Support for Muhammad Ali

Parent Cafe
41

For baby boomers my age he was one of our heroes and touched many of our concerns about America. His position on the Vietnam War and discrimination polarized him in the press. He was the black heavyweight champion they least wanted, and why couldn’t he just be quiet like the Sonny Liston’s of the boxing world. Why was he constantly reciting poems, they wondered?

But nobody would ever keep him quiet. He first changed his name to Cassius X and reporters turned on him. I can’t imagine what it meant to be so humiliated by my name that I would take steps to change it. He faced the US Government in the legal ring and eventually achieved the best decision he could. He had his own war to fight and none of us will ever know what round he was in last week.

I can’t imagine taking 29,000 punches to my head from 200-pound behemoths. Can you?

I don’t think he was ever afraid of anything or anyone. RIP Ali.

42

Indeed. An iconic call by Cosell, although it was made during a fight against Foreman and didn’t involve Ali.

I believe the only knockdown in the Frazier Ali trilogy happened in the first fight, won by Frazier, and it was Ali who was knocked down.

A terrific fighter, and a charismatic, irreverant figure.