8 Muhammad Ali Opponents Who Suffered Tragic Fates
3. Trever Berbick
Jamaican boxer Trevor Berbick was a former WBC heavyweight title holder who had an excellent career in his own right. Besides being remembered as Muhammad Ali’s last opponent, Berbick was also the man who lost the heavyweight strap to a young up and coming 20-year-old by the name of Mike Tyson.
The showdown between Berbick and Ali took place in 1981. Prior to the fight, doctors claimed that Ali had already suffered brain damage from absorbing too many blows over the course of his career. Trevor Berbick defeated the aging former champ via decision in what would be Muhammad Ali’s final professional fight.
Berbick would continue to fight for nearly two more decades before finally hanging up his gloves in May of 2000.
In 2006 the former champ was involved in a land dispute with his nephew, Harold Berbick. Harold Berbick (and a man named Kenton Gordon) followed his uncle home from a party on October 28, 2006, and viciously murdered him with a steel pipe. Trevor Berbick’s body was found in a courtyard in Portland, Jamaica; he was just 52-years-old at the time of his death.