Sunday, January 17, 2021

Happy Birthday Champ, aka The Greatest

Can't say I am or ever was a big fan of boxing, but one thing is for sure, I know the champ.  You see on this day (January 17) in 1942, the champ was born in Louisville, Kentucky.    Beginning training at 12, he would win the light heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Olympics (6 years before I was born).  On March 6, 1964, he announced he no longer would be known as Cassius Clay but as Muhammad Ali. In 1966, he refused to be drafted into the military, citing his religious beliefs and ethical opposition to the war that was raging in Vietnam. He was found guilty of draft evasion so he faced 5 years in prison and was stripped of his boxing titles. He stayed out of prison as he appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, which overturned his conviction in 1971 by which time by all accounts he was past his peak performance as an athlete.   

Many phrases were coined by him, "The greatest", "Rope-a-dope", "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee",  "Fight of the century", "The Thrilla in Manila", "The Rumble in the Jungle". There are many more!

I think though, his most humorous and endearing story was in 1971, when Wilt Chamberlain challenged Ali to a fight, scheduled for July 26. Although the seven-foot-two-inch tall Chamberlain had formidable physical advantages over Ali—weighing 60 pounds more and able to reach 14 inches further—Ali was able to influence Chamberlain into calling off the bout by taunting him with calls of "Timber!" and "The tree will fall". No wonder  - the Ali statement unsettled Wilt the Stilt - the bout was called off.  

And then there was the Rumble in the Jungle.  I was 8 years old at the time, didn't know much about anything, other than Kinshasa was somewhere in Africa.  Ali was supremely confident.  So confident that he told the press, "done something new for this fight. I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick; I'm so mean I make medicine sick."

There is so much more than can be said, but I'll end this by saying the world lost this icon to the ravages of Parkinson's on June 3, 2016.  

Champ - here's to you on what would have been your 79th birthday!



No comments: