Remembering Muhammad Ali: Greatest Rebel Of All Time

[Polishprince]

This doesn't mean that Mr. Clay was a racist, any more that Ernie Ladd's rant about his Native American opponent being on a reservation and drinking whiskey in teepee are.

The "Ali" persona was just stirring people to buy tickets for his next fight, make the people really want to see him get his comeuppance.

 

[Unkotare]

That's awfully hateful. There are a lot of folks that do not believe in miscegenation and are very religious, they are neither racist,...

Yes, they are.

 

[Unkotare]

This doesn't mean that Mr. Clay was a racist, ...

That's exactly what it means.

 

[basquebromance]

Cassius Clay entered the ring in Miami Beach wearing a short white robe, “The Lip” stitched on the back. He was beautiful again. He was fast, sleek, and twenty-two. But, for the first and last time in his life, he was afraid. The ring was crowded with has-beens and would-bes, liege men and pugs. Clay ignored them. He began bouncing on the balls of his feet, shuffling joylessly at first, like a marathon dancer at ten to midnight, but then with more speed, more pleasure. After a few minutes, Sonny Liston, the heavyweight champion of the world, stepped through the ropes and onto the canvas, gingerly, like a man easing himself into a canoe. He wore a hooded robe. His eyes were unworried, and they were blank, the dead eyes of a man who’d never gotten a favor out of life and never given one out. He was not likely to give one to Cassius Clay

 

[Aldo Raine]

Nobody is perfect. Had 2 problems with Ali and no it was not avoiding the draft. While sports is competitive and gets heated but Ali's treatment of Joe Fraizer was way out of bounds. And here is the other reason.
Ali had stood in alliance with the Ku Klux Klan, having attended one of their rallies. In the 2008 HBO documentary Thrilla in Manila, Ali describes the rally, complete with white hoods and a burning cross, where he stood on the platform, preaching racial segregation. "Black people should marry their own women," Ali shouted. "Bluebirds with bluebirds, red birds with red birds, pigeons with pigeons, eagles with eagles. God didn't make no mistake!"

In a 1975, interview with Playboy Magazine, Ali even went as far as to say, "A black man should be killed if he's messing with a white woman." The same went for white men hitting on black women. "We'll kill anybody who tries to mess around with our women," Ali insisted. According to the National Constitution Center's website, however, Ali is "a champion of freedom who embodies everything the award was established to honor: individuals of courage and conviction who strive to secure the blessings of liberty to people around the globe."

He mellowed in his later years but the KKK bit he was not called to account for.

His treatment of Joe Frazier is the only problem I had with the man. I mean Joe went out of his way to help Ali out will Ali was prohibited from boxing and Joe helped him monetarily. The other crap was just his opinions on things, he is entitled to those opinions.

 

[basquebromance]

Nearly every sportswriter in the Miami Convention Hall expected Clay to end the night on his back. The young boxing beat writer for The New York Times, Robert Lipsyte, got a call from his editors telling him to map out the route from the arena to the hospital, the better to know the way once Clay ended up there. The odds were seven to one against Clay, and it was almost impossible to find a bookie willing to take a bet. On the morning of the fight, the New York Post ran a column written by Jackie Gleason, the most popular television comedian in the country, that said, “I predict Sonny Liston will win in eighteen seconds of the first round, and my estimate includes the three seconds Blabber Mouth will bring into the ring with him.” Even Clay’s financial backers, the Louisville Sponsoring Group, expected disaster; the group’s lawyer, Gordon Davidson, negotiated hard with Liston’s team, assuming that this could be the young man’s last night in the ring. Davidson hoped only that Clay would emerge “alive and unhurt.”

 

[Polishprince]

His treatment of Joe Frazier is the only problem I had with the man. I mean Joe went out of his way to help Ali out will Ali was prohibited from boxing and Joe helped him monetarily. The other crap was just his opinions on things, he is entitled to those opinions.

Cassius and Joe made a lot of money together in the ring, they really helped each other out.

And Clay's mocking of Frazier really helped generate interest and draw money to the fight.

 

[basquebromance]

It was the night of February 25, 1964. Malcolm X, Clay’s guest and mentor, was at ringside, in seat number seven. Jackie Gleason and Sammy Davis were there, and so were the mobsters from Las Vegas, Chicago, and New York. A cloud of cigar smoke drifted through the ring lights. Cassius Clay threw punches into the gray floating haze and waited for the bell.

 

[Aldo Raine]

He was a draft dodger, but many brushed that under the carpet because he was a good boxer and they liked him.

tRump was a draft dodger, but many brushed that under the carpet because he was/is their cult leader and they adored him!

 

[Aldo Raine]

Cassius and Joe made a lot of money together in the ring, they really helped each other out.

And Clay's mocking of Frazier really helped generate interest and draw money to the fight.

It was his treatment that obviously upset Joe though even after Joe helped bankroll him while he was exiled from boxing though that I cannot look past.

 

[Polishprince]

It was his treatment that obviously upset Joe though even after Joe helped bankroll him while he was exiled from boxing though that I cannot look past.

Frazier had a lot of skill as the baby face here, leading people to think that Clay was really getting his goat with his promos. Tremendous job by both combatants to make it look personal and that there was real heat between the two fellows.

The fact that both men are long dead, and people are still upset at Ali shows the greatness of both guys in getting people to care.

 

[Aldo Raine]

Frazier had a lot of skill as the baby face here, leading people to think that Clay was really getting his goat with his promos. Tremendous job by both combatants to make it look personal and that there was real heat between the two fellows.

The fact that both men are long dead, and people are still upset at Ali shows the greatness of both guys in getting people to care.

That maybe true, I really have no idea of course. But everything I read pretty much says Joe wasn't happy about it.

No matter as you said both were great figures for their time and 1 certainly for all time.

 

[Polishprince]

That maybe true, I really have no idea of course. But everything I read pretty much says Joe wasn't happy about it.

No matter as you said both were great figures for their time and 1 certainly for all time.

It was just one of the great rivalries and sticking to the story that you are really ticked about it is part of it.

Andy Kaufman died in 1984, and never admitted that the heat between him and Jerry Lawler was a work either. A lot of people- even those who think that pro wrestling is fixed- still believed that the Kaufman-Lawler feud was real.

Its called real professionalism for rivals to stick to their stories.

 

[katsteve2012]

Do you have a link to any such recorded sentiments from him?

He made the statement in later years:

"Hating others because of the color of their skin is wrong, no matter who does it"

That aside, I judge him as a person based more on his actions in later years than his words, and what he quietly did for other people, regardless of race.

Muhammad Ali displayed his generosity and left his mark on Michiana

He lived in Berrien County for years and people in Michiana remember his generosity, both with his time and money.

www.southbendtribune.com

Muhammad Ali had a lifelong mission to help those in need

The champ's legacy outside of the ring was just as impressive as the one inside.

mashable.com

 

[Unkotare]

Gotta wonder how many people would get that benefit of the doubt, all other things being equal.

 

[Polishprince]

Gotta wonder how many people would get that benefit of the doubt, all other things being equal.

I think a lot of people would, at least those who recognize it all as an act.

 

[Unkotare]

I think a lot of people would, at least those who recognize it all as an act.

So someone today loudly and publicly declared that "If (x-race) man is ever with (x-race) woman, he should be killed!" You think a "Aw shucks, I was just kidding" would do the trick?

 

[Captain Caveman]

tRump was a draft dodger, but many brushed that under the carpet because he was/is their cult leader and they adored him!

No, Trump dodged the draft, Muhammad Ali dodged the draft. I imagine many did.

The thread is about Ali, so no TDS required.

 

[Polishprince]

No, Trump dodged the draft, Muhammad Ali dodged the draft. I imagine many did.

The thread is about Ali, so no TDS required.

Trump didn't dodge the draft at all.

His foot problems made him unqualified for selective service. He signed up, and his services weren't needed.

 

[Billo_Really]

There have been a lot of performers that have been a lot better than Ali in recent years. Iron Mike Tyson and Floyd Mayweather are much the better as personalities as well as fighters. Compare Ali vs Inoki in his boxer vs wrestler match, with Mayweather vs Big Show. The latter drew a lot more money and was a lot more entertaining match.

Floyd Merriweather was a pussy! Nothing but a counterpuncher. He had no offense. He had nothing that is even on the same planet as Ali's jabb. He wouldn't fight Pachioua in his prime and almost lost to an MMA guy! Tyson is a better argument, but I still think Ali takes. Especially, when he was Cassius Clay.

BTW, my favorite fighter was Rocky Marciano.