The news came like a lightning fast right jab and landed with the same impact. Hard.
Cassius Clay. Muhammed Ali. Dead at age 74.
I was a Clay/Ali fan from the first time I saw him box on t.v.. It was way before the executives in the big corner offices decided boxing fans needed to pay for their fight entertainment when it was shown on the tube.
The man was easily the best I had ever seen but of course at the age of eight I didn’t have much of a history to compare him to. He just looked so much better than everyone else. As it turned out, he was and will likely always be the greatest.
I know many other boxers have come along since and carved out their own legacy but not one of them will ever put together the skill in and out of the ring which Ali showed from the day he turned pro. Many have tried but all have fallen short in my estimation.
Some can show more speed. Others will have more power and there may be a few who combine both but none will ever match the magnetism this man exuded where ever he went.
There is also one other thing those in the fight game might never come close to repeating and that’s taking a stand on a controversial issue and paying a professional price.
Ali refused to go to war against the Viet Cong and was stripped of his title and his career. They never came close to removing his pride.
I can’t for the life of me think of another professional athlete who gave up the prime of his or her career in order to stay true to who they are. There might be a few but none were as close to the top of the game as Ali was when he drew his line in the sand.
When Joe Louis, The Brown Bomber, enlisted in the army and was lauded for his service it was a different scenario. It was a war which had the support of the American people and he was a proud American, willing to do his duty. He was not in any actual combat but did plenty for morale. He was a poster child for his race but also for the American public in general.
When Ali went to prison he was chastised for his stand against the war in Vietnam. The racists had a field day. Three years later he got out of jail and a good portion of those who were against him and for the war had begun to sing a different tune as the body bags kept arriving back on American soil. People started to see this was a war which the Americans didn’t need to be involved in. Ali saw that well before they did. Right or wrong he made his stand and stuck with it. Gone were the prime fighting years and the title. His talent didn’t wane too much as he came back and was on top of the world again.
He was a boxer. So many others were fighters. The boxer always seemed to find a way to win. Ali won 56 times in the ring and lost five. He couldn’t beat what took him away from his fans however but you have to believe he fought to the bell.
He will be missed but any fan of the sport, serious or casual, will remember him as simple the Greatest.