Muhammad Ali has died at age 74

[mrclose]

No link as yet.
TV stations have broken to news that Muhammad Ali had died.

link

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/muhammad-ali-greatest-all-time-dead-74-n584776?cid=sm_fb

[sargentodiaz]

Cassius Clay

All we see, read, and hear is praise for Muhammad Ali, the boxer who changed the world. Oh how quickly they forget. Or is it just another massive instance of political correctness?

Clay left Archie Moore's camp in 1960, partially due to Clay's refusing to do chores such as dish-washing and sweeping,

Soon after the Liston fight, Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali upon converting to Islam and affiliating with the Nation of Islam.

The “Phantom Punch” against Liston in the 2nd fight. Claims Liston took a dive to pay off bills.

Ali refused to be inducted into the armed forces, stating that he had "no quarrel with them Vietcong."[52] "My conscience won't let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America. And shoot them for what? They never called me ******, they never lynched me, they didn't put no dogs on me, they didn't rob me of my nationality, rape or kill my mother and father.... How can I shoot them poor people? Just take me to jail."

In 1967 he announced a brief retirement to practice his faith in Islam, having converted to Sunni Islam after falling out with the Nation of Islam the previous year.

Ali registered for the draft on his eighteenth birthday and was listed as 1-A in 1962. In 1964, he was reclassified as 1-Y (fit for service only in times of national emergency) after two mental tests found his IQ was 78 (16th percentile), well below the armed force's 30th-percentile threshold. (He was quoted as saying, "I said I was the greatest, not the smartest!")

Muhammad Ali defeated every top heavyweight in his era, which has been called the golden age of heavyweight boxing. Ali was named "Fighter of the Year" by Ring Magazine more times than any other fighter, and was involved in more Ring Magazine "Fight of the Year" bouts than any other fighter. He was an inductee into the International Boxing Hall of Fame and held wins over seven other Hall of Fame inductees. He was one of only three boxers to be named "Sportsman of the Year" by Sports Illustrated.

You want to read his full bio, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali

[Ralph Wiggum]

RIP.  A truly memorable athlete.

[SVPete]

As an athlete he was great.

As a human being he was a draft-dodger (true COs, such as Mennonites, did alternative service in hospitals and such; Clay/Ali did not AFAIK), an adherent of a racist religious group, a braggart (who was able to do what he boasted), and a great athlete.

Maybe I'd feel differently if I were into boxing, but to me his negatives easily outweighed his positives.

[mrclose]

As an athlete he was great.

As a human being he was a draft-dodger (true COs, such as Mennonites, did alternative service in hospitals and such; Clay/Ali did not AFAIK), an adherent of a racist religious group, a braggart (who was able to do what he boasted), and a great athlete.

Maybe I'd feel differently if I were into boxing, but to me his negatives easily outweighed his positives.

As a nam vet I felt the same way .. once.

How Ali found God and became a Republican

Muhammad Ali was changing in ways that few people saw or chose to see. He traces his hour of enlightenment to “around 1983.” It was only then that he became a “true believer.” Always more honest than the mythmakers around him, Ali sheds needed light here on his own reality. Before this moment, he confesses to biographer Tom Hauser, “I thought I was a true believer, but I wasn’t. I fit my religion to do what I wanted. I did things that were wrong, and chased women all the time.”

Ali supported both Reagan and later the senior George Bush, as well as a number of other Republican candidates, most notably Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch. Reagan Attorney General Edwin Meese, a liberal bete noire, went so far as to call Ali a “great patriot.”

http://www.wnd.com/2006/02/34866/

[SVPete]

H-5, and thank you for the post, mrc. I hadn't heard that Ali had changed in the latter 3 decades of his life.

[Eupher]

One of the greatest things I ever saw on TV was Ali as he made the effort to light the Olympic torch in Atlanta in 1996. It took courage for him to do that, as the Parkinson's was all too evident.

Nevertheless, he was a braggart and a draft dodger and a womanizer and a humanitarian. In other words, he was human.

I would not characterize his support of professional politicians as being laudable. The very thought nauseates me. 

[thundley4]

Just remember, Parkinson's isn't just a physical deterioration. Parkinson's Dementia is another facet of the disease, and I think he suffered from that as well.

It's very similar to Alzheimer's and that is something I wouldn't wish on anyone.