All the kids here in Louisville, Kentucky, knew him as Ali. Muhammad Ali wasn’t a nickname – it was his religious name. The greatest boxer of all time was born in this very State, under the name Cassius Clay. He’d started boxing at the age of 12. Cassius practised throwing punches in his room; weaving, dancing, imagining a stone-hard opponent opposite him. His greatest strength was his ability to dodge a punch, allowing him to lead his adversary on an exhausting hunt around the ring. Muhammad Ali was big guy, but in the gyms in Louisville there were even bigger guys, who trained even harder. But Clay was so light on his feet he could frustrate his opponents by keeping them moving around the ring, which was how he won Olympic Gold in 1960. That was a time, a year in fact, when America was being torn apart by racial segregation. Ali was a black man, and refused to turn his back on his own. He would not overlook his country’s racism, or turn a blind eye to the white man’s cruelty. He was a rebel. After winning gold at the Olympics, he was called up to Vietnam. The Olympic champion was about to go to war. Ali told the press: “Vietnam? I’ll never set foot over there. I will never go to Vietnam. I refuse Vietnam just like my friend Malcom X did. My enemy is the white people, not Viet Cong or Chinese or Japanese. You my opposer when I want freedom. You my opposer when I want justice. You my opposer when I want equality. John Kennedy, you my opposer. You won't even stand up for me in America for my religious beliefs, and you want me to go somewhere and fight but you won't even stand up for me here at home? I'll never set foot in Vietnam. I pledge allegiance to the Nation of Islam. I’m a Muslim. I'm Ali! I'm Muhammad Ali, the greatest fighter of all time!”
And so, Cassius Clay converted to Islam. He refused the draft, and boycotted the war in Vietnam. He was a boxer of his time. Born into a poor family, Cassius Clay was incensed by the atrocities visited upon his community. But he would not go to Vietnam – that was for sure. Would he become the greatest boxer of all time? His early fights had not always been smooth sailing. Clay had been floored by Sonny Banks, and by Henry Cooper. In his fight against Cooper, Clay took a left hook at the end of the fourth round and was saved by the bell, going on to win in the fifth, when the fight was ended because Cooper was bleeding from the eye. Muhammad Ali perfected his technique, leading his opponents endlessly around the ring. Ali and Doug Jones, the 2nd- and 3rd- ranked heavyweights respectively, faced off on Jones’ home turf: Madison Square Garden in New York. Jones knocked Ali down in the first round, and when the judges went on to call the fight unanimously for Ali, the crowd booed and threw garbage into the ring. For Ali, that was too much. He promised to get his revenge on the press. He took to riling his opponents during fights, saying things like, “This guy’s too small for me.” Muhammad Ali dreamed bigger.
“Frazier is a dumb tool of the white establishment,” Ali said of his opponent. “Frazier’s too ugly to be a champion. He’s too dumb to be a champion,” he added. “The only people who cheer for Joe Frazier are white guys in suits, Alabama sheriffs and Klansmen. I’m fighting for the little man from the ghetto.” This was the type of theatre that commentators, journalists and fight promoters lapped up before Ali’s fights. He would not be pushed around. He’d fallen several times in the ring, and he fell against Frazier. Still, he had succeeded in knocking out his opponents thirty-seven times. “What do you gotta say now, huh?! I’m the greatest! Ali shook the world! Ain’t this a fine specimen of a man?” Ali told the press after his fight with Sonny Liston.
“Can you box like Ali?” he asked the little boy.
“Ali, you the best!”
“You got that right kid, best of all time!” laughed Ali. “Go on, box it like Ali!”
“Ali, my Daddy says you a legend. He wants me to be just like you. He says you never turned your back on us.”
“That’s right, son. See when you box, you gotta stay face to face, and look the other dude in the eye. You don’t turn you back, you don’t run away! When you’re in the ring, you can’t cheat. When you get knocked down all the crowd sees it. When you win, the world knows it. I live my life like I’m always in the ring. I know where I come from, and I ain’t afraid to get knocked down.”
Alan Alfredo Geday