Float like a butterfly... (1 Viewer)

[12thMan]

And RIP like the champ you are.

 

[BGinGA]

The Greatest of all Time. RIP.

 

[acl1904]

RIP. G.O.A.T.

 

[slisk250]

Didn't even see a headline yet. I loved Ali after forgiving him for the Frasier BS.

 

[12thMan]

I already had stolen from the web two of the pictures in my post but then I blatantly ripped off two more from The Guardian out of this article of 25 photos of Ali. (both pics I had already saved are in the article, not a surprise obviously since they are such famous photos.)

Stevie Wonder is in the white tux above but on the site they have Ali with Malcolm X, Ken Norton, Sammy Davis Jr (insane how small he is with Ali behind him), Frazier, a bunch of neat stuff.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/g...best-photographs-cassius-clay-legendary-boxer

 

[pokerplayingpisces]

RIP to "The Greatest"!

 

[courage]

R.I.P. The Greatest of All Time.

 

[bergs]

I was in an airport around 1998-1999 and was flying first class because my old company had crazy travel policies - so it's late December and I'm standing right by the gate and reading the USA Today. The front page of the sports section has an article on Ali and the Super Bowl.

As I'm reading this, an attractive woman puts her hand on my chest. I'm a homely fucker, even at 26ish, so this gets my attention.

She pushes me backwards and I look past her and it's Muhammed Ali getting wheeled past me in a wheelchair.

He springs up and starts walking down the ramp and I'm like wow, this so cool, the other celebrities I've seen are Hulk Hogan (I pissed him off by calling him short) and Chris Berman (pissed him off by uttering 'backbackbackback' when he reclined his seat in front of me on a plane we were on).

So I get to my seat and Ali is nowhere to be found. Halfway through the flight, I get up to go to the bathroom and I notice that Ali is sitting in a first class bulkhead seat that someone had given up to him.

I get abreast of him and I'm struck by three things - 1) he's a really big human being, 2) he's trying to work a Walkman and he's struggling with it and getting frustrated and for a brief moment, the look in his eyes was amazing - just burning intensity - I can't even fathom what it would've been like to get into a ring with him in anywhere near his prime, and 3) when I walked back to my seat he was smiling and it was infectious - you couldn't help but smile back when you looked at him - I can completely appreciate how he'd light up a room without even opening his mouth.

There are obviously a bunch of videos of Ali on the web and one on YouTube shows his highlights set to a song called "Intro" by some group named the X or something - I think it has the words "amazing speed" in it...

Anyway, there is a scene where he throws a flurry and literally the recoil slides him backwards as he punches - insane power, perfect form, ridiculous speed....

My old man used to love watching boxing and I watched a few Ali fights with him when I was very very young - never got into boxing after that because the Sweet Science was never the same after Ali - he was the last great fighter.

RIP (Rest In Power) Champ - you'll be missed.

 

[bergs]

Found it - this is just ridiculous - at around the 1 minute mark he dodges like 8 jabs and then regroups tapping his gloves and launches into an attack and at around 1:20 he throws a flurry where he literally slides backwards - I could watch this all day, just art in motion.

 

[Milo013]

Like many of you, I am of the age where Ali was a touchstone, not only in boxing, or sport, but in life. Ali was the only one of my sporting heroes who never ended up being a disappointment in one way or another. Did he have flaws? Yes. But he was simply so authentic in the force of his personality, and the honesty with which he put forth both himself, and his beliefs, that any small flaw was almost instantly forgiven. He was truly a transcendent figure for the last half of the 20th Century.

And, if I may, a small bit of humour. "The Beaverton" is a satirical Canadian website, akin to the Onion. There lead "story" this morning was as follows:

God Defeats Ali by TKO in the 74th Round. I like to think that, somewhere, the Champ is already talking up the rematch.

RIP, sir . . . you've earned it.

 

[Puggy]

Saw Ali once at very close range at Frankfurt Book Fair, in year Taschen published the awesome book "G.O.A.T".

Even with parkinson, he was an impressive sight.

R.I.P. ButterflyBee

 

[pokerplayingpisces]

So ever since I moved back from Vegas, I've been working out with a local professional boxer/kickboxer. I really enjoy the workouts, plus if I didn't do something, I'd probably weight 400lbs. I workout every Wed and Sat. Today I come in, and my trainer tells me that "We're gonna do an old fashion boxing workout, with everything in counts of 74, to honor The Champ." After I finished, we took a pic in front of the big Ali poster he has near the front door. RIP, Champ! I hope in some small way, I was able to honor you today!

 

[lnlver]

I always felt that he never should have been defeated in the ring. He got too heavy and lost his ambition somewhat. He did the Teabury shuffle, invented the rope-a-dope. He was the first boxer to lower his hands down to his waist; all others kept them up around their chins. He was so quick he could launch his punches from his waist level; incredible talent, fun to watch and funny to listen to.

 

[SixSpeedFury]

RIP to the REAL greatest champ of all time!

 

[pltrgyst]

I loved Ali after forgiving him for the Frasier BS.

That is something I've never been able to do. And not many Vietnam vets think a lot of him, either.

 

[ovo]

I was young, but caught a few of this fights, incredible person. He will be missed.

 

[B.C.]

One of the greatest 10 boxers who ever stepped into the ring and an even greater personality out of it.

 

[12thMan]

He was before my time as well but I can recognize the greatness and the respect people have when they talk about him.

That is something I've never been able to do. And not many Vietnam vets think a lot of him, either.

Such a hard thing for me. I've never served and grew up relating to the Irag wars watching them on TV and not knowing anybody personally that went over and never came back, I enjoy the freedoms that other people have fought for while never having to have lifted one finger to defend it. Whether people agree with wars or think they are wrong doesn't matter to me, there are real people serving and sacrificing that deserve respect and I can see how people that went to Vietnam or were living in this country at the time and affected by it can have such an opinion of people who dodged or didn't volunteer, that's their right they payed for and I understand it. But as someone who would be scared out of his mind to go and fight a war I didn't understand or believe in, or hell, just out of a sense out not wanting to die, I can't fully fault anybody who wouldn't want to go. I live in a much "softer" time in a lot of ways I feel, so that could be a very soft opinion, but damn, I sure don't know what I would have been thinking about if I was eligible for the draft and what to do if I am called...

What "happened" with the Frazier BS? Is it a bunch of shit talking or did he do something? I know Ali through highlights and have never been into boxing enough to know more than just the major headlines about the greats that were before my time.

 

[slisk250]

Ali went well over the line with his racial taunts calling Frasier an Uncle Tom and much more. I remember reading that Joe actually loaned money to Ali during his ban and he repaid him with character assassination. Joe hated Ali until the day he died. I am a big Frasier fan and was too young to get it at the time so I grew fond of Ali. In light of Larry's reply and rethinking the past, perhaps I misstated how I felt about Ali. I would have loved to see Joe drop him in Manila.