career of the great Ali.  But it should have also signified the passing of the torch to the next great heavyweight in Holmes.  But that never happened.

Holmes would defend his title 20 times, second most in the history of the heavyweight division.  He won his first 48 bouts, second only to Rocky Marciano who retired after amassing a record of 49-0.  Despite that record of achievement, Holmes is never mentioned in conversations on the greatest heavyweights of all time.

Muhammad and Larry is another solid effort by ESPN in examining the circumstances of one event in sports history.  But unlike the WWL’s first three offerings I found the film slow at times and it struggled to maintain my attention.  That’s no fault of ESPN, as I’m sure there will be other episodes in the series where I will not be personally invested in the film’s content.  Boxing historians, however,  should find the film worthwhile…