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Tag: Muhammad Ali

  • Muhammad Ali, an iconic personality

    Every one of my generation cannot but be sad about the final exit of the greatest athlete of the 20th century. I grew up watching the magnificent Ali upgrading boxing from sport to an art, more like ballet. To see a big man do what was called the Ali shuffle was simply unbelievable. I was introduced to boxing by a certain Sugar Ray Johnson who was my late brother, Chief OduolaOsuntokun’s driver and personal assistant who at one time was the light weight champion of Nigeria. Through him I got to meet a couple of great Nigerian boxers who were campaigning for world laurels in Europe.

    Boxing in the United States in the time of Ali provided young and energetic black boys avenue for self-development and rapid upward mobility. To white America, the best place for blacks was the prison where blacks spent the better parts of their lives. To avoid this fate, blacks generally suffered in silence. This was the United States Muhammad Ali grew up in. After leaving high school, his talent as a boxer was soon recognized by a white do-gooder.Boxing soon brought him into America’s notice when he represented the country as a light heavyweight boxer in the Rome Olympics of 1960 and won a gold medal.He was so excited by this victory at a young age of 19 that according to Wilma Rudolph, the black woman Olympic gold medallist in the sprints in the same games, that he wore his medal throughout the two weeks of the games.

    On returning home, a syndicate of white businessmen soon formed around him in Louisville to promote his boxing career. From one victory to another, the brash young man began to promote himself by boasting about what round he would knock out his opponent. In an uncanny fashion, his predictions always came true. He was nicknamed the Louisville Lip among other names. He began to call attention to himself as the greatest as well as asking people how beautiful not handsome he was. No doubt he was a beauty of a man to behold, tall, well-proportioned and with fair skin. By this time he had heard about the black Muslims,the followers of Elijah Mohammed in Chicago with their doctrine of separatism and virtually throwing at the white manthat black people too rejected integration. He liked their celebration of black women as queens to be treasured and respected unlike the beating his own dad and black men generally inflicted on his mother and black women generally.He however did not yet come out until after the fight against Sonny Liston the then reigning champion.

    Sonny Liston was a hard man who had killer instinct and was backed by the mobsters and many of the white folks secretly wished this ex-convict black dude would put an end to the boasting of the young Cassius Clay. Some even hoped Liston would kill Clay and put an end to this uppity nigger! But on the night of the fight against Liston, Clay turned the tables against the fearsome pugilist by not only beating him but knocking him out. The whole world was surprised and from that time on everyone wanted to know the trajectory of this handsome man. A couple of fights later including a second knockout in a rematch with Liston, Cassius Marcellus Clay jnr declared to the world that he had converted to Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali. No one is sure why he took the name Muhammad Ali. But it is safe to guess that he took the name of a major figure in the history of Egypt. Muhammad Ali was the khedive or ruler of Egypt early in the 19th century contemporaneous with the Meiji restoration in Japan and a modernizer like his counterpart in Japan.

    The moment Clay announced his conversion to Islam he drew the ire of white American establishment to himself. Even his father complained about the black Muslims taking away his son from him. But Ali stood his ground.

    The 1960s was a period of political and social ferment in the black world in the USA and in Africa. This was at the height of independent movements in Africa and the civil rights movement in the USA and each movement somehow fed on each other. This was also the period of American military campaign in Vietnam necessitating sending hundreds of thousands of young American soldiers to fight, killand be killed in the jungle of South-eastAsia. These young men were draftees who had to go to Vietnam as part of their citizen responsibility. Most of the draftees were usually the children of the poor and most were not university students like children of the affluent who either deferred serving in the military or escaped to Canada and Europe to avoid going to Vietnam.

    The radical wing of the so-called Negro rebellion included young academics like the beautiful young philosophy professor in university of California at Berkley, Angela Davis, one of the products of Hebert Marcuse a radical left wing professor. Others formed what was called the Black Panther Party led by Hugh Newton based mostly in the west coast of the USA with public declaration to resist police brutality by fighting back.One of their thinkers was the famous Eldridge Cleaver who wrote a successful book, Soul on Ice, depicting the plight of black men in America while in prison.On the east coast the likes of Stockley Carmichael and Rap Brown were raising hell.Young blacks were rioting from coast to coast burning down shops and shouting burn baby burn!The coming of Ali into the maelstrom confused white Americans. The reaction of most was that these niggers should be made to know who was boss.

    Muhammad Ali was drafted and was asked to report for posting to Vietnam. He of course refused that the Vietcong were not his enemies. But that the blue eyed Devils as the Nation of Islam called the whites were his enemies! He famously declared I ain’t got no problem with them Vietcong! He said Vietcong never called him nigger and if he must fight it will be in the USA.This brought anger and hatred to him. He was stripped of his title and sentenced to jail for three years. He appealed to the Supreme Court as a conscientious opponent of the war. It took the court three long years to deliver a judgement in his favour. This was at the height of his career as a boxer. The more he was persecuted, the more he attracted the attention and affection of the world outside the USA. When he tried to get his title back by fighting Joe Frazier the new champion, he met his Waterloo when he was defeated. The three years absence had had his toll. But Ali was an indomitable competitor. He later beat Frazier on two gruelling occasions including the so-called Thrilla in Manilla when these two black men nearly killed each other in order to assert superiority of  one over the other in an acrimonious relation that went way beyond the sport of boxing. Even though Ali tended to see his verbal abuse and teasing of Frazier as part of promotional tricks for their matches calling Frazier Uncle Tom and Gorilla,  it went beyond the pale and Frazier took it so personal that he said he wished Ali dead while watching the shaking and quivering Ali light the Olympic flames in Atlanta in 1996. The fight with Joe Frazier and the dramatic defeat of George Forman the giant from Atlanta by Muhammad Ali in the fight named Rumble in the jungle took a lot out of Ali. In spite of advice to stop fighting, he continued fighting and receiving blows unnecessarily to the head. I personally watched his fight in 1979, I believe in Bethesda Maryland where his former sparring partner and the then world champion Larry Holmes gave him the whipping of his life. The 61 fights he had must have contributed to the Parkinson’s disease that finally killed him after suffering for 32 years.

    To me it is not Ali’s skill as a boxer that is important. Of course he was the greatest athlete that ever lived. But besides that and most importantly he gave the black people of America a voice. He spoke truth to power and it is people like him that made the civil rights act of 1965 possible. Yes Martin Luther King jnr. was the eloquent preacher and mobilizer of the masses but it is Ali who epitomized the freedom sought by black youth. I must also not forget to mention the contribution of Malcom X to Ali’s psychological development as well as his own contribution to the African American liberation? Muhammad Ali’s appeal transcended race eventually appealing to the whole world to the extent that Oxford University wanted to elect him their poet laureate. To us in Africa he was a brother and to the Muslim world he was an iconic figure. It is fitting that the president of Turkey and the King of Jordan will be among many dignitaries who will be present at his burial today. What a pity that no African president will be at his funeral. To my generation Ali represents pride in our African personality and heritage which does not defer to the arrogance of racists who put Africans and other non-white people down.May God accept him and grant him  AljanatFirdaus

  • Muhammad Ali: Simply The Greatest

    Muhammad Ali: Simply The Greatest

    When Ebony magazine dropped Muhammad Ali from its canonical roster of the 100 most influential African Americans some thirty years ago – a roster on which he had figured prominently for 25 unbroken years, I was bewildered.

    The de-listing came nearly two decades after the Thriller in Manila, Ali’s third and final match-up with Joe Frazier, ranked by boxing experts as the greatest bout of all time.  Both fighters came out of the encounter significantly damaged.  Frazier could not get out of his corner for the final round, the 15th; Ali was too exhausted to celebrate.  He would say of the encounter that it was “the closest thing to death.”

    The thrilla itself, as Ali called the Manila clash with poetic lyricism, came a year after the Rumble in the Jungle – another Ali coinage –in which Ali taunted and battled the fearsome George Foreman to an 8th-round knockout in Kinshasa, in former Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo.

    That outcome does not tell the full story, however.

    For seven furious rounds, Foreman had thrown at Ali blows that would have felled an ox.  Ali had absorbed them on his arms and body.  The resulting internal injuries took months to heal, and it is a wonder that Ali returned to the ring the following year to face his old nemesis, Smokin’ Joe.

    The de-listing came some five years after Ali had cut a pitiful figure in an ill-advised challenge to his former sparring partner and reigning world champion, Larry Holmes, with Holmes literally pleading with the referee to stop the fight and save Ali from needless punishment.

    It came literally on the heels of Ali’s final ring appearance in 1981, in the Bahamas, against Trevor Berbick, a well-muscled, ponderous pugilist. Ali lost on all three score cards.  His courage showed through and through in that fight; he displayed flashes of brilliance and inspiration.

    But the razor-sharp reflexes were long gone.  Body and mind no longer syncopated.

    It was a poor imitation of the Mohammad Ali who had dominated my generation’s consciousness like no other person.  He had endeared himself to us with his exquisite physique, his matchless boxing skills, his lightning-quick hands, his supreme confidence, his courage, his defiance, his inventiveness, his pride in his black heritage, his eloquence and, yes, his brashness.

    So, his work was done and he now belonged in the past, this man with the most recognizable visage in the world, at once hero and legend? And this, according to Ebony, the quintessential journal of the Black Establishment, not some pesky publication with a reputation for putting back in his or her place any black person who stepped out of the line according to Jim Crow?

    And this was well before Ali’s speech was slurred almost to the point of being barely comprehensible, before his voice became a faint echo, before his body was palsied by the ravages of Parkinson’s disease and the countless hammer-blows to the head he had absorbed in 61 fights.

    The de-listing also came a decade or so before the toll of those fights was on global display at the opening ceremony of the 1996 Olympics, in Atlanta, Georgia.

    For about 30 seconds that seemed like an eternity, the world held its breath as mind and will seemed locked in elemental combat with the once-magnificent but now tremulous body of Ali, poised to ignite the flames of the Games of the XXVI Olympiad.

    It was not a pretty spectacle.

    But Ali’s indomitable mind and will prevailed, and the world breathed a collective sigh of relief.

    I cannot now recall the metrics Ebony employed to determine who was influential in the African American community, nor indeed what in its judgment constituted influence.

    Ali had long ceased to be in the limelight, but could he be written off as a marginal figure from the past, with little or no contemporary influence?

    The world did not think so.  TIME magazine named him Athlete of the (20th) Century.  The BBC voted him the greatest athlete of the century.  President George W. Bush conferred him the Medal of Freedom, America’s highest honour.

    He was a fixture and revered presence at Davos, the Swiss city where the most influential people in the world gather every winter to discuss important global issues.  He rarely spoke, but his presence somehow gave some authenticity to the proceedings; if Ali was there, the debates and discussions must be about real people.

    At the time of his first fight with Joe Frazier, Ali was one of the most polarising figures in America, venerated by African Americans and white liberals on the other hand and execrated by Establishment and conservative whites in equal measure.

    To the delight of the one, he had refused to be drafted to fight in Vietnam, saying he “ain’t got no quarrel with those Vietcongs,” and that no Vietnamese ever called him “nigger.”  To the implacable anger of the other, he was an unpatriotic draft dodger who had dared to embrace a faith they considered dangerous and threatening.

    This latter group was rooting for Frazier and looking to him to put Ali away once and for all.  Ali framed Frazier as an “Uncle Tom,” a symbol of black subservience to white authority, taunted Frazier as a gorilla, and made remarks about Frazier’s looks and skin colour that would have been judged offensively racist if made by a white person.

    If that was marketing hype, it was marketing hype taken too far.  It rankled till the end of Frazier’s life. He would say, apropos of Ali’s titanic struggle to ignite the flames at the Atlanta Olympics, that he wished Ali had fallen into the cauldron.

    Not a few consider rather overdone, mean-spirited even, Ali’s clinical demolition of former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson and the challenger Ernest Terrell, both of whom continued calling him Cassius Clay long after he had disavowed that name. For every punch Patterson threw, Ali countered with six crisp, lacerating blows. Patterson was carried out of the ring.  Terrell fared just    a little better.

    I have no quarrel with that.  It was payback.

    Ali’s last visit to Nigeria was a disaster, not on account of his waning stature but on account of the cause he had come to pursue.

    He had come as an envoy of the Carter Administration to lobby Nigeria to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics, following the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

    The mission was dead on arrival.

    Ali’s handlers should not have allowed him to undertake it.  It was incongruous that the country that had stripped him of his heavyweight title for political reasons and rendered him inactive for three years at his prime should be sending him abroad to campaign for a boycott of the Olympics for political reasons.

    It was unlike Ali not to have perceived the incongruity.  Still, you could never accuse him of selling out.

    It is his great legacy that he brought grace and glamour and elegance to the brutal sport of boxing.  He was a pillar of inspiration to young people all over the world striving to make a mark not just in boxing but in every sport and in public affairs.  He identified with the poor and downtrodden in society.  He was a goodwill ambassador-at-large for many worthy causes. He made boxing a money-spinning industry from which boxers could earn fortunes.

    In the closing years of his life, time and tide and personal circumstance conflated to transform Ali into a secular saint of sorts, revered and almost irreproachable.

    This generation will not see another like him.

  • MUHAMMAD ALI (1942-2016) The Greatest loses the final fight

    MUHAMMAD ALI (1942-2016) The Greatest loses the final fight

    Death has surely come as a merciful release for Muhammad Ali, for it has ended an agonising 32-year struggle with Parkinson’s disease – the one opponent even The Greatest couldn’t beat.

    BOXING legend, Muhammad Ali, Friday, lost his 32 year-long battle with the Parkinson disease. The eloquent, colorful, controversial and brilliant three-time heavyweight boxing champion who was known as much for his social conscience and staunch opposition to the Vietnam War as for his dazzling boxing skills, died in a Phoenix area hospital in his native USA, aged 74.
    Ali was rushed to the hospital on Thursday for treatment for a respiratory issue.
    The once loquacious Ali was largely muted for the last quarter century of his life, quieted by his battle with the disease.
    Born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. on Jan. 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky, Ali learned to box after his bicycle was stolen when he was 12 years old. When young Clay vowed to “whoop the behind” of the thief, a local police officer encouraged him to learn to box to channel his energy.
    The 6-3 Ali won Olympic Gold in 1960 and turned pro a year later. It took him just four years to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, knocking out Sonny Liston in 1964. Ever boastful, Ali floated “like a butterfly” and stung “like a bee” in the ring.
    While his confident swagger came off as arrogance to some, his biggest controversies involved his conversion to Islam in 1964 and his refusal of military service during the Vietnam War. Because of his stance against the military, he was suspended from boxing for over three years and stripped of his title.

    When he returned to the ring in 1970, Ali made quick work of Jerry Quarry before going 15 rounds with champion Joe Frazier, who won the “Fight of the Century” by unanimous decision.
    He would go on to become known as “The Greatest,” and at his peak in the 1970s was among the most recognizable faces on Earth.
    Following a second loss to Ken Norton, Ali defeated Frazier in 1974 to set up a title fight with champion George Foreman in Zaire.
    Dubbed “The Rumble In The Jungle,” Ali “handcuffed lightning” and knocked out Foreman in the eighth round. Ali’s “rope-a-dope” style of letting Foreman go on the attack, wore Foreman out because Ali was fast enough to move out of harm’s way. It’s been a strategy later used by champions Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather.
    Ali and Frazier fought a third time in 1975 at the “Thrilla in Manilla” and Ali won by a 15th-round TKO.
    He was known for his tendency to recite poems while making predictions about his fights “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
    The hands can’t hit what the eyes can’t see.” as well as for giving opponents often unflattering nicknames. He referred to Sonny Liston as “the big ugly bear,” George Chuvalo as “The Washerwoman,” Floyd Patterson as “The Rabbit” and Earnie Shavers as “The Acorn.”
    But his most controversial and some would say cruel, nicknames were reserved for his fiercest rival, Joe Frazier.
    He first dubbed Frazier “Uncle Tom” and then later called him “The Gorilla.”
    When Ali prepared to meet Frazier for a third time in Manila, Philippines, on Oct. 1, 1975, he frequently carried a toy rubber gorilla with him. At one news conference, he pulled the gorilla out of his pocket and began punching it as he said, “It’s going to be a killa and a thrilla and a chilla when I get the gorilla in Manila.”
    Frazier, though, took it personally and harbored a decades-long grudge.
    Ali remains the only three-time lineal heavyweight champ capturing titles in 1964, 1974 and 1978. Of his 56 victories, 37 were by knockout.
    Following his career, Ali devoted his life to civil rights causes and philanthropy. While Ali has never denied throwing his 1960 gold medal into the Ohio River as a protest of racial strife, he was given a replacement in 1996 and lit the Olympic torch at the Atlanta Games.
    An aging Ali lost three of his last four fights before retiring in 1981.
    A loss to Larry Holmes in 1980 was thought to be the cause of his Parkinson’s Disease, of which he was diagnosed in 1984.
    Ali received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award in 1997 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005. He received the Otto Hahn Peace Medal of Gold in Germany later that year for his work with the U.S. civil rights movement. Ali was a star away from boxing. He appeared in multiple TV shows and inspired several films. Will Smith received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Ali in the 2001 movie, “Ali.”
    Ali was married four times and had seven daughters and two sons. His daughter, Laila, later became a boxer and has never been defeated as a professional.

  • Boxing legend Muhammed Ali dies at 74

    Boxing legend Muhammed Ali dies at 74

    Boxing legend and former World Heavyweight Champion, Muhammed Ali is dead.
    The 74 year old boxer died on Friday after years of battle with Parkinson disease.

    Before his death he has been in intensive care embroiled in his most courageous bout – for his life.

    The children of the sporting icon have rushed to be at his bedside as doctors treating the former heavyweight champ have told them they fear he “is near the end”.

    Already four of the 74-year-old’s nine children, including daughters Laila, Hana and Maryum, are at the hospital in Scottsdale, Arizona, where medics continue to fight a breathing problem picked up by the star.

    The children flew in last night from around the US as doctors said the future survival of the champ was “uncertain”.

    Sources close to the star says Ali’s battle with his respiratory problem has been complicated by the Parkinson’s that he was diagnosed with in the 1980s.

    “Like in the ring, Ali is a fighter on the ward,” said a source. “Doctors are working to regulate his breathing put it is being hampered by his Parkinson’s.

    “His children are all extremely concerned and dropped everything to be with him. They fear the worse.

    “Ali is everything to them and they are worried his problems are worse than first feared.”

    The boxer has children – two sons and seven daughters – from three marriages although two of his kids are from extra marital relationships.

    Confirming his daughters had flown to be with him the fighter’s third wife Veronica Porche, 60, said Laila – a 38-year-old retired professional boxer — and Hana Yasmeen, 40, were with him.

    Ali’s second wife, Khalilah, 66, said one of her three daughters by Ali “is on her way” to the hospital as well.

    She was married to him from 1967 to 1997, and was succeeded by Porche.

    Maryum, who is extremely close to her father, was the daughter Ali’s first wife Belinda Boyd.They are joined by Ali’s current wife Lonnie.

     

  • Muhammad Ali on life support

    Muhammad Ali on life support

    Boxing legend Muhammad Ali is in intensive care embroiled in his most courageous bout – for his life.

    The children of the sporting icon have rushed to be at his bedside as doctors treating the former heavyweight champ have told them they fear he “is near the end”.

    Already four of the 74-year-old’s nine children, including daughters Laila, Hana and Maryum, are at the hospital in Scottsdale, Arizona, where medics continue to fight a breathing problem picked up by the star.

    The children flew in last night from around the US as doctors said the future survival of the champ was “uncertain”.

    Sources close to the star says Ali’s battle with his respiratory problem has been complicated by the Parkinson’s that he was diagnosed with in the 1980s.

    “Like in the ring, Ali is a fighter on the ward,” said a source. “Doctors are working to regulate his breathing put it is being hampered by his Parkinson’s.

    “His children are all extremely concerned and dropped everything to be with him. They fear the worse.

    “Ali is everything to them and they are worried his problems are worse than first feared.”

    The boxer has children – two sons and seven daughters – from three marriages although two of his kids are from extra marital relationships.

    Confirming his daughters had flown to be with him the fighter’s third wife Veronica Porche, 60, said Laila – a 38-year-old retired professional boxer — and Hana Yasmeen, 40, were with him.

    Ali’s second wife, Khalilah, 66, said one of her three daughters by Ali “is on her way” to the hospital as well.

    She was married to him from 1967 to 1997, and was succeeded by Porche.

    Maryum, who is extremely close to her father, was the daughter Ali’s first wife Belinda Boyd.They are joined by Ali’s current wife Lonnie.

     

  • Muhammad Ali: Down, but not out

    Muhammad Ali: Down, but not out

    LATE last year, the world’s best known sportsman and mostrecoganised face, Muhammad Ali, was hospitalized. The whole world held its breath praying to God to spare the life of the greatest boxer that has ever lived. Our prayers were answered a fortnight ago when Ali was released from a United States of America, his home country, hospital after a urinary infection had been treated by doctors. Today, Saturday, 17th January, 2015, the fastest most quick-witted, most handsome and first three – time world heavyweight boxing champion, Ali, is 73 years old. May Allah (SWT) spare his remarkable life for more years. Amen. Ali, was a phenomenon in the ring. There has been no athlete/ sportsman or woman who held the whole world in awe since he quit boxing in 1982. His story in and outside the ring is that of faith, courage, skill, determination and creativity conquering poverty, bigotry, fear and oppression. I am a long-standing fan of Ali, from the time he burst on the world’s consciousness in 1964. You remember his unbelievable defeat of Sonny Liston against all odds, to become the youngest world heavyweight boxing champion at 22 years. That yet – to – be – equalled feat of Ali made good his boasts of “I am the Greatest. I will defeat the ugly bear (Liston)”. When another star, this time in music and on our soil, Ebenezer Fabiyi Obey alias “Chief Commander”, clocked 60 years on 3rd April, 2002, I wrote a diamond jubilee birthday tribute in honour of Ali and Obey, titled “Obey the Ali in you”, which was published in some national dailies (For ease of reference, The Comet on Sunday newspaper issue of 21st April, 2002). The stories of thee two icons, Ali in boxing, Obey in music, are similar and exemplary. To mark Ali’s 73rd birthday today, I recall my 2002 tribute (below) to him. “The fulcrum of this piece is an exhortation to the individual to obey his or her inner voice urging the body to actualize those noble dreams that will add value to life, as exemplified by two of the world’s great stars, Muhammad Ali, the boxing legend and the former “Chief Commander” of juju (miliki) music, now turned evangelist, Dr. Ebenezer Obey-Fabiyi. These two talented persons, aside from divine grace, actualized their dreams through the mastery of their different arts, hardwork, self-confidence, creativity plus the breakthrough given by their different motivators – a police officer/boxing coach for Ali, and a recording company chief executive for Obey. “Ali clocked 60 last January, while Obey coincidentally attained the same age on the 3rd of this month (April 2002). Their age is a period in life when any good dream ought to have been realized, or be within easy grasp in a Godly, orderly and progressive setting. Satisfied that they have made good marks in their different professional callings, Ali and Evangelist (Dr) Obey- Fabiyi have retired and today are fishers of men for God. Salvation of mankind and the kingdom hereafter are now the main pre-occupation of both men as Ali is an Islamic minister while Dr. Obey-Fabiyi heads an evangelical ministry. I am, however, weaving this piece round the lives of the two in their hey days in the ring and on stage. “As I said earlier and going by its title, this piece is to fire the zeal of future stars out there who, presently are unknown and helpless like Ali and Obey once were before providence smiled on them, leading both men to their destined ports of fame and fortune. “First, Muhammad Ali. Born Cassius Marcellus Clay on January 17, 1942 in Loiusville, Kentucky, United States of America, the world’s best recognized face was steered to his destiny by a theft incident. One day in 1954, aged 12, he had been riding around on his new bike bought for him by his father as a Christmas present. Also riding around with the young Cassius, on his own bike, was Johnny Willis, his closest friend. A heavy rain terminated the two young boys fun on their bikes, and in want of something else to do, Cassius and his friend headed for an auditorium where the annual bazaar, the “Louisville Home Show”, for African- Americans in business was being held. They were attracted particularly to the show because the poster read that free popcorn and hot dogs would be served. “By the time the two young friends thought they had their fill and wanted to go home, Cassius’ bicycle had been stolen! In their search for the bike, someone told the boys to go downstairs to the gym in the auditorium, where a policeman, Mr. Joe Elsby Martin, was training some boxers. They followed the advice. In the gym, Cassius was told by the policeman/trainer to lodge a formal complaint which he (Mr. Martin) wrote down. The future world heavyweight boxing champion boasted that he would “whup” the person who stole his bicycle even “if the guy is an adult”. The 12 – year old (Cassius) confidence made Mr. Martin to ask if he was a boxer or learning the art. But Cassius replied in the negative repeating his earlier boast to “whup” (beat) the thief. And according to Ali in his autobiography, “The Greatest,” as he was about to go, Mr. Martin tapped him on the shoulder and gave him an application form in case he was interested in joining the gym where they boxed every night, Mondays to Fridays. “The sight, sounds and smell of the boxing gym excited the young Cassius so much that he started to dream. Hear him. “I can see myself telling my next door neighbor, ‘I am getting ready to fight for the heavyweight title of the world, and coming back the next night to say, ‘I am now the heavyweight champion of the world!” It did come to pass. One thing did not just lead to another, determination, rigorous training, strategic planning and faith in God culminated into turning a young, poor boy to the man who would break all known records in boxing, if not sports history. Ali brought science, beauty, money and a yet – to – be – equalled dignity to the game of brain, blood and brutality called boxing. Sad to see what’s happening to the game now. “The generations who watched Ali “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” in the ’60s and ’70s would not dismiss his claim of being the greatest boxer that has ever lived. What about his beautiful poems and wisecracks which led to a professorship offer by a British University, and the uncanny predictions of the round his many opponents would fall. As a good sportsman and world champion, Ali, never in his career, hit his opponents below the belt or after the bell had gone. He was a decent boxer. “I have watched all his recorded fights – thanks partly to the late Segun Oyedele of the NTA, Ibadan. Ali won the first richest prize in sports. He was the first and only boxer in history to have won the world heavyweight title thrice. Ali did not stop at boxing, he became a champion of human rights. His refusal, based on religious/personal beliefs, to be conscripted into the US Army to fight in VietNam in 1967 with the now famous quip, “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong” endeared him to millions all over the USA and the world. I was a signatory to the worldwide call to the US-based World Boxing Authority which stripped Ali of his title from 1967-70 to rescind its decision. His draft refusal and the eventual victory at the USA Supreme Court which ordered the restoration of his title and the release of his boxing licence, to some extent, pricked the conscience of the USA and her eventual withdrawal from the VietNam war. “Today, Ali is an international peace ambassador, an icon for the ‘can do’ attitude in addition to being a philanthropist and symbol of pride for millions of oppressed people of the world. “There has never been anyone else in any other sport remotely near him”, wrote British television interviewer, Michael Parkinson. Today, ironically, a disease described as the Parkinson Syndrome, has slowed down Ali in speech and movement, but not his spirit of adding value to life.” “In Ali’s former camp, posterity will record in gold names, such as Mr. Martin, the policeman/trainer, Angelo Dundee, Ali’s coach, Drew ‘Bundini’ Brown, the cornerman with the ready yells of “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”, Mr. Elijah Muhammad, Ali’s spiritual mentor and Herbert Muhammad, the photographer who managed Ali’s purse”. Yes, indeed Parkinson Syndrome and other old age ailments might have slowed Ali down, but he is not out. If I may play on a pun, by saying that Ali was one boxer who never, not even once, failed to come out of his corner to answer the bell calling for the start of a boxing round. The whole world loves Ali and we pray for his well-being. Muhammad Ali, down but not out. Happy birthday, Champ. •Oloye ’Lekan Alabi, D. Litt (h.c), Aare Alaasa Olubadan of Ibadanland

  • Ali’s condition improves

    Ali’s condition improves

    The condition of boxing legend, Muhammad Ali has “vastly improved” since he was taken to hospital with a mild case of pneumonia, his spokesman has said.

    Bob Gunnell said Ali’s doctors hoped to discharge him soon.

    He added that “the Ali family continues to request privacy and appreciates all of the prayers and well wishes”.

    The 72-year-old former three-time heavyweight champion, who has Parkinson’s disease, was taken to hospital on Saturday.  Mr Gunnell provided no further details.

    Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1984, three years after his retirement from boxing.

    He appeared in public at a ceremony in September in his hometown of Louisville for the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards.