ALI: THE GREATEST WHAT?
Its time we all start to “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee,” because watching these so-called boxers of todays sport leaves me shaking my head and waving my white flag. Why must I be a victim of bad showmanship as well as craftsmanship? Boxing has officially been around since 688 B.C. and along the way the road was paved with some of the worlds greatest trained warriors the sport has ever seen to have walked this earth. From Jack Johnson to Joe Louis and Foreman to Frazier, the list is timeless and throughout the history of the sport, one thing is for sure, we as fans have never been without excitement. Todays new regime have all failed miserably at providing half of it.
Muhammad Ali, formerly Cassius Marcellus Clay, breathed some fresh air not only into boxing itself, but also into a world divided by color. Where an articulate black man knew how to speak well and how to manipulate the same people who tried their hardest to destroy what couldn’t be destroyed. Even the men who were brave enough to step into a ring to face their demise couldn’t figure him out either. For as long as fans have been following boxing, Ali appeared to be a new breed, a champion we haven’t yet seen since… never before in our lifetime. For those of you who have been around long enough to have witnessed Ali perform live and for those of you who are like myself, and have to thank the heavens above for inventing dvd’s. What Ali meant to the sport of boxing goes unheralded. We have been without great boxing for so so long that many of us have turned to MMA for that brutal hard hitting, exciting fights that Ali brought every time he stepped in front of a camera… yes, in front of the cameras because in the mind of Ali, the fight had already started and that’s when the master of manipulation had begun his lessons. The things Muhammad did or said had zest to it and no matter who his next opponent was, he could always get underneath their skin and rightinto their heads.
Finish reading at http://www.oneluvsports.blogspot.com
Glad to see more sports on the Drum!
Its about time One Luv!! :)
Well boxing to me was a fixture in every community and something we could all share, it was colorblind and people were passionate about it. Watching boxing matches and debating who was the best are dicussions of faded memory. Don King and others just raped the sport until there was nothing but this useless waste of abandonement. There is hope in Paqiou (sp?) and others but I don’t see black folks stepping up to even live up to half the hype of Ali. They just talk but can’t back it up.
Floyd hello!!
Do you think it is the lack of access to boxing rings in the hood? The lack of promoters who have all gone south? Or is boxing a dying sport?
Either way its sad to watch the end of a legacy but I hope I am wrong.
Welcome to the family One Luv!!
Hope to see more from you!
WW
@ One Luv
I go around the circles at the shop with the fellas on this 1.
There are many reasons Ali ain’t the greatest; he was not a technically sound boxer. Ali had the speed of a welterweight early and his superior athletic skills allowed him the luxury to overcome his lack of true boxing skills. He often broke many of boxing’s rule like keeping his hand low and retreating straight back. Lesser fighters would have short careers if they imitated Ali and even his rope-a-dope consisted of flaw boxing skills that only Ali’s toughness overcame.
One attribute, his toughness. Ali was strong and his ability to a take a punch was exceeded by very few. His battle with Foreman is proof of this he took Foreman’s sledgehammer shots. After the 1st round, Ali realized quickly that Foreman would wear him down if he continued to move and box. Team Forman trained their man to cut off the ring and combined with Foreman sledgehammer shots; Ali may have been the one on the floor in the eighth round. Foreman’s punches made Ali winced throughout the early rounds but his toughness allowed him to withstand the onslaught and his quick hands allowed him to counter off the rope. Ali persevere against one of the hardest hitting heavyweight.
As my pops said “Ali’s greatness lied in the intangibles. ” So true pops, so true.
Not just a Boxer! , a rebel ! controversial , smart , poetic , beautiful , athletic , articulate , what a specimen. Not just another athlete , a leader. This man was not only the greatest heavyweight boxer that has ever lived , but he is also a leader for his people , a man of god , a man that would and surely will stand up for what he believes in no matter what. He is a Hero , he is The Greatest.
ali is the greatest and will forever be remembred for it. Ask anyone who the grestest is and they will look at you as if you crazy and will say “damn man what sort of question is that ali is king no matter where he is or what he does” makaveli out
Tyson would eat Ali and Ali admitted that himself. Loads of recent boxer would beat the old timers but they will forever hold their charm in boxing history.
Indeed…
most peole think of the ear biting idiot or the tyson who was knocked out by lewis,a complete shadow of his former self.
The 80′s version of tyson was a phenom.
at 13 he weighed 200lbs of solid muscle.
I don’t know who I miss more Tyson, or Ali both here but not here. Boxing is a killer!
Ali was always messed over!
The Defeat of the Great Black Hope
And, of course, white America reacted. After he became champion in 1964, the World’s Boxing Association, largely an honorary agency with little power, stripped him of his title because of his adoption of the Black Muslim faith.
Muhammad Ali is a folk hero, one of the first truly black men to challenge America in black terms. There was none like him in his chosen profession, or in other professions for that matter. He was not the humble Negro champion like Joe Louis, the good champion who knew his place, “a credit to his race,” whom whites could tolerate.
He was not the bad, thug-like champion like ex-convict Sonny Liston, whom whites still accept because Liston conformed to their stereotypical nightmare of the bad nigger, the juvenile delinquent grown up.
He was not the “known-white” champion, Jack Johnson, who terrified whites by seeking white prerogatives, by marrying a white girl, and who first inspired the racist demand for a Great White Hope to beat him.
To squander a billion dollars (Tyson) or give up a billion dollars on princple (Ali) makes Ali, the GREATEST OF ALL TIMES. Boxing is more than just “can you knock somebody out?” (Roy Evans USA Boxing official 17 years)