Muhammad Ali RIP

Just heard about this.

I remember as a kid being let stay up late to see one of his fights. ('78 v Leon Spinks).

My folks were keen for me to see the great man in action.

It was such a big deal & no pay per view nonsense. Hard to believe that Boxing was so accessible to us all back then.

His fights really were world events in those days..

He had a big mouth on him but was able to back it up in the ring

RIP

LorMal wrote: »

Me too Filmer. He was a huge star - nobody else came close. Boxing was never the same again - ruined by greed and cynicism.

True. I wouldn't know who the world champ is nowadays or how many are there.

I'd seriously doubt that the average 10 year old would know or care either.

He's so fast, he'll be in heaven before de Divil know's he's dead.

His stance on the Vietnam war:

"Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality. If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years."

The man grew up in 50s/60s America...he was hardly going to say white and black should live in harmony. A bit easy to call him a racist today, he was fighting a war between black and white in America.

The bloody greatest of all time.

Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality. If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.

• I ain't draft dodging. I ain't burning no flag. I ain't running to Canada. I'm staying right here. You want to send me to jail? Fine, you go right ahead. I've been in jail for 400 years. I could be there for 4 or 5 more, but I ain't going no 10,000 miles to help murder and kill other poor people. If I want to die, I'll die right here, right now, fightin' you, if I want to die. You my enemy, not no Chinese, no Vietcong, no Japanese. You my opposer when I want freedom. You my opposer when I want justice. You my opposer when I want equality. Want me to go somewhere and fight for you? You won't even stand up for me right here in America, for my rights and my religious beliefs. You won't even stand up for my right here at home.

I was in Atlanta when he lit that flame in 96 , it was supposed to be a big secret who was going to do it but everyone knew it was going to be Ali - but still there was a roar of approval ( and relief it was actually him) when he came out , never concealing the tremors and took an age to light a faulty apparatus -magnificent . In the Olympic highlights Beethoven's Ode to Joy comes on and never was it more appropriate . He was loved by everybody .

But it is easy to forget that it wasn't always so - in fact he was hated and not just in the USA but here in Ireland and elsewhere also - he was just too uppity for his own good . People who never followed sport never mind boxing tuned in just to see him get beat , and he made them wait a long time , but eventually as always happens in sport that day came . I remember a few lads who were ardent fans being hounded and slagged mercilessly in a factory in the following days after that Frazier fight - cruel stuff . Part of it was a generational thing but not all of it .

But if you were young he really opened your eyes like no one before or since . It may seem unbelievable now but in the 60's Charles Mitchell reading the 6 o'clock news on RTE always had a big segment on the Vietnam War and they way it was presented you would think we were fighting it .

Ali by refusing to buy into all that opened the eyes of a whole generation of white people - nothing was ever quite the same again .

On top of all that he changed the way sports people were perceived , no more 'my boy done good ' ****e and he paved the way for all the big money going to the athlete and not the managers and promoters.

Time to dig out Once We Were Kings dvd

He was and is The Greatest.

milehip wrote: »

RIP Ali great boxer
but The fact that He was once a guest speaker at a KKK rally in favour of racial segregation,
along with his treatment of Joe Fraizer-who loaned him money whilst he was banned from boxing- always left him somewhat tarnished in my eyes.

Yeah he had a cruel streak , no question about that and it wasn't just towards Frazier but to other boxers also , for example how he bludgeoned Ernie Terrell all the time taunting him with the 'whats my name ' line .

But others loved him even as he beat them as they got the biggest purse of their careers fighting him .

As for the KKK thing - tell the whole story - that was his Nation of Islam days when they believed in racial segregation so in a funny way their views and those of the Klan chimed . No more of that after he broke away .
He even broke with Malcolm X when he fell foul of the Nation , which is something I believe he later regretted .

He was a complicated guy and if it is heroes without blemish you want then Ali is not your man , but then no real person could be . Judge a life on its totality and not just the good bits or the bad bits .

mansize wrote: »

In Ali's defence there, it was because Terrell kept referring to him by his slave name

Yeah , I just didn't bother sanitising it , you either accept him warts and all or you don't