Muhammad Ali – Man of Dignity

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Muhammad AliI thought I couldn’t pass up this opportunity to pay homage to Muhammad Ali. It’s been in the news for the last week or so that he’s very ill and frail. And as reported in an article I read just yesterday, his daughter says he is still mentally strong and says he’ll stick around as long as God wants him to. I wouldn’t expect anything less from Ali.

He’s a true hero, and an inspiration. And he lives his life with dignity, even now, after decades of living with Parkinson’s. Truly amazing is a great accolade, but it’s barely adequate to describe Muhammad Ali.

I still remember staying up quite late and listening on the radio (or ‘wireless’, as it was known then) when he had a big fight arranged. I remember the excitement of it, and going to school the next day and everyone was talking about the fight and how he’d beaten Liston. Sonny Liston wasn’t just another heavyweight, he was as feared as Mike Tyson would be decades later. He had such an aura about him that fighters were scared to even get in the ring with him. Even today, he’s thought of as a truly frightening fighter.

Liston was a force to be reckoned with

Johnny Tocco, a trainer who’s worked with Tyson and Foreman, said Liston was the hardest hitter of the three, and it was actually thought he was bad for the sport since nobody could beat him. If you look you’ll find many stories about Liston’s terrifying punching power and apparently they’re true. I’ll just mention one: he knocked out Wayne Bethea in 1958 in 69 seconds of the first round. Bethea, a hardened pro, had never been knocked down in his life – Liston dropped him, knocking seven teeth out!

He had been a convicted criminal (he learned to box in prison), and he worked for the Lucchese crime family, as a hit man amongst other things. This then was what the young (22-year old) Cassius Clay was facing (he was still known by his birth name at the time). By rights it should have been enough to frighten him half to death, and that’s before he actually faced him in the ring.

Was Clay cowed by Liston’s reputation? It’s tempting to say no, but I’m sure he was as worried as anyone else would have been. But he kept his cool. He knew what he was doing and he had a plan. He wasn’t just a great boxer, he was a great strategist. He turned the tables on Liston by mean-mouthing him and calling him names and teasing and insulting him in all kinds of ways. He never let up, hitting him with metaphorical jabs and uppercuts time and again, way before they ever met in the ring.

Clay was written off before he even stepped into the ring

Ali v. Liston
Iconic photograph of the first round knockout in the Clay v. Liston rematch

And when they did, boy oh boy! Clay had won light heavyweight gold in the 1960 Rome Olympics and he had dazzling hand speed and the ability to dodge and weave that was almost unbelievable in a man his size. But the odds were stacked against him; everyone thought Liston was unbeatable, and Clay was still widely regarded as a loudmouthed kid and an upstart. By the time of the fight, 43 out of the 46 sportswriters at ringside had picked Liston to win by a knockout. It really was a foregone conclusion. For most, it was just a matter of how long Clay could stave off the inevitable.

Virtually nobody took Clay seriously. He was an unknown and was thought to be fast but only a weak puncher. His style seemed out of place in the heavyweight ring. This fight changed all that. Even before the fight, his ‘style’ was telling; he rigged himself up with a battle bus and used to go visiting Liston to taunt him.

He’d arrive at three in the morning, waking all the neighbours, and shouting how he was going to destroy him, that ‘big ugly bear’, and how he’d crawl out of the ring on his knees if he lost, ‘cos he was so convinced he would never let that happen.

His verbal skills were taken to be bragging

Yeah, but it ain’t braggin’ if you can back it up, right? It got to Liston, who, to be fair, wasn’t in the greatest shape anymore. Joe Louis knew what was going on. He said “Liston is an angry man, and he can’t afford to be angry fighting Clay.” He was right. Liston was unsettled, and it didn’t help him when it came to fight time. But Clay knew Liston was horrendously strong and hard-hitting, and when they entered the ring he was afraid. He said later “I won’t lie, I was scared… It frightened me, just knowing how hard he hit. But I didn’t have no choice but to go out and fight.”