Muhammad Ali

Tanlic

Tanlic

Senior Jockey
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Muhammad Ali undoubtedly the best known and best liked sportsman of all time is on a life support machine and not expected to survive.:(

My first memory of him was getting verbally thrashed for supporting him to beat Sonny Liston while at College.

But my best memory was his Parky interviews despite the last interview with him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnz77QSu2HA

The funniest moment without a doubt:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=712f_313tm8
 
Sadly the news just came through Muhammad Ali has passed away.

I saw 3 greats I could call my heros when growing up Arkle, The Beatles and Muhammad Ali.

I feel very lucky to have been around when they were

He took heavyweight boxing to another level and the whole world knew him.

Since he retired the Heavyweight Championship has been in steady recline and we will never see his likes again.

R.I.P. The Greatest
 
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Chap on the Beeb probably summed him up: he was probably the best known person in the world in the 20th Century.
 
Can't believe it. Statement from spokesman on Thursday said his going into hospital was just a precaution. RIP to undoubtedly one of the world's biggest sports personalities ever.
 
Never really been in to Boxing but he transcended that, being one of few to have genuine 'charisma'; and in his pomp a finer and more physically attractive specimen of manhood is hard to imagine
 
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He's one of the very very few great sportsman who never ever took himself too seriously "tha George foreman. He talks too much!" Superb....

Like drone I am not really into boxing but I've read two truly great bios and seen one superb documentary on the man. Thomas haussers and David remmick the authors. Perhaps haussers slightly had the edge

Some really fine stories of his humanity in both.
 
Not many sportsmen worth their own section in a book of quotations. I think, "Don't count the days, make the days count" is the pick although I don't know if it's an Ali original.
 
Desert Orchid said:
Chap on the Beeb probably summed him up: he was probably the best known person in the world in the 20th Century.
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He wouldn't be wrong on that assumption here in Thailand anyway.

You ask a Thai who JFK was the majority would have no idea but ask who Muhammad Ali was they will tell you in a flash.

But he was more than well know in that he was more importantly loved by millions. Many were moved to tears watching him succumb slowly to Parkinson's

So much so the words of Roy Jones Jr are most fitting "My heart is deeply saddened yet both appreciative and relieved that the greatest is now resting in the greatest place."
 
Tanlic said:
He wouldn't be wrong on that assumption here in Thailand anyway.

You ask a Thai who JFK was the majority would have no idea but ask who Muhammad Ali was they will tell you in a flash.

But he was more than well know in that he was more importantly loved by millions. Many were moved to tears watching him succumb slowly to Parkinson's

So much so the words of Roy Jones Jr are most fitting "My heart is deeply saddened yet both appreciative and relieved that the greatest is now resting in the greatest place."
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yeah but the fact that hitler is probably number two takes the shine of it a bit
 
In the west your right but not here Clive the younger people know as much about our wars and who was involved as the young people in the west know about theirs....which amounts to close on zero

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
 
Tanlic said:
In the west your right but not here Clive the younger people know as much about our wars and who was involved as the young people in the west know about theirs....which amounts to close on zero

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
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Very interesting observation. West-centric outlooks are hard to shake.

What is the view on Muhammad Ali in the Muslim world?
 
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From what I have read he was like a king to Muslims in the 60's when he more or less told Lyndon Johnson/The government where to shove it with his Vietnam war.

Ali went all over the place despite his trade preaching peace and condemning violence/terrorism so I don't imagine all Muslims of today would be too happy with him or agreed what he had to say.

The great thing about Ali is he broke all the usual barriers and was welcomed everywhere.

Speaking for myself and I am sure for many millions when I watched him fight or being interviewed I never gave his race or religion a second thought
 
It's hard to convey to anyone under about 55 just what big events Ali's fights with Frazier, Foreman and - to a slightly lesser extent - Norton were.

At the risk of sounding like me grandad you have to remember there were no mobile phones, no internet and no satellite TV. The only live coverage was the "beamback" in the early hours to a few cinemas - one in Leicester Square was always mentioned in the paper - and you couldn't even get live radio commentary. I was 12 when the first bout took place with Frazier and the best I could find as I frantically searched on my transistor radio under the bedclothes was a US Forces Network broadcast which involved a couple of Yanks, clearly based in Europe, reading a sort of tickertape blow-by-blow account for each round interspersed with chat until the next batch arrived: "Round 3 and Frazier was quickly off his stool and opened with a flurry of punches, connecting with a good left...etc."


I was gutted when he lost. I got to school in the morning and it was the talk of the town. Loads of people didn't know the result - if you didn't catch the news on the radio you had to wait an hour before you got the chance to hear it again - and there was almost universal sorrow when people heard Ali had lost. He was hugely popular and, as Tanlic says, his religious/political views didn't enter into it.
 
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