Muhammad Ali: The world’s greatest!

Muhammad Ali according to the world was the world’s greatest boxer ever! But was he? Greatness can be defined as the quality of being great; eminence or distinction. Was he of eminence to society? Was he distinct in his craft? I sought to find out myself.

When I was a little boy I watched fights of Muhammad Ali and never was impressed because he seemed to always take a beating then “miracoulously” knocked-out the opponent. I would shout “If he’s the greatest he wouldn’t let them even touch him”.

On the other hand I was astonished anytime I saw Mike Tyson fight. Brutal, straight to the point! So I decided to have this argument with my dad last night (for logic sake) with myself of the school of thought that IRON MIKE TYSON should

be the greatest. Of course my dad looked at me like I had lost my mind. I recalled how Mike Tyson took out opponents often in just 2-3 rounds ferociously, sometimes 40 seconds; other times under 90secs and how boxers had little or no answer to him. I also heard how he went to a zoo and saw a gorilla threatening people about from his cage, he now gets angry enters the cage and the gorilla charges at him and a few punches here and there, the gorilla screams and runs away in terror as if to say “who be this”

He was bad and mean. And he knew it!

This is a quote he made after knocking out Lou Savarese in just 38 seconds! “I’m the best ever. I’m the most brutal and vicious, the most ruthless champion there has ever been. There’s no one who can stop me. Lennox is a conqueror? No! I’m Alexander! He’s no Alexander! I’m the best ever. There’s never been anyone as ruthless. I’m Sonny Liston. I’m Jack Dempsey. There’s no one like me. I’m from their cloth. There is no one who can match me. My style is impetuous, my defence is impregnable, and I’m just ferocious. I want your heart! I want to eat his children! Praise be to Allah!”

Whereas Muhammad Ali had to dance around slugging it out till the 7th-8th round most times, almost always taking a beating (as I earlier pointed out) but somehow comes out successful with a knockout. (I think this softened my dad’s stance a bit). He said boxing is all about style and grace. Muhammad Ali had style and grace and had an accompanying big mouth. If he said you were going down. You would go down no matter who you were I understood!

According to the Bleacher Report Muhammad Ali’s description of Sonny Liston “smelling like a bear” and his vow to “donate him to a zoo” after he beat him has been described as the greatest trash talk line in sports history. In fights one of Ali’s greatest tricks was to make opponents over commit by pulling straight backward from punches. Disciplined, world-class boxers chased Muhammad Ali and threw themselves off balance attempting to hit him because he seemed to be an open target, only missing and leaving themselves exposed to Ali’s counter punches, usually a chopping right. Using a synchronizer, Jimmy Jacobs, who co-managed Mike Tyson, measured young Ali’s punching speed versus Sugar Ray Robinson, a welter/middleweight, often considered the best pound-for-pound fighter in history. Ali was 25% faster than Robinson, even though Ali was 45–50 pounds heavier. Ali’s punches produced approximately 1,000 pounds of force. “No matter what his opponents heard about him, they didn’t realize how fast he was until they got in the ring with him”, Jacobs said.

The effect of Ali’s punches was cumulative. Charlie Powell, who fought Muhammad Ali early in Ali’s career and was knocked out in the third round, said: “When he first hit me I said to myself, ‘I can take two of these to get one in myself.’ But in a little while I found myself getting dizzier and dizzier every time he hit me. He throws punches so easily that you don’t realize how much they hurt you until it’s too late.” George Chuvalo who also fought Muhammad Ali in the late 60s said: “He was just so damn fast. When he was young, he moved his legs and hands at the same time. He threw his punches when he was in motion. He’d be

out of punching range, and as he moved into range he’d already begun to throw the punch. So if you waited until he got into range to punch back, he beat you every time.” “It’s very hard to hit a moving target, and he moved all the time, with such grace, three minutes of every round for fifteen rounds. He never stopped. It was extraordinary.”

However, Muhammad Ali became a different fighter after his boxing ban. Ferdie Pacheco, Ali’s corner physician, noted that he had lost his ability to move and dance as before. This forced Ali to become more stationary and exchange punches more frequently, exposing him to more punishment while indirectly revealing

his tremendous ability to take a punch. This physical change led in part to the “rope-a-dope” strategy, where Ali would lie back on the ropes, cover up to protect himself and conserve energy, and tempt opponents to punch themselves out. Ali often taunted opponents in the process and lashed back with sudden, unexpected combinations. My father now concluded by saying Muhammad Ali also fought for black rights, refused to fight in the Vietnam War saying “he can’t shoot no Viet-cogs. They never called me nigger” which as I said earlier, led to his ban from boxing for 3½-year but he took it with style and continued advocating for freedom.

Martin Luther King, Jr., who had been reluctant to address the Vietnam War for fear of alienating the Johnson Administration and its support of the civil rights agenda now began to voice his own opposition to the war for the first time.

Muhammad Ali also met Saddam and negotiated the release of 15 US prisoners and returned to the US with all 15 prisoners

I had no answer to that! Well….Mike Tyson had no style. Just brute, ferocious force. I remember the Tyson-Holyfield fight which was ranked by skysports as the 3rd greatest boxing bout in history where he bit off Holyfield’s ears in sheer frustration not once but twice! The ref had to disqualify him.

Tyson was a serial rape offender. He beat up his wife Actress Robin Givens and added little or no value to humanity.

To top it all of squandered over $300 million in a decade and ultimately became broke.

Pound for pound I would go for Mike Tyson in his prime over Muhammad Ali in his prime but history, providence, showman-ship and influence says otherwise. With his death mankind lost 20% of its testosterone and we badly needed it.

In the end it’s about how we affect and influence our society to better humanity. According to Sen Ehigie Edobor Uzamere, “Ali wasn’t just a boxing legend, he was a thorough bred Black man.

He identified with Black struggle in the United States and fought for emancipation of the United States black race”, literally.

RIP the lead actor of The Thriller In Manilla!

The Champion Of Capua!

Morris Monye