We are often told that God created all men/women equal and no human being is superior to the other. However, there are certain people who walk the face of this earth and leave a mark so indelible on our collective consciousness, you are forced to think that God was partial as well. Boxing legend Muhammad Ali was one such being who, till the time he passed his last breath on Friday, made us believe that he had some sort of deal with God.
The incident that changed his life
Every person who has entered the realm of greatness in history has to draw their inspiration from a moment or a person, at some point of the other. A 12-year-old Cassius Clay was riding on his bike to a local community club, where ice cream and balloons were being distributed.
Little did the boy know that his whole life was about to change. Clay’s bike got stolen and this made him see red, taking his rage to a level where he wanted to seek violent revenge and thrash the thief. But instead of finding the thief, Clay bumped into a policeman, who spotted something in the boy and told him to take up boxing. The rest, as they say, is history.
His rise in the boxing circuit, right from the start, was pretty meteoric and gave plenty of signals about what was coming. The 1960s was one of the greatest in USA‘s history and Ali was a chief contributor in making it so, both from a sporting and a social perspective. After graduating from Louisville Central High School in 1960, Ali shot to nationwide fame when he won a gold medal at the Rome Olympics in the light-heavyweight category, only to be stripped of it later.
A star different from everyone else
Ali made quick leaps in his professional career, winning one fight after the other, defeating people like Tunney Hunsaker and Lamar Clark. While there have been many sportspersons who have been successful at a young age, Ali developed a niche for himself due to his outspokenness and fearlessness.
People, no matter how much they talk about sticking to principles, love characters that give them things to talk about and say seemingly incomprehensible things. The African-American community already had sportsmen like Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson to idolise and admire. However, their excellence and demeanour were restricted in a lot of ways and the African-American community needed a new sporting hero. Maybe they prayed really hard or they just got lucky.
Also read: Muhammad Ali: 10 lesser known stories about the boxing legend
Ali transcended his field of expertise to become this larger-than-life character who could do miracles and talk about them in advance. Here was a man who was unashamed to be an African-American, knew he was good and did not hide that whatsoever. There is a grave danger that comes along with being a genius and knowing it at the same time – it often leads to the bloating of one’s ego and the beginning of the fall. Ali was different, far different.
He was the sort of person who would walk into your house, tell you that it was his and you would be compelled to believe him due to the conviction and confidence in his tone. For the first time in American sports history, especially for African-Americans, there was a man flaunting his heritage in public and at the same time commanding everyone’s unanimous respect.
Religion, spiritualism and social change
What made Ali stand out, and this would hold true no matter which era he would have been born in, was the contribution he made to society and his community in particular. A critical moment in Ali’s life came when he visited a mosque in Miami. After spending some time there he realised the existence of his spiritual side. He joined the Nation of Islam and forged really strong relationships with the likes of Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X.
It can be safely said that changing his name from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali altered the course of the boxer’s destiny forever. In reply to a question about the Nation of Islam in 1964, he said, "I believe in Allah and in peace. I’m not a Christian anymore. I’m free to be whatever I want. Followers of Allah are the sweetest people in the world. They don't tote weapons. They pray five times a day.”
No fight was more important in shaping the destiny of Cassius Clay than the one with Sonny Liston in 1964. He entered the fight with a 19-0 record but as a massive underdog, given Sonny Liston’s pedigree; little did everyone know what was coming. He defeated Liston when the latter gave up in the seventh round in front of a packed crowd in Miami, Florida.
Ali was not just a man who knew how to speak big words, he would manifest them into actions as well. The Vietnam War sparked massive protests throughout USA in the second half of the 1960s and Ali was right in the thick of things. In 1967, he refused to serve the military by deciding not to go to Vietnam, which bore some dire consequences for him. Not only was Ali stripped of his world heavyweight title, he was also convicted for refusing induction and sentenced to five years in prison.
Like every superhero in a DC or Marvel comic book, Ali had to go through widespread public criticism due to some of his decisions. His decision to not go to Vietnam caused some sort of disgruntlement amongst Americans who thought Ali was being a coward. However, Ali, relentless in his pursuit of standing by the truth, would keep fighting the odds and even court battles. Unfortunately, his lawyer’s skills in the court were nowhere close to Ali’s abilities in the ring, and thereby his return to the ring was delayed.
The famous fights
Ali's next “big” fight came in 1971 against Joe Frazier, who dealt a blow so hard in the “Fight of the Century” that not only did Ali receive his first defeat, he got a broken jaw as well. The defeat to Frazier was followed by a legal victory for Ali as the Supreme Court overturned his conviction and said that his claims were religious. Things still did not look good for Ali though as he was dealt another defeat by Ken Norton in 1973.
Ali was set to face Joe Frazier again in 1974 and without a trace of nervousness, he went on to win the bout with a decision in 12 rounds. The winsome hero was back and he produced some stunning moves to knock out George Foreman in the famous “Rumble in the Jungle” which was held in Zaire (now known as Congo). There was something about Ali that attracted attention, popularity and opinions. He would never be out of action.
If there is one fight that Ali fans would not mind watching again and again, it would be the “Thrilla in Manila” against Joe Frazier in 1975. The destruction caused by Ali on Frazier symbolised what the former could do when on song, and that too to a seasoned boxer – and not some gym rookie from Brooklyn. Such was the pulverization caused by Ali in this victory that Frazier’s coach refused to let his fighter go for the 15th round.
And to think that Ali had said before the fight, “It will be a killer and a chiller and a thriller when I get the gorilla in Manila.” Such was the gall of the man that before the most important fight of his career, he publicly predicted the destruction of his opponent. Thus, it is no surprise when you heard him say, “I can make medicine sick.” He could certainly have done it.
An unprecedented legacy
Ali walked towards the end of his career with a premature retirement, which he came out of briefly, and a record of over 50 victories and five losses. From what it seemed like, God had probably decided to turn Ali’s entire life into a boxing match, sometimes against people and other times against situations. Though it came as a sad shock to his fans across the world when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1984, everyone knew poor old Parkinson had no chance.
Come to think of it, Ali being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease was a bit like Bruce Lee being diagnosed with diabetes or Ludwig van Beethoven losing his ability to hear. It was almost unthinkable that the man who openly said “I am the greatest” would suffer from a slur in his speech, the very thing that set him apart from the usual sportspersons. However, not even Parkinson’s disease would be able to stop Ali from going to Iraq or lighting the Olympic torch in the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Honours came thick and fast for Ali in the second half of his life but they were all too small to define him, which is what makes him stand out as a sportsperson. There are some people in history who follow already trodden paths and do really well, becoming legends. But there are those like Ali, who truly define their own medium to set unprecedented benchmarks for those to follow.
There was a sense of class and nobility in whatever Ali did, be it holding a press conference or landing an upper cut on his opponent’s face. No one, just no one has been able to replicate the legendary Muhammad Ali.
No matter which great sportsperson you talk about – Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, Michael Schumacher, Pele, Roger Federer, Rod Laver, Martina Navratilova, Carl Lewis, Nadia Comaneci, Serena Williams or Sir Donald Bradman – all of them were defined by their heroics in their sport. Ali, on the other hand, defined himself by the man he was and the sheer impact he made on the times he lived in.
Unlike all other legendary sportsmen who will be spoken about even a thousand years from now due to exploits in their respective sports, Ali will be remembered as someone who made an impact beyond sport and on the very lives of people. In fact, a large number of people talking about him following his sad demise have not even seen Ali fight once, but their tributes are earnest and genuine; such is the legacy of the man.
The word “great” is often misused by a lot of people, including and especially us in the media, to describe something that needs to be appreciated. Muhammad Ali was not ‘great’ in the conventional sense, because you would have then to place him alongside a whole set of people and performances that did not even stand the test of a decade, let alone a lifetime or generation. He, unlike all of them, has left an impact, like an Abraham Lincoln, a Nelson Mandela or a Mahatma Gandhi, by touching people’s lives.
He proved to be the new face of a community that, despite being supremely talented and not inferior to anyone in any aspect, did not get its due in society. He provided the world with a hero whose words would be used in commercials forever, and his moves would make people earn their livelihoods. To put it in simple words, it took Muhammad Ali’s death to make A-grade annoying personalities like Mike Tyson and Donald Trump come across as gracious.
Rest in peace Muhammad Ali. You are the greatest.
