Muhammed Ali dies at 74
Muhammed Ali’s death is the sort of news that will be covered in the media for weeks, with tributes and reminiscences. He styled himself “The Greatest,” and boxing aficionados say that he certainly was one of the greatest, or maybe even the greatest, just as he had always claimed.
People like me, who never followed boxing and can hardly bear to watch it, still know a lot about Muhammed Ali, because he has been a huge celebrity and unique personality ever since he burst on the scene as Cassius Clay. Brash and talkative, he went through many transformations—his name, his women, his religion, the form his religion took (from racial- and anger-focused Black Muslim to more conventional Islam and a far more mellow outlook)—as well as the terrible transformation wrought comparatively early in his life by Parkinson’s disease.
Parkinson’s is a progressive disease, and Ali’s diagnosis came at the age of 42—although, looking back, his trainer Angelo Dundee thought he might have shown signs as early as the age of 38. It is commonly assumed that his Parkinson’s was the result of his boxing career and all the blows he took, and although that may be true it is not necessarily the case for Ali:
Dr. Fahn [the neurologist at Columbia-Presbyterian who originally diagnosed him] cannot be certain that Ali’s condition was indeed caused by boxing or if in fact Parkinson’s would have been his fate regardless of what career path he had chosen. An early Ali complaint of numbness in his lips and face, rendering him unaware of when food needed to be wiped away, indicated damage to the brain stem due to boxing, according to Dr. Fahn. But the steady progression of the disorder over the years, he adds, is more indicative of classic Parkinson’s disease. “The proof is only going to come at his autopsy,” Dr. Fahn says, “because the pathology is a little bit different between the two conditions.”
Ali’s last years sound as though they were very difficult and especially ironic for someone once so fleet of mouth and foot: nearly immobile and virtually speechless after three decades of Parkinson’s progression. But in his public appearances, and reportedly in private, he neither complained nor felt sorry for himself. He harnessed his ferocious will in the service of making the best of it and for many years traveled the world with a message of peace.
A very big life. RIP.
A nice — and generous — tribute, Neo. Thank you. F
Liberals lionizing him like crazy today. For all their favorite reasons.
I don’t think Ali had the usual Parkinsons’, more like ParkinsonISM. You have similar symptoms but in Ali’s case it came from head trauma, not lose of dopamine cells.
link to explanation:
http://tinyurl.com/hkco8rn
I remember listening to the radio broadcast of his win over Sonny Liston to gain the championship. Ironically, a few of us were huddled around the radio while on night duty with the USN.
Never understood him–same with Lew Alcindor. Why reject the name your parents bestowed on you? Does Islam require that of converts?
He is lauded in some circles for defying the draft and going to prison. I personally think he ran a bluff, and it backfired.
Finally, greatest champion? Joe Louis might demur. I am of a age, that as a kid, I listened to the Joe Louis/Billy Conn fights on the radio; and also JL vs Jersey Joe Walcott. I met Rocky Marciano who retired undefeated. He was a very gracious gentleman on that occasion. His stature was not particularly impressive; but, when he took my hand I thought I was gripping a bear paw.
Oldflyer, the name change is to indicate that you have left your previous *life* behind, Christians who are sacramentally confirmed choose a *new*
name for that reason.
Additionally American Blacks were encouraged to shed the *name* (esp. the surname) imposed on them be *white Christian overlords*!
Oldflyer,
It’s as if he didn’t care about his father, only himself.
He probably never studied a bit of theology (or anything else). He just latched onto anything where he could vent his in-your-face anger. The Nation of Islam seems to think that Islam is authentic African and thus better for blacks than Christianity. I also don’t trust his kumbaya peace stuff. Radical was the place to be in the late sixties and seventies. I sure don’t see him as a civil rights hero.
Perhaps he mellowed and became more thoughtful as he aged and got sick, but his early life doesn’t and didn’t impress me a bit. He was a bad role model for black boys. As to his boxing, I am more impressed by special olympics types. Boxing is boring.
I forgot to mention that he reminds me of Trump.
He was actually a pretty ignorant (not stupid!) man. Nothing conscientiously objecting about him….he just didn’t want to go to ‘Nam, like all the guys who fled to Canada. Selfish, a My Way or the Highway kinda guy. That he went with the Nation of Islam says a lot. A disgusting bunch of people then and now.
An icon? Give me a break. He was extraordinarily gifted, physically, and put that to good use, but as to his brain, well….
his religion, the form his religion took (from racial- and anger-focused Black Muslim to more conventional Islam and a far more mellow outlook)
I wounder if you also used same verses to talk about Prince who did converted to Judaism
Erik K,
I just checked out Prince’s page in WIKI. He became a Jehovah’s Witness in 2001. I saw nothing about converiting to Judaism. Plus, I think there is a big difference between converting to a religion when you are young for political reasons and converting when you are older.
Ali may have mellowed re the Nation of Islam as he aged, but the name change definitely had a political aspect. This was back in the radical chic black power days when acting white was first identified as a sin by lots of activists.
I just came in from supper at an El Cheapo restaurant where I watched on TV the women’s softball world series (Yay, Auburn! Beat Georgia!) and the continuous streamer of comments about M. Ali.
One would think that a one-in-a-billion amazingly wonderful person had died. He’s an “icon”, etc.
The fawning over him exceeds anything in my memory, even Elvis’ death. Reagan’s death comes close.
I think this indicates the ascendancy of blacks in America to the highest rung on the “ladder of respect”. I see this also in TV commercials, with a disproportionate number of blacks featured as if they were the majority or close to it. But perhaps it is they who make up a disproportionate bulk of the viewership, nothing more.
I am making a sociological comment here, not a racial one.
This just in: Bill Clinton will be a eulogizer.
And I meant racist, not racial.
Cassius Clay was an outstanding boxer. a loud mouth, and of barely average intelligence. I never saw him as an icon, just someone skilled in self promotion. I am with expat djt reminds me of CC.
I always thought Cassius Clay was a really elegant name. The are a zillion Muhammads, never mind the Ali.
Will Barack Hussein attend the funeral service, unlike others he couldn’t be bothered about, like Maggie Thatcher’s? Or those he sent significant delegates to, like Chavez’s?
“Will Barack Hussein attend the funeral service…”
hmmmm? well… ali was black so … there’s that… but if mr bill going to be there probably not; clintons beat him to it looks like.
Frog, don’t worry about it. I always insert the word “racist” into every sentence I read online. 🙂
I’ve run across a couple of specials in the last 24 hours. I’d forgotten what a braggart he was. Also, the draft-dodging. Ad in the Islam and the four marriages, and I’m not feeling a lot of admiration for the man.
Real masculinity isn’t about looks or physical strength. It’s definitely not about bragging – that’s contrary to true masculinity. It’s more about staying with your wife and being willing to die for your country. I guess I can give him credit for standing by his beliefs at personal cost, but those beliefs ruined the lives of millions in Southeast Asia.
I have noted that much of the commentary highlights the fact that he “lost” five years of prime career time because he refused to serve his country. It should also be noted that Rocky Marciano served in the Army for three years during WWII. Joe Louis and Sugar Ray Robinson served for shorter terms.
Actually, many notable professional athletes lost portions of their careers due to national service. Ted Williams probably the most notable because he served in two wars. He was also in a sport in which life time statistics define your career.
Not surprisingly I suppose, the media has launched an orgy of praise. The golf channel for, pete’s sake, was eulogizing Clay-Ali. How fitting that Slick Willy will do the formal eulogy.
Neo closed with, “He harnessed his ferocious will in the service of making the best of it and for many years traveled the world with a message of peace.”
Could have been written by the NYT, Neo!
The Brute turned Peace Lover.
He is grouped with the Dalai Lama and St. Theresa in the pantheon of caring, loving peacemakers?
Here is a good piece on Ali/Clay from Powerline:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2016/06/muhammad-ali-a-dissenting-view.php
Frog:
You should know better. You’ve been reading this blog for a long time, and yet you seem to willfully misunderstand me over and again.
Of course I don’t mean your paraphrase of my words. I was just stating facts. That’s what Ali did do in his later years, if you read his bio. In the case of Ali, it represented a personal change of focus.
What I think about that endeavor is another story entirely, and out of place in what is essentially an obit of a complex, gifted, and very difficult man with a very mixed set of behaviors and opinions over the course of his life.
I’ve written reams about war and peace—and if you, as a reader of this blog, don’t get it, there’s nothing more I can say. But there is nothing in the 10,000+ posts I’ve written since I began blogging that would or should have led you to characterize my point of view the way you did.
He was the Liberal Media’s Counter-Cultural ‘Magical Negro’ who was as quotable as ANY athlete that ever came across to the Press.
He didn’t give interviews — he invited Howard Cosell INTO his life — as in they were back-scratching PALS.
Neither would’ve been much without the other.
Each put the other on the map.
It may be hard for young’ins to imagine, but Cosell was a NO-BODY until he became the alter-ego of Cassius Clay.
Howard was — by far — the first Press ‘agent’ that accepted Clay’s new moniker — Ali.
As a Jew, that he would pal around with a devote of the Nation of Islam — pure unadulterated racism is its philosophy — with Farrakhan a RAVING anti-Semite — Hitler in Black Face — is TELLING.
Cosell was performing back-flips for LUCRE.
Ali was his breakthrough ‘product.’
At that point in his career, Howard was being ‘out-grouped’ by his fellow (Jewish) sports writers.
He was so slumming that he ‘owned the beat’ — for broadcasting prize fights.
If it’s news to you, prize fighting fell into a SEVERE and epic fall in market standing. The end of White premier boxers — killed ‘the gate.’
The same fate nearly overcame the NBA. It has taken Eastern European ‘blood’ to reverse its death throes.
Blacks and Mexicans — all minorities — make no effective $$$ contribution to ANY of the nationally prominent sports franchises.
&&&&&
The only Black fella that deserves even remotely this level of death-fame is Prince.
In him you have a real bona fide American icon… an idea generator.
Ali was ALL mouth. Insults and quips may be cute — but they don’t carry well.
Whereas, Prince’s body of work is sure to last and last. Maybe not Chopin — but perhaps Gershwin. He had an astounding artistic output… much of which has never been released… though the buzz is universally positive.
He drove ‘the suits’ crazy !
Hey, Neo, all I did was quote your words. If I misunderstand “He harnessed his ferocious will in the service of making the best of it and for many years traveled the world with a message of peace,” please make clear how.
“Ferocious will” against Parkinson’s. More than Michael Fox? More than Joe Blow and many unsung others?
“For many years traveled the world with a message of peace.”
I am not misrepresenting your words. They are yours. I quote them and respond to them. How have I willfully misunderstood them as cited here?
Frog:
Of course you didn’t just quote me. I will quote YOU (what you wrote after you offered that quote from me):
I merely described something, and you compare me to the fawning and mendacious NYT? I never grouped him with the Dalai Lama and St. Theresa. That’s YOUR characterization, not mine. I never gave an opinion about the efficacy of what he did, I merely a stated it. As I said in my previous comment to you, that’s what he did. He went around the world doing this, even when very ill, which was indeed a harnessing of his ferocious will.
And here you go again—“More than Michael Fox? More than Joe Blow and many unsung others?”
No, not more than other people who harnessed their wills—“ferocious” on otherwise—to fight whatever problems they are facing (Parkinson’s or otherwise). Why on earth would you compare? I certainly didn’t.
My point—in case you missed it, which I can assume you did—was that this guy, who was a deeply-flawed, narcissistic braggart, proud of his body and its peak of strength and youth, was taken down by a disease in his prime, and yet he managed to adjust to it and make the best of it, showing courage in the fight, which was a new fight for him. And he did go around the world promoting peace, whatever you or I may think of that endeavor. How does that translate into nominating him for sainthood?
As I said, you should know better than to think that’s what I was saying or implying.
showing courage in the fight, which was a new fight for him. And he did go around the world promoting peace, whatever you or I may think of that endeavor. How does that translate into nominating him for sainthood?
I think we went around the world as he used to promoting peace, and this one of the mission he had involved by US presedent:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4425474.stm
However talking about peace and other matters many celebrities have involved it’s part of media hunger for symbols and personality more than really the peace and love of humanity.
Late take Princes Diana, actor Angelina Jolly and more who chosen to go around the world promoting peace, whatever you or I may think of that endeavor.
Dalai Lama, what he is doing its more as political figure who tour the world most of year giving speeches and living in lavish hotels all around the world nothing important comes from his continues overseas trips.
This is what actual Mission by US president
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVeWKvpDeaA
Ahh, neo, you overlook the ? at the end of my post. As in “He is grouped with…?”
Going “around the world” when very ill with Parkinson’s is not the same as with many other afflictions, especially when the Parkinsonian is fawned on, waited upon at every moment. Spoon-fed, drool wiped, things fetched in a way most Parkinsons can only dream about. About as useful and productive as the Dalai he was, in fact. And he was used as a tool even as he drifted into cognitive dysfunction.
I have never forgiven him for refusing to serve and saying in 1967, “I ain’t got no quarrel with those Vietcong.” Self-centered “I” and ignorant. but well-known, and played right into the hands of the Left. Or was played by the Left like a harmonica. Helped get us where we are today.
let’s not forget Muhammad Ali’s impact on politics
http://rare.us/story/as-we-mourn-the-greatest-of-all-time-lets-not-forget-muhammad-alis-impact-on-politics/
he went through many transformations–his name, his women, his religion,
Onece he sid:
“I am America. I am the part you won’t recognize. But get used to me — black, confident, cocky,”
Did you and others ask themselves why he went through many transformations… HIS Religion?
http://www.firstpost.com/sports/muhammad-alis-fight-beyond-the-boxing-ring-the-battle-for-civil-rights-2817868.html
MUHAMMAD ALI and IRAN
http://www.mohammadmossadegh.com/news/boxer-muhammad-ali-and-iran-hostages/
But he isn’t being praised in the press for the later message of peace. If they were aware of it, it’d actually take away some of the awe that they’re expressing. These are liberals, and liberalism is at its heart a constant recreation of the 1960’s. Ali lets them talk about the civil rights movement and protesting the war, and that’s all they really want to do. All things are to be judged by whether they help you feel that 1960’s buzz again, and there’s nothing quite like an angry black man siding with America’s enemies to make liberals feel warm all over.
Further to Nick’s point, here is a snippet from today’s NYT front page:
” JOYCE CAROL OATES
Never the White Man’s Negro
When Muhammad Ali was a young man, the best black boxers were expected to be cautious and restrained. But Ali would have none of it.”
Oates fled a teaching position in Detroit to Canada in 1968 due to Vietnam and the 1967 Detroit black riot.
Old Flyer asked:
“Never understood him—same with Lew Alcindor. Why reject the name your parents bestowed on you? Does Islam require that of converts?”
When Clay and Alcindor did it was an act of revolution. And the Nation of Islam certainly demanded converts lose their “slave names.”
But the Nation of Islam was never Islam. As far as actual Islam goes that certainly wasn’t true of Islam in other countries.
Sorry to interject, Molly. That may be how somebody explained it too you but it’s not quite correct.
You might have been born a Muslim in Indonesia or the southern Philippines and your families had never changed their surnames to an Arabic name for generations (they’d likely adopt localized versions of traditional Arab personal names). Look at President Obama; his adoptive father’s surname was Soetero. Those were the moderate forms of Islam we hear about. So nobody would expect a local convert there to change their surname (perhaps not even their personal name) because it was never part of the local Islamic culture. Or at least wasn’t. That seems to be changing for one simple reason. Money.
But Islam is an Arab-supremacist religion. After all Allah only accepts prayer in Arabic, and in at least six places the Quran points out it is written in Arabic. It is particularly true when Islam comes in the form of Wahabbism spread by Saudi petrodollars. It therefore tends to supplant the local moderate Islam because of the Golden Rule. He who has the gold makes the rule.
Through Wahabbism, and its even more evil progeny Salafism, eventually Islam begins to export 7the century Arab culture wholesale. Why?
Surah 33:21 says:
“There has certainly been for you in the Messenger of Allah an excellent pattern for anyone whose hope is in Allah and the Last Day and [who] remembers Allah often.”
If you look at pictures of people in Iran, Afghantistan, or North Africa in the 1950’s or ’60s you won’t see men wearing long flowing robes and keffiyahs or women in the naqab. They’ll be wearing suits in the case of men and dresses for women. Patterning your life on Muhammad was taken in more of a spiritual sense. But with the spread of Wahabbism it’s taken on a very literal sense. You’ve got to dress like, him, eat like him, even go to the bathroom like him. And yes, you can learn about that in the hadiths. Otherwise (it’s clearer in the Arabic) you won’t see paradise. Eventually your whole household is an island of 7th century Arab culture.
When the Saudis export Wahabbism to a Muslim country like Indonesia they don’t start by lecturing them that they’ve been doing it wrong for centuries. But that’s exactly what they’re thinking. And they gradually arabize them because that’s just how you do it in Saudi Arabia, home of pure Islam as far as the Saudis are concerned.
So it’s not quite right to say converts have to change their names to Arabic names. With the spread of Wahabbism/Salafism people whose families have been Muslims for centuries eventually are pressured to change their names as well.
Now aren’t you sorry you brought it up, Old Flyer.
Regarding Ali, I always thought he was overrated as a fighter and as a rebel defying the white oppressor.
I think Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Wladimir Klitschko, and maybe even Larry Holmes were (are in the case of Klitschko) better heavyweight fighters.
Ali was 56-5 with a 61% KO ratio.
Compare that to Joe Louis who kept the heavyweight belt for 11 years and went 66-3-1 with a 75% KO ratio.
Larry Holmes even had more fights, and won more of and had a very, very slightly win/loss ration than Ali (really it’s not enough to matter as they’ both won 92%), with a 69-6 record. But a slightly lower KO ratio of 59%. But who knows what Ali’s record would have been if he had fought an additional 14 bouts.
Then of course there’s Marciano. 49-0 with an unmatched 88% KO ratio.
By the numbers even Klitschko looks better than Ali with a 64-4 record and a 78% KO ratio.
Now you obviously can’t just go by the numbers because it depended on who you had to fight. That’s one of the knocks on Marciano as the talent pool, say those who were there, wasn’t quite as deep. But then Marciano fought EVERYBODY there was to fight, which is what a champ is supposed to do. It isn’t his fault if there weren’t as many other good fighters to fight as there were in some other eras. And I recall they measured the force of right once. I don’t want to try to recall the exact numbers as I’ll get it wrong, but I’ll just say I’d rather be shot than hit by Rocky Marciano. I think I’d survive longer, long enough to get to the hospital if I was only shot. With a handgun that is.
I also think everyone agrees Rocky Marciano had the best chin of any heavyweight ever, which he needed as he got into the game late and and never developed much in the way of footwork. So he took a lot of punishment. But he could take it and give a hell of a lot more.
As far as not going to Vietnam, I don’t even know if that would have happened had Ali let himself be drafted. But I don’t think he had any more idealistic reasons to do what he did than any other draft dodger. I think he was just trying to preserve his boxing career and as Old Flyer says he bluffed.
But I don’t if he lost the bluff as I think that’s one reason he’s so overrated as a fighter and as a cultural icon. All the hippies and protesters loved him because they thought he was standing up to “the man.”
All in all I liked Joe Frazier better when I was a kid and rooted for him.
This isn’t to take away from the fact that he was a great fighter. Not as great as the baby boomers remember him, and he may have nicknamed himself “The Greatest” (one of the reasons I didn’t like him so much during his fighting career) but he certainly wasn’t the greatest.
That’s always the case; if you really are the greatest, you don’t have to pick that nickname yourself.
But he was a great fighter; I’d put him in the top ten of the twentieth century. And he mellowed into someone that I could like. It’s not fair to draw any final conclusions about anyone during just his early years. I wouldn’t want anyone doing that to me.
R.I.P. Muhammad Ali.
The Left acts like the Left, what else is new.