And The Greatest, the incomparable Muhammad Ali, departs! But even he could not “fly like a butterfly” or “sting like a bee”, against the grim ripper! For once, the extra-talkative “Louisville Lips” was mute!
It was the passage of the titan of the age of true boxing giants and legends. But this titan combined with his strength, the grace and nimbleness of the Olympian. The was the making of the greatest boxer ever to straddle the planet earth!
That Ali was on his way out, there was no doubt. For one, he had for years been slowed down by Parkinson syndrome, that terrible medical condition that robbed the most famous lips of the 20th century his customary razor-sharp wit. Indeed, it was sheer miracle that he lasted 74 years, when a more rugged ‘Smoking’ Joe Frazier, his famous rival, who inflicted on him his first professional defeat, had blinked off.
Between them, they had three boxing classics: two world title fights straddling a 10-rounder challenge. Frazier won the first, after Ali’s comeback from suspension, for refusing the Vietnam military draft. Ali won the second, a non-title challenge. But the third, the classic in Mannila, which Ali hyped as squaring with the “gorilla in Manila”, Ali won. But he confessed that bout was closest to death!
Frazier’s savage blows, which Ali soaked up in his trunk, no thanks to his rope-a-dope tactics, accounted for part of Ali’s latter-day Parkinson syndrome.
Still, that was Ali’s glory — boxing as poetry in motion, in such a savage sport. The terrain was full, of big bangers, with lots of power: Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton (who, by the way, broke Ali’s jaw), and much later, George Foreman, the new kid on the block who beat Frazier black and blue twice, the first time to take his crown.
Most of them were defined by brute force, savage punching power and knockout acumen. But only the incomparable Ali was defined by beauty and sheer poetry! Besides, only Ali seemed to have a no less riveting life outside the narrow ring of boxing. At a time, he was the most popular personage in the 20th century.
So, why was the world not in a hurry to witness Ali’s demise? Simple: the world wasn’t in a hurry to part ways with the embodiment of boxing as poetry, especially when heavy boxing, having first descended into the sheer animal savagery of the Mike Tyson era, had made its peace with the dour, the un-sparkling and the un-dramatic.
But even with post Ali ring artists, though in lower weight classes: Sugar Ray Leonard and Floyd Mayweather, the reference point was still Ali — and none could hold a candle to him, in all boxing history.
Fare you well, eternal champion! Perhaps, you would teach the heavenly folks a bit about boxing-as-poetry. Oh, could you hear the thunderous cheers? Heaven is a more exciting place. The champion is in town!
Farewell, Louisville Lips turned global wit. Farewell!