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He really was the greatest. R.I.P.
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Yep…The Greatest…never in doubt. RIP
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Before my time, but I made time to watch his more famous fights. Films like Rocky seemed utterly mental when Tyson was steamrolling through people in the 80s.
Then I saw Ali vs Foreman, and was blown away with it. Ali had harder fights, more bruising fights, but in the Rumble in the Jungle, I just sat in awe if the bloke’s moxy. Foreman was the most feared brawler in the world at the time and had a reputation for making short work of his opponents, normally knocking them out within the distance.
Ali’s plan? Let the bastard punch himself out. Leaving aside the skill involved in letting a known puncher throw enough punches to knacker himself out, there was also the sheer balls of the plan, and then of course, the implementation.
To call it a physical confrontation would only tell half the story. Throughout, Ali wound Foreman up, invited him to punch him, taunted him and mocked his inability to knock him out. For the first half of the fight, Foreman must have been thinking that all he had to to was tag Ali once, hard, and the challenge will be over.
As the fight wore on, Ali’s refusal to buckle broke Foreman. Already punch-fatigued, Foreman later admitted that there was a point in the fight where he just knew he no longer had the strength to win. It actually broke George Foreman as a man for a few years, but the pair became close friends afterward. Ali helped to fix what he broke.
Always knew the game he was playing and didn’t much care for it. He was incredibly brave at a time when it was even more difficult for young black men to do so without sanction. His stance on Vietnam caused him all sorts of shit, even a jail term, but he was correct and has been vindicated by time.
A true legend. Fuck knows how many people he inspired, but you can count me among them.
RIP, the Greatest.
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Whatever I write will be unworthy of the greatness of the man, and to focus on his ability as a boxer and to ignore the man seems trite, but he was an excellent boxer.
There are few sportsmen that carry a large frame and manage to appear as fluid and agile as a much smaller person. As a person’s height and weight increase it becomes exponentially difficult to move limbs at the same speed and to control them with the same degree of skill.
Ali was 6’3", 100kg and fought 50 years ago and yet he boxed with the speed a fluidity of a modern middleweight.
He was a freak and that’s why we’re unlikely to see his like again.
RIP.
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sad news
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In an age where the word hero almost seems throwaway and meaningless - he truly was a hero. The greatest hero, of mine, certainly.
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Pap, if you haven’t you should watch the 3rd Ali vs frazier fight. Beyond words.
With regards to his fight with foreman who in my opinion would easily beat the modem bunch, his plan was originally to dance around but after the first round he knew he’d have no chance in thst heat so improvised with the rope a dope. I’ve watched that fight so many times. He gets hit less than you think and also scores off the ropes a fair bit. The best part though was as foreman was falling you see Ali pull out of throwing another punch; almost as if he didn’t want to spoil the aesthetics of the moment.
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A true legend. Lucky enough to see have seen him at his best. RIP Champ.
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I think I’ve seen the 3rd Frazier fight once, but suspect I was a bit trollied at the time and don’t remember a great deal of it. I am aware that it almost killed the pair of them, and is probably the fight that caused Ali so much trouble in later life.
I just found the before and after of the Foreman fight fascinating.
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We’re always going to remember the great fights but back in his younger days as World Champ he used to box these journeymen pros…one a month. It was kinda cruel to watch but he was giving these guy a chance to make their name and the biggest payday of their careers…
What he said about Frazier will now be glossed over, a great boxer, the best? Hmmmmmmmmmm don’t know and hard to compare.
What is beyond compare is he was robbed of his career by 4 years for a genuine conviction, a great showman, boxer and speaker.
Lots of revisionism going on today - he was not some sort of latter-day Jesus Christ.
I’m old enough to remember.
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What he said against Frazier was horrendous but the media loved him and he got away with it, some tried to pull him up on it and the Ali media train bullied them.
Today is a day when people who know nothing of Boxing and Ali will comment the most, he was a tremendous figure, a supreme athlete but he went one further than Gorgeous George (who inspired him).
An icon, a brilliant boxer and a legend but nice guy? I don’t know the man but what he said about Frazier will always stick with me.
Barry’s right. He was an iconic figure of the 60’s and 70’s charismatic and controversial. Boxing is a tough business and in those days pretty corrupt.
“The Thriller in Manila” (3rd Frazier fight), which many pundits look on as the greatest ever, is quite sickening and both boxers were never the same again. Ali stupidly fought on and won back the title. Then there was that awful spectacle against Larry Holmes.
I suspect, however, that the controversy with his standing with KKK members united against mixed race marriages./relationships will be glossed over.
He was a man of controversional contradictions, great , yet flawed, like all humans. I think the real honour is in acknowledging his greatness and his flaws.
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