Muhammad Ali was one of my late father’s heroes. Cassius, as Muhammad was christened, had started his profession as a lightweight boxer, just like my father had been in the army.
When I was a child Daddy would make me laugh by assuming Ali’s boxing pose and moving nimbly on his toes around the room, quoting the champion, ‘I dance like a butterfly and sting like a bee’!
Muhammad Ali is one of my heroes for many reasons. He stood up for what he believed in and he stood up for his race. When racism was still chronically rife in America, he is quoted as saying:
“I am America. I am the part you won’t recognise. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky, my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.”
Ditching his slave name was, and still is, to me totally awe inspiring…
Clay was his father’s name which would have come from the white slave owner who owned Muhammad’s great, great grandparents. As soon as he was world famous – he rejected that!
The day after he beat Liston in 1964, winning the World Boxing Heavyweight Championship, he very publicly changes his faith; a month later he’s changed his name..
” I know where I’m going … I don’t have to be what you want me to be.. I’m free to be what I want”
Then in 1966, he rejected fighting the white man’s war – America’s invasion of Vietnam.
Again, quoted as saying: “No Vietcong has ever called me nigger so why should I kill one?”
His petition for exemption from conscription as a conscientious objector was denied in ’67 and when he turned up to drafted but publicly refused induction.
He was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment, a fine of $10 dollars, the World Boxing Association suspended him for “conduct detrimental to the best interests of boxing” revoking his licence to box; and stripped him of his World Championship title.
Even though just 6 years before, he had brought home an Olympic gold medal, promoters stopped promoting him and backers disappeared.
His appeal against his imprisonment and ban lasted nearly four years and during that time there was no guarantee he would ever be allowed to fight again..
After a long three and a half years, he won his appeal to box again and his first major fight was a disaster. He lost.
However, though knocked down physically and mentally, he didn’t stay down and came back stronger and better.
Maybe as a result of the disenchantment of the Vietnam War, in June of 1971 the Supreme Court finally ruled in Ali’s favour and his draft-evasion conviction was quashed.
Great fights followed with wonderfully theatrical names such as: ‘The Rumble in the Jungle’ in Zaire in 1974, where Ali, regained the boxing heavyweight, world champion title.
Then in 1975 came the ‘Thriller in the Manilla’ where Ali won the world championship for the third time!
Muhammad Ali spoke well of himself – as we all know – he was the best self-publicist – even when he was the complete outsider against Liston in 1964, whom incidentally, actually said that Muhammad Ali was such an outsider that he shouldn’t even be given a shot to contest the title, Ali spoke about himself as if he was the favourite, as if he was the won who was bound to win.
And young Cassius did, and the rest, as they say, is history.
One of his greatest achievements for me (truthfully, not being a boxing fan) is what he did for the pre-Gulf War hostages. Despite being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1984, in 1990, he travelled to Iraq, to save fifteen lives of his fellow civilian, white countrymen.
He visited Saddam Hussein to beg for their lives. But he didn’t beg. He used remarkable diplomatic skills and listened fervently as Saddam boasted how well he was looking after, what were in reality, his human shields, to stop America bombing his invasion of Kuwait.
After much talk, Muhammad Ali brought the men back safe and sound.
He was a brave, principled man, who wasn’t just brilliant at the talk, but took the action and made the action.
He used his celebrity and his voice for the good, even when it stopped him earning his living, he didn’t shut up, he just kept speaking publicly about why he didn’t want to fight the Vietnamese.
He constantly told us he was the champion in his profession, he constantly told us he was the best. He constantly spoke, voiced and proclaimed – he was the greatest and he became so.
We can all use our voices to put ourselves down or be on our own side; put other people down or speak up for those who can’t; silence our voices when the going gets tough, or speak up, take the consequences, hold our heads high and rise again.
God bless you Muhammad Ali; Daddy died in a June too..
