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Muhammed Ali Passes

PlayerRep

Well-known member
Truly one of the very greatest of all time, any way you measure it. Makes me sad. Loved the guy from the first time I ever heard of him when I was a kid. He was way ahead of almost everyone of his time, and our time now.

Could the dumb asses please spare their comments about mods moving the thread.
 
PlayerRep said:
Truly one of the very greatest of all time, any way you measure it. Makes me sad. Loved the guy from the first time I ever heard of him when I was a kid. He was way ahead of almost everyone of his time, and our time now.

Could the dumb asses please spare their comments about mods moving the thread.

Two posts in a row that I've supported hmmm... Ali was arguably the greatest athlete of a generation. Controversial yes but in many ways courageous too. The battles with JF plus the win over the seemingly invincible George Forman were epic.
 
RIP Champ! He paid the price for standing on principal against the war. 3 prime years lost.
He could have had a cush 2 years in Special Services or Guard and Reserves like most other jocks and
Folks with influence.
 
Truly a sad day in the world of Sports. Ali was the first sports megastar and is one of the few who could lay claim to the moniker Icon. His suffering is now at an end, but there is a very big hole in sports with his passing.

RIP Mr. Ali!
 
Muhammed Ali protested against the war out of conscience and then stayed here in America and took the punishment he had coming, unlike the gelatinous cored "protestors" of the day who fled to Canada.

I was never close to my father, but one thing I picked up from him was how deeply, deeply he loved "Cassius Clay", as he referred to him to the end. In the latter days of his fighting career, he couldn't watch the telecast until after the fight was over, when he would tune in in hopes Ali survived the beating.

Muhammed Ali, above all loved people and his ability to entertain them. He changed the world of boxing into a popular mainstream spectator sport. The world has lost an extraordinary intelligent and original human being, not to mention a marketing genius.
 
His prime was prior to my time. Great - absolutely. His passing is not tragic in my mind because his suffering is now over. The tragedy was the amount of blows he took and the trauma to his brain. This tread is relevant to football for one reason. Head trauma. The game will evolve in the future due to the new research and equipment that is in development. Hopefully science can help to overcome the current challenge of the sport.
 
Howard Cosell, a legendary broadcaster, loved to announce boxing, and had a wonderful love/hate relationship with Cassius Clay, but later became a vehement critic of boxing because of what he was seeing as consistent brain damage, and that was before Clay developed symptoms.
 
For a number of years. Ali was the most famous man in the world. And with out Ali, almost no one would know who Howard Cosell was.
 
maroonandsilver said:
For a number of years. Ali was the most famous man in the world. And with out Ali, almost no one would know who Howard Cosell was.
That might be a slight exaggeration :?
... but then again, it might not. :) :thumb:
 
RIP "The Greatest"

I tried to explain to my girlfriend last night why I had a tear in my eye when I heard the news. I was born in 1967 so from my earliest memories there was Muhammed Ali as this colossus not just in sports but in life. When he spoke everybody listened and it wasn't just when he spoke of boxing. He was transcendent in a way that nobody else has ever been.

My Dad is battling Parkinson's as well, that is a disease that fucking sucks.

As-salaam-alaikum, Mr.Ali
 
TO ALL THE U.S. DRAFT DODGERS IN THE WORLD KISS MY A__ !

My brother was killed in that frigin war thanks to Lyndon Johnson.
I hate every slob coward that left the rest of us to do their duty.
 
Umista said:
TO ALL THE U.S. DRAFT DODGERS IN THE WORLD KISS MY A__ !

My brother was killed in that frigin war thanks to Lyndon Johnson.
I hate every slob coward that left the rest of us to do their duty.

I'm sorry about your brother, but not all conscientious objectors were cowards. Many were, well, conscientious objectors, who accepted a lot of abuse for their beliefs, including those who chose to leave their country rather than risk sacrificing their lives and kill others in a stupid, useless war. That also takes courage, when the easy thing to do would be to accept induction and hope you make it through. Resistance to that war shortened it and in so doing probably saved countless lives. Many thanks to Jimmy Carter for the amnesty for C.O.s Peace.
 
I became a Cassius Clay/Ali fan in the downstairs tv room of Craig Hall while watching him defeat Sonny Liston in '64.
 
srgrizizen said:
... Resistance to that war shortened it and in so doing probably saved countless lives. Many thanks to Jimmy Carter for the amnesty for C.O.s Peace.
Shortening the war perhaps did save some lives, although I suspect that's arguable. But that's not worth rehashing here ... except you might want to poll the 2 million Vietnamese "boat people" who fled the tender(?) mercies(?) of the North Vietnamese after the U.S. welched on its commitment to defend the South. Just sayin'
 
Back on the main topic ... there was one itsy-bitsy negative that came out of the Ali boxing era. And I go way back into the Fifties as a boxing fan, so I have a good basis for my statement. Ali was supremely gifted as an athlete -- he could have excelled at any number of sports if he'd been given the opportunity (of course, he wasn't). So he damn near ruined a whole generation of (would-be) boxers who tried to emulate his style and techniques without having the ability, and guts, to pull it off.

Even now, you see guys who must have viewed the old Ali videos and want to fight his way. Not many have the necessary ability and usually get their clock cleaned before they wise up.
 
IdaGriz01 said:
Back on the main topic ... there was one itsy-bitsy negative that came out of the Ali boxing era. And I go way back into the Fifties as a boxing fan, so I have a good basis for my statement. Ali was supremely gifted as an athlete -- he could have excelled at any number of sports if he'd been given the opportunity (of course, he wasn't). So he damn near ruined a whole generation of (would-be) boxers who tried to emulate his style and techniques without having the ability, and guts, to pull it off.

Even now, you see guys who must have viewed the old Ali videos and want to fight his way. Not many have the necessary ability and usually get their clock cleaned before they wise up.

It depends on what you mean by "style and techniques". Ali was a "stick and move" guy with a great jab and excellent counter punch ability. He had the knock out power when he needed it too. A bunch of black fighters were successful at that style in the '70's and beyond. SRL certainly comes to mind. As far as the "getting in your head" part and the "showmanship" I'd agree with you, they broke the mold after him.
 
CV Griz Fan said:
IdaGriz01 said:
Back on the main topic ... there was one itsy-bitsy negative that came out of the Ali boxing era. And I go way back into the Fifties as a boxing fan, so I have a good basis for my statement. Ali was supremely gifted as an athlete -- he could have excelled at any number of sports if he'd been given the opportunity (of course, he wasn't). So he damn near ruined a whole generation of (would-be) boxers who tried to emulate his style and techniques without having the ability, and guts, to pull it off.

Even now, you see guys who must have viewed the old Ali videos and want to fight his way. Not many have the necessary ability and usually get their clock cleaned before they wise up.

It depends on what you mean by "style and techniques". Ali was a "stick and move" guy with a great jab and excellent counter punch ability. He had the knock out power when he needed it too. Many black fighters were successful at that style in the '70's and beyond. SRL certainly comes to mind. As far as the "getting in your head" part and the "showmanship" I'd agree with you, they broke the mold after him.
Yes, Ali was a "stick and move" guy with a busy jab that set up multi-punch flurries ... which were his real strength, especially -- as you say -- in a counter-punch mode. And, yes, he could "sit down on his punches" to get his opponents respect. But, blasphemous as it may sound in the current euphoria, Ali's boxing skills included a number of key flaws -- I can give you web addresses that discuss those flaws in detail if you're interested. In summary: (1) He kept his hands low ... which he could get away with early in his career because he had incredible reflexes. Later in his career, he overcame that with his amazing toughness and ability to take a punch (not a good thing, BTW). FWIW, Larry Holmes had a "great" jab ... way better that Ali''s as an offensive weapon. (2) In moving away from an opponent's offense, he too often went straight back. That's how Joe Frazier blasted him totally on his ass with a lunging left hook that a more technically sound fighter might have avoided. (3) The "rope-a-dope" only worked because (again) Ali was tough as nails, both in terms of body and his ability to take a punch. Others who tried that damn near got their heads taken off.

As for the "many" black fighters who succeeded imitating Ali's approach, I respectfully disagree. First, far more did not, or had to unlearn a lot of bad habits before they became successful. Second, those few who did succeed with an Ali style (like SRL, whom you mention) were all at the lighter weights and were also highly gifted athletically. I'd have to dig in some history to identify any light-heavyweight and up fighters who had any long-term success emulating Ali (a couple of names tickle in the back of my brain, but I can't quite dredge them up).

Of course, on the last points -- we're in total agreement. About the only name that immediately comes to mind along those lines was Hector "Macho" Camacho. Camacho had very good fighting skills -- perhaps not "outstanding," but he was tough -- but put on one of the best shows in boxing entering the ring, and could definitely get in his opponents head with his mugging, prancing, etc.

Aside: Does anyone else find it ironic that boxing has always -- and still -- drawn criticism for how it's based on one man (and now woman) hurting another man (or woman) ... and yet no one seems to be upset by the "Ultimate Fighting Championship" stuff, where guys get kicked, pounded when they're down, and so on? Weird.
 
IdaGriz01 said:
srgrizizen said:
... Resistance to that war shortened it and in so doing probably saved countless lives. Many thanks to Jimmy Carter for the amnesty for C.O.s Peace.
Shortening the war perhaps did save some lives, although I suspect that's arguable. But that's not worth rehashing here ... except you might want to poll the 2 million Vietnamese "boat people" who fled the tender(?) mercies(?) of the North Vietnamese after the U.S. welched on its commitment to defend the South. Just sayin'

So assume you volunteered to go over and put Your as s on the line?
 
grizophile said:
IdaGriz01 said:
srgrizizen said:
... Resistance to that war shortened it and in so doing probably saved countless lives. Many thanks to Jimmy Carter for the amnesty for C.O.s Peace.
Shortening the war perhaps did save some lives, although I suspect that's arguable. But that's not worth rehashing here ... except you might want to poll the 2 million Vietnamese "boat people" who fled the tender(?) mercies(?) of the North Vietnamese after the U.S. welched on its commitment to defend the South. Just sayin'
So assume you volunteered to go over and put Your as s on the line?
More people died in the subsequent two years of the North Vietnamese "peace" than in the 13 years of the "US" war.
 
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