Professional Boxing is a wham-bam sports, so when two opponents punch each other, hardly any sporting spirit engulfs them. Rather than any bonhomie and brotherhood, fellowship and camaraderie, it's natural that there will be anger and animosity between the rivals, unless the persons boxing are Mahatma Gandhi and Leo Tolstoy.
Boxers are born to be aggressive, lacking grace. But inside the ring, this Boxing legend was known to float like a butterfly, but sting like a bee, both graceful and aggressive at same time. He was relentless in his fight, cursing and sledging his opponents until he knocked them out. He continued the same aggression outside the ring when he fought for the Civil Rights with grace. Refusing the Draft for Vietnam war, he famously said "They ain't told me no nig*er, why should I fight them", as graceful as a heavyweight boxer can get.
A genuine fighter on and off the boxing arena and a legend, Cassius Clay who later converted himself into Muhammad Ali, came to fame when he defeated the legendary Joe Frazier in a bout in 1974 in Zaire, Kinshasa. This match, famously billed as "Rumble in the Jungle", shook the boxing world, creative an earthquake which instantly catapulted him to Stardom, the pinnacle of heavy weight boxing.
But he was far from a star in 1960, when as a lanky lad he was representing US in the Rome Olympics that summer. A shy loner in the Olympics village, he had a crush on Wilma Rudolph, the black American female athlete who was the star of the Olympics. He went on to win a medal, would later throw it in Ohio river in Louisville, Kentucky. He felt the medal has no value in then overtly racist America, charged up by Martin Luther King Civil rights movement.
Yet his penchant for making controversies never left him. He once said "I am the greatest", vindicating it by staying that way until 1980, when Leon Spinks dethroned him, announcing his arrival yelling "I am the latest". Ali also attracted the wrath of feminists when he said, "I have seven mistakes and one son", alluding to his overwhelming number of kids from the fairer sex.
It was irony to see a recent picture this 74 year old American sporting icon, a champion of Champions among boxers who battled with numerous boxing legends, fighting a fast losing battling against the dreaded Parkinson's disease. Life ain't fair. A la Newton's law - Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. He got numerous punches from his opponents as reaction to the ones he landed upon them. It probably has taken a toll on him, in the form of a reactionary force called Parkinson's disease. Good luck Mohammed Ali. Not sure this generation will ever see another like you in their lifetime.
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