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Son of a bitch. That went quick. I grew up watching him, great time to be a boxing fan. Changed the game with style.
You're lucky, I wish I could have seen him fight in his prime.
is that no one saw him box in his prime. The prime years for a boxer are mid to late 20's. He was banned from boxing from 25 though 28.
He gave up his prime years to stand up for something he believed in. We won't ever see anything like him again. RIP great champ.
He refused to fight (as in war, not a boxing ring) in Vietnam.
Thanks. I did some Googling and confirmed that was a dumb question...
I guess in my defense I wasn't alive then?
And most famous athlete in the entire world.
We'll never get another athlete with this much gall to challenge the status quo and stand up for what he believed in. I'm lucky to have not lived through this tumultuous time period b/c it must've been a nightmare for minorities.
It's all common sense now, but wow.
RIP
I did, and it was. He was my hero. Because he was a man. Because he was our fighter against this:
2016 is a jerk year. Prince, Bowie, Ali, et al. Sucks.
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they did a great job of keeping it all a secret. i was guessing holyfield would light the torch; being a local guy.
i sat in stunned silence when it turned out to be ali.
I remember watching and I damn near jumped off the sofa and through the ceiling. I couldn't believe it.
when I was a kid, as I didn't at all understand his mouth and his insistance on his name change.
What an awesome talent he was when I was a teenage sports fan.
What an inspirational man he was once I grew up and understood more what he really stood for.
What a blessing it was to have met Ali, to have spoken with him, to have shook his hand.
On so many levels and in so many ways, THE GREATEST. I mourn his loss and shed tears as I type this...
RIP Cassius
RIP Muhammud
RIP The Greatest
Not old enough to have watched his fights live but absorbed every Ali documentary and SI article I ever got my hands on over the years, and YouTube made it easy after that.
Will be remembered for his social impact long, long after people forget that boxing was ever even a popular sport.
How many among us would be willing to give up everything-- their popularity, money, career, the thing they loved the most, to take a stand on principle? To use fame to speak out and raise consciousness about social issues instead of just to shill products?
Will always be my hero.
He shook up the world.
The term GOAT exists for him.
BREAKING: Boxing legend Muhammad Ali has passed away at age 74.https://t.co/vffxGLyFKR pic.twitter.com/F6J4FeSCQt
— ABC News (@ABC) June 4, 2016
I would consider myself indifferent to the political stands he made. On principle I prefer athletes not to brag about themselves (I'm a Barry Sanders and Steve Yzerman fan, after all).
But if you call yourself the Greatest and you're right, well, more power to you. It is a testament to his greatness that he took an approach and held positions that were then and, in other people, would still be extremely controversial, and nonetheless transcended the sport and the world to become respected and beloved by everybody.
In 1994, SI produced a "top" 40 from their then 40 year run as a magazine, back when they mattered. They necessarily left out the era of Babe Ruth; they also, of course, could not see 22 years into the present.
But they were right then and they're right now. He is the Greatest.
Brutal. He was cat-quick, and put it to work in innovative ways. No one could touch him.
People had his obituary written in '74 before the Foreman fight. I'm not kidding, they actually thought he was going to get literally killed. Foreman was a younger, seemingly invincible opponent who had already destroyed Frazier and Ali just leans back and lets him swing while his own corner is screaming at him to get off the ropes. Crazy. Genius.
RIP, GOAT.
It was surprising Ali let him just pound away at his body. But it worked. I saw Foreman in a talk show interview much later talking about that fight, and he said Ali was taunting him: "Is that all you got , George? Is that all you got?" And eventually, it was, "Yeah, that's all I got."
Looking back, it's kind of amazing that we got to watch big fights over the air on ABC. Not cable, not PPV. Just regular TV.
Yeah, I was 7 or 8 for that fight and was worried that Foreman would literally kill him in the ring. Foreman was the most powerful puncher boxing has ever seen, and Frazier--who'd beaten Ali and was one of the best ever in his right--was knocked around by Foreman like an abusive father beating on a small child.
possibility: Ali would never stop, never give up, no matter how much punishment he took.
Ali's chin and his unmatched desire are hugely important pieces of his game which are too often overlooked. These traits probably also went a long way to his condition in retirement, but in the ring they made him almost invincible.
I just went back and watched Frazier-Foreman (LINK- Cosell with the call). It's just unbelievable. And quick. Foreman looked every bit the intimidating, menacing, invulnerable fighter that those of us who grew up watching Mike Tyson remember in his early years. The only question was will his opponent make it out of the first round. Frazier damn near didn't.
I get why Ali's fans back at the time didn't want him to step into the ring with big George, it would have been such a letdown to watch an icon get put to sleep by a monster.
At one point Foreman hits Frazier so hard that Frazier travels through the air and lands on his knees. And this is Joe Fucking Frazier, not a man to be trifled with. But Ali, Frazier, and Foreman were rock-paper-scissors back in the day.
There was never any comparison.
Record is not everything, particularly when the perfect record is created by dodging every fighter in his prime--while the imperfect record is assembled by fighting anyone, anywhere, in their prime, for titles or not.
Re-upping this from the earlier thread:
For the greatest man I have ever known. https://t.co/OUZHVZWBHY
— Billy Crystal (@BillyCrystal) June 3, 2016
I (sadly) never knew him and (sadly) wasn't around for the fights, but Ali has been a major influence in my thinking and my life. GOAT doesn't quite cut it with Ali; his influence outside the ring was on par with any of his contemporaries and he deserves to be remembered with that in mind.
I don't use the term lightly, but this man was a hero. Full stop.
The Ali - Cosell banter was always memorable. Ali made Cosell's career. Cosell was smart enough to latch on to Ali and become linked with him throughout both of their careers.
America had to find out what truculent meant. Thanks Howard we got smarter cuz of you.
"if it's good, I'm that."
what a night...one of those incredible stories you wish would be told later
the single most iconic photograph in the history of American sports. RIP Champ.
“I’ve wrestled with alligators,
I’ve tussled with a whale.
I done handcuffed lightning
And throw thunder in jail.
You know I’m bad.
just last week, I murdered a rock,
Injured a stone, Hospitalized a brick.
I’m so mean, I make medicine sick.”
May as well upvote you again for this.
BTW, SI has a terrific retrospective posted already with a gallery of 100 excellent photographs. Worth checking out.