Ali

[EZWind]

One of my earliest heroes from my youth ever since he won the Gold in Rome 1960
"....that's right, I wrassled an alligator....I tussled with a whale...I handcuffed lightnin', throwed thunder in jail.....I'm Bad. Why, just last week I murdered a rock, I injured a stone, hospitalized a brick...I'm so bad I make medicine sick....I'm Bad"
....and he was. The amazing thing is that someone so Bad could do so much Good. Without a doubt the most recognized and revered indivual on the planet.
Rest in Peace, Champ....and thank you for shakin' up the World
...you truly were, and will always be....The Greatest

[flabbybody]

Here's a somewhat less sanitized view of his life.
Ali called Joe Frazier a gorilla in pre-fight media frenzy....racist and mean spirited by any standards. But Mohamad Ali got a pass.

And Don King was a piece of shit who exploited his client like an ATM machine.
http://nypost.com/2016/06/05/debunking-the-myths-that-have-glorified-muhammad-ali/

[holzz]

Here's a somewhat less sanitized view of his life.
Ali called Joe Frazier a gorilla in pre-fight media frenzy....racist and mean spirited by any standards. But Mohamad Ali got a pass.

And Don King was a piece of shit who exploited his client like an ATM machine.
http://nypost.com/2016/06/05/debunking-the-myths-that-have-glorified-muhammad-ali/

erm...wasn't the greatest black himself? how was that racist? more like mind games than anything else.

[youngblood61]

R.I.P Champ

[broncofan]

erm...wasn't the greatest black himself? how was that racist?
Isn't the content of what someone says more important than the identity of the speaker? Ali was calling a black man with darker skin than himself a gorilla. At the time I believe Joe Frazier himself thought it was a racist attack and I personally agree.

I think Ali was an extremely brave man. He did not always have great moral judgment, but he was provocative, funny, and extraordinarily tough. I watched his fight against Larry Holmes the other day and for anyone who saw his interviews in the early-80s it was an absolute crime that this fight took place. He fought fights against Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick as a sitting duck with no reflexes only extraordinary heart.

[ElectricWoody]

I remember his fighting style. Seems he always let the other guy throw all the punches and then the last 30 seconds he would always open up dance and do the Roap A Dope.

[broncofan]

Ali was calling a black man with darker skin than himself a gorilla.

And for a parallel in boxing, featherweight great Marco Antonio Barrera called fellow great Erik Morales a "dumb Indian". Both men are from Mexico and probably have some shared ancestry. Racist attack? Yes.

[EZWind]

Fair warning.....might be just me, but clicking that nypost link caused my browser to freeze up and crash for a about 10 minutes
...as to the post:




Ali called Joe Frazier a gorilla in pre-fight media frenzy....racist and mean spirited by any standards. .....

...he called Liston an ugly bear too, in fact, he bad mouthed just about every opponent he ever faced. Not racist by any stretch
...nasty? sure. bombastic? you bet...he was BAD. But mean spirited?...not in the least...it was all in fun and everyone ( well, almost everyone I guess) knew it. It's called Show Biz and he was a master at it.


...And Don King was a piece of shit ...

...well, ya got that part right....which still doesn't subtract one iota from Ali's stature

[broncofan]

Not racist by any stretch
...nasty? sure. bombastic? you bet...he was BAD. But mean spirited?...
Calling a black man a gorilla is not racist? If it were a self-deprecating in-joke I would think it's none of anyone's business, but it was targeting another person who was deeply offended by it for decades. There's a difference though between making an isolated racist comment and being a racist. I think Ali was a showman, and sometimes an exhibitionist...I think he just did not realize the hurt he caused Frazier by that comment.

[tiramisu]

i love Ali..

[youngblood61]

Frazier was hurt because he helped Ali when Ali lost his license to box. Even lending Ali money,and speaking up for him. Frazier didn't expect those words especially after he helped the Champ. Ali was a businessman, he knew the more he amped it up, the bigger the gate.

[Stavros]

Was Muhammad Ali 'the Greatest'? No, of course not, it is no different from calling Elvis 'the King' or Michael Jackson 'the King (or Queen) of Pop' -worthless propaganda. Even Boxing aficionados will make claims for Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson and Joe Frazier over Ali. Can you claim world titles against Sonny Liston when the fights were fixed, even if Ali was not responsible? In the notorious 'Rumble in the Jungle' in 1974, the Foreman camp insisted on the smallest ring possible at 16 feet, with the tension on the ropes slacked, and extra padding on the canvas, allegedly to slow Ali down, even though he was slower than he had been ten years before. Then Foreman claimed he had been drugged by his own trainer before the fight, and the fight was arranged with a $10m purse that Zaire's crooked President, Joseph Mobutu Sese Seko had stolen from the national bank, but as the fight was arranged by Don King, a convicted racketeer and murderer who should not have been allowed anywhere near a Boxing ring, it was all par for the course, and just as Ali didn't care about the stolen cash, nobody seems to have cared about Mobutu's political prisoners in the cells under the Ring in the stadium where the fight was held. Had it been 1994, the fight would have been held in Baghdad, presided over by Saddam Hussein. 1974 may not be the lowest moment in sport, but that's because so many sports persons have been outed through their links to organised crime, cheating, illegal betting syndicates and drug enhanced performances we don't really know who is legit anymore.

But there was one truly Great American sportsman; he was the first person to defeat Adolf Hitler, and he was Black.
In 1936 the Olympic Games in Munich was held when the Nazis were at the peak of popularity; the games were designed to prove what a roaring success the Nazis had made of Germany, and to be an exhibition of 'Aryan supremacy' by the 'Master Race'. Jesse Owens not only demolished that bogus theory of race, he single-handedly inflicted that first, crucial defeat on Hitler and the Nazis by stripping them in pubic of their race-based belief in their own superiority and invincibility. Owens also proved to be precisely the kind of ambassador for the USA as a beacon of freedom and hope in the 1930s that Ali could be be in the 1960s.
In their own contexts, both men achieved a lot for Black people everywhere, but with Ali it was with that cheap virility symbol -violence- associated with a bent and crooked sport; with Owens, his individual achievement in Athletics was a success for the USA, the whole of mankind, and for all time.

[ElectricWoody]

This post is dedicated to a Heavy Weight Fighter who has his own claim to fame. Most of us would prefer to remember his human quality's as a person and in the ring. No King or Queen was there nor is this post about them. No reason to bring in the Inuendos or whatever prejudice it is.
Nuf Said.

[tgirllover_1]

The CHAMP...

940055

[gmb]

Good old times:

940121

[SanDiegoPervySage]

polititically correct who cares if he called a nigga a nigga fufufufu
This mofo

[ktkraft]

Ali was one of the most pro black of his era. Im pretty sure its because Frazier actually has some gorialla like characteristics. chill

[EZWind]

In their own contexts, both men achieved a lot for Black people everywhere, but with Ali it was with that cheap virility symbol -violence- associated with a bent and crooked sport; with Owens, his individual achievement in Athletics was a success for the USA, the whole of mankind, and for all time.

...I don't know man, winning a Gold Medal at the Olympics seems to me would qualify as achieving a success for one's nation. And OK, so he gained fame and recognition for his prowess as a prizefighter, but his legacy extends far beyond the ring when it comes to his anti war stance and the struggle for civil rights and human rights for the underprivelaged. Doesn't matter how big of a shitheel Don King or Mobutu were. And neither does it matter how badly Jesse Owens embarrassed the Nazis (at a sport, incidentally, maybe not as bad as boxing but not exactly squeeky clean either when it comes to cheating) ...and it's not about them anyway.
And boo hoo....so poor Joe Frazier got his feelings hurt.... that by no means makes Ali a racist. I was not aware that he had helped Ali and lent him money etc. so alright, bad judgement call there, maybe he shouldn't have laid it on so heavy. But c'mon Joe, you're sposed to be a fighter....roll w/ the punch, get over it and move on

[samspud]

What I find most disconcerting about Ali was the change of name, The Nation of Islam gave him his name for political reasons only and they flat out lied to him about the origins of his birth name. The original Cassius Clay did more to abolish slavery than just about any man of his time.