Thread: Muhammad Ali has died at 74

He was the greatest.
RIP.

From President Obama:

Muhammad Ali was The Greatest. Period. If you just asked him, he’d tell you. He’d tell you he was the double greatest; that he’d “handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder into jail.”

But what made The Champ the greatest – what truly separated him from everyone else – is that everyone else would tell you pretty much the same thing.

Like everyone else on the planet, Michelle and I mourn his passing. But we’re also grateful to God for how fortunate we are to have known him, if just for a while; for how fortunate we all are that The Greatest chose to grace our time.

In my private study, just off the Oval Office, I keep a pair of his gloves on display, just under that iconic photograph of him – the young champ, just 22 years old, roaring like a lion over a fallen Sonny Liston. I was too young when it was taken to understand who he was – still Cassius Clay, already an Olympic Gold Medal winner, yet to set out on a spiritual journey that would lead him to his Muslim faith, exile him at the peak of his power, and set the stage for his return to greatness with a name as familiar to the downtrodden in the slums of Southeast Asia and the villages of Africa as it was to cheering crowds in Madison Square Garden.

“I am America,” he once declared. “I am the part you won’t recognize. But get used to me – black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own. Get used to me.”

That’s the Ali I came to know as I came of age – not just as skilled a poet on the mic as he was a fighter in the ring, but a man who fought for what was right. A man who fought for us. He stood with King and Mandela; stood up when it was hard; spoke out when others wouldn’t. His fight outside the ring would cost him his title and his public standing. It would earn him enemies on the left and the right, make him reviled, and nearly send him to jail. But Ali stood his ground. And his victory helped us get used to the America we recognize today.

He wasn’t perfect, of course. For all his magic in the ring, he could be careless with his words, and full of contradictions as his faith evolved. But his wonderful, infectious, even innocent spirit ultimately won him more fans than foes – maybe because in him, we hoped to see something of ourselves. Later, as his physical powers ebbed, he became an even more powerful force for peace and reconciliation around the world. We saw a man who said he was so mean he’d make medicine sick reveal a soft spot, visiting children with illness and disability around the world, telling them they, too, could become the greatest. We watched a hero light a torch, and fight his greatest fight of all on the world stage once again; a battle against the disease that ravaged his body, but couldn’t take the spark from his eyes.

Muhammad Ali shook up the world. And the world is better for it. We are all better for it. Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to his family, and we pray that the greatest fighter of them all finally rests in peace.

Originally Posted by Valar Morghulis

Weird how he gets no hate for being a draft dodging pinko and Islamic convert.

Someone had to say it I suppose.

Ali once gave a commencement address at Harvard:

"God grants to all of us a particular gift. Mine just happened to be beating people up."

He was not universally loved in his prime. Many thought him a braggart and a bully. He actually understood promoting a fight better than the promoters of his day did.

He knew that the one thing a monster like Sonny Liston feared was a crazy man so he made himself a crazy man that Liston couldn't understand. He sliced and diced Cleveland Williams into a pulp at the Astrodome but refused to knock him out because Williams kept referring to him as Cassius Clay. With each stinging punch, Ali taunted him: "What's my name?" What's my name?" He wanted to keep Williams upright so he could cut him up still more.

But, truly, there has never been a more gifted boxer, nor a more clever promoter and, outside the ring, someone who stood firm in his beliefs whether you agreed or disagreed with him.

You'd have to picture someone with two times the athleticism of Shannon Sharpe and three times the mouth. Today's trash talkers were all amateurs compared to The Greatest. But much of it was all part of the promotion.

Originally Posted by Valar Morghulis

Weird how he gets no hate for being a draft dodging pinko and Islamic convert.

If only more muslims were moderate like him. Of course he was a great fighter, but I will never understand why people idolize people who beat other people up for a living.

Q

Originally Posted by atwater27

If only more muslims were moderate like him. Of course he was a great fighter, but I will never understand why people idolize people who beat other people up for a living.

It's a sport and nobody makes the opponent get into the ring with anyone they don't want to. I agree with the first part of your post though.
Things were WAY different back then.

A few facts a lot of people don't know about Muhammad Ali...
1. He dodged the Vietnam draft, refused with the quote "My enemy is the white people, not the Vietcong".
2. He was a member of the Nation of Islam, an violent, uber racist black militant group that despises and calls for the destruction of America and Israel.
3. He divorced his first wife because she wouldn't wear a burqa and dress like a 'good' Muslim woman.
4. He hated mixed race marriages. "No intelligent black man or black woman in his or her right black mind wants white boys and white girls coming to their homes to marry their black sons and daughters."

But boy was he good at beating people up. definitely someone worthy of honor.

Originally Posted by atwater27

Of course he was a great fighter, but I will never understand why people idolize people who beat other people up for a living.

This is a strange stance coming from someone whose username is that of a player who basically made a career of beating up receivers across the middle of a football field.

Originally Posted by BroncoWave

Well I see you haven't changed at all since your extended vacation.

Let's talk about the issue, not each other. You're better than that.

Originally Posted by atwater27

Come on guy, we both know there is a difference between fighting and playing football. Wait. I might be giving you too much credit.

I'm not going to take any more of your trollbait in this thread. Have fun dancing on his grave though.

Originally Posted by BroncoWave

I'm not going to take any more of your trollbait in this thread. Have fun dancing on his grave though.

Just one last thing, Broncowave... Was anything I said untruthful? You might want to do some research before you answer.

Possibly the greatest sports photo ever taken:

When Muhammad Ali Visited Ground Zero—and Showed Us All What It Means to Be American
http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...source=twitter

Originally Posted by BroncoWave

Possibly the greatest sports photo ever taken:

This one was better.