PCGUIA 10/PC Guia 10.iso/database/body/ali.txt

Text File | 1996-01-29 | 21KB | 427 lines

1.5
The sublime ability and courage that he brought to the ring
made Muhammad Ali the outstanding boxer of his
generation. Converted to the Muslim faith, adopted by the
civil rights and anti-war movements, he became a symbol of
defiance to the American establishment. At the height of his
fame, he could claim to possess the best-known face on earth.
He announced himself The Greatest, and many of those who
watched him were there to see him lose, to see him put in his
place. Born Cassius Clay, Ali first came to notice when he won
the light-heavyweight title in the 1960 Olympics. The speed,
tactical flexibility and agility under fire that were too much
for his early opponents also proved too much for the
menacing Sonny Liston, from whom he took the world
heavyweight title in 1964. Ali was stripped of the title in
1967 and forbidden to box for three and a half years after
refusing to fight in Vietnam. He returned to the ring, but in
1971 was defeated for the first time by Joe Frazier. In later
years he took to deliberately taking punches to wear down
stronger opponents. After retirement he tried to come back,
but failed disastrously. Ali's speech, once so self-confident,
became increasingly slurred. He was diagnosed as suffering
from Parkinson's disease, a condition which may or may not
have been brought on or aggravated by boxing
@
2.3
If the verdict and sentence pronounced in Houston, Texas,
yesterday stand, Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay), as near to a
heavyweight boxing champion as the world has at the
moment, will pay the maximum penalty for refusing to join
the armed forces.

But reactions to the rapid trial, which took barely six hours,
including a verdict by an all-white jury in 21 minutes and a
rejection by the judge of the principal defence argument in
hardly more time, are moderated by the realization that it is
only another step in a legal process which has been going on
for months and will continue well into next year.

Muhammad Ali himself said merely: "I expected the worst."

His counsel, Mr Hayden Covington, stuck to his prediction that
Muhammad Ali would not spend a night in gaol, and
predicted that before the circuit court in New Orleans could
hear the appeal it would be in December or January.  If it
goes against the defendant, and the Supreme Court in turn
grants him a hearing, the final judgement might not be until
the autumn of next year.

A civil suit alleging that the draft boards in Louisville,
Kentucky, and in Houston, which called up the boxer, were
discriminatory in race and religion, is before the New Orleans
Appeal Court now.

The proceedings in Houston have, however, caused something
of a shock.  Civil rights leaders, accustomed to contrasting the
conscription of Muhammad Ali with the habitual deferments
for other sportsmen apparently equally fit and without an
excuse as plausible even as a Black Muslim ministry, have no
doubts.

Mr. Floyd McKissick, the national director of the Congress of
Racial Equality, spoke for his colleagues last night in Harlem.
"I do not think you can convince black people that he got a
fair trial", he said.  "The main issue in my mind is whether a
black man can choose a religion without being punished for
it".

The defence rested on three grounds.  The first was that the
draft boards were discriminatory.  The judge held this
inadmissible.  The second was that Muhammad Ali was a
travelling bishop for the Black Muslims sect and spent nine-
tenths of his time on it.  The third was that he was sincere.

Judge Ingraham told the jury that he had found a basis for
the selective service system's action in classifying
Muhammad Ali as liable for conscription, and then told them
that, in any event, this was not for the court to determine.

The issue of sincerity he left to the prosecution, and it was
Mr. Carl Walker, the assistant prosecutor, himself a Negro
who pronounced on it: "Sincerity", Mr Walker said, "is not the
real issue.  The issue is whether he refused to obey the law."

Mr Quinnan Hodges, for the defence, said that he did not
think the refusal was unlawful, however unpopular the
defendant's religion.

With the judge's direction, the jury took little time to doubt.
Then Clay himself asked for a quick sentence.  He had
nothing to say towards mitigation of sentence.

He had spent most of his time making elaborate drawings.
During verdict and argument about sentence he stood silent,
except when Mr. Morton Susman, leading for the prosecution,
said that he had studied the Black Muslim order and found it
as much political as it was religious.

"If I can say so, sir."  Muhammad Ali said, "My religion is not
political - in no way."

Mr Susman offered no objection to a sentence lighter than the
maximum.

Judge Ingraham curtly imposed the maximum penalty of five
years gaol and a fine of 10,000 dollars (ú3,570) - so far as is
known, the first time that it has been pronounced.  Indeed,
even half the maximum does not seem to have been invoked
before.

In view of the intent to appeal, the Judge said, now was not
the time to ask for clemency.  If the conviction should be
thrown out, the sentence would be nil; if it should be upheld,
that would be the time to seek a reduction in sentence.
@
2.5
Muhammad Ali regained his world heavyweight title from
George Foreman early today. Ali knocked Foreman out in the
eighth round. There were 50,000 people in the stadium four
hours before the start. It was the biggest crowd to see the
world heavyweight championship in any stadium since 1966,
when Ali defended the crown against Henry Cooper at
Highbury. Among the celebrities at the ring-side were Ryan
O'Neal and a host of American sports stars, including former
champion Joe Frazier.

Zaire has waited six months and suffered a postponement,
but they sat patiently through the preliminary bouts and
were entertained by an African jazz band and a group of
tribal dancers. Although the middle of the night it was warm
and humid. There was strict security in and outside of the
stadium, with hundreds of white-helmeted troops keeping an
eye on the excited fans.

The fight between two black men in the heart of black Africa
was under the control of Zack Clayton, a black American
highly experienced in refereeing major contests. It was
exactly 14 years ago last night that Ali began his professional
career when he boxed a man named Tunny Hunsacker in
Louisville, Kentucky. Ali, then known as Cassius Clay,
outpointed Hunsacker over six rounds to launch a career that
has made him the biggest drawing card and controversial
figure in the boxing industry.

Forty five minutes before the two men were expected in the
ring Ali's beautiful wife Belinda took her seat wearing white
Muslim robes. Frazier was the first to greet her and shook
her hand warmly as the photographers crowed round. The
last time she was at the ringside to see her husband fight was
when Ali lost to Ken Norton and had his jaw broken. On that
occasion she collapsed when she heard of Ali's injuries.

There were considerable doubts that this fight would ever
take place in Zaire, particularly when it was postponed six
weeks ago when Foreman suffered his eye cut. But
everything seemed to be going well on the night except the
fight between the rival camps' sparring partners - Henry
Clark for Foreman and Roy Williams for Ali - never took
place.

Clark got into the ring and waited for ten minutes, but
Williams didn't arrive. No reason was given for his surprising
absence and many thought it was an ill omen for the former
champion trying to become only the second man ever to
regain the world heavyweight title.

Ali was first to enter the ring, as usual smiling and looking
relaxed. Foreman was keeping him waiting, and it was
several minutes before he made his way to the ring - a
psychological ploy to increase the tension in the Ali camp.

@
2.7
Few big boxing events in America are complete these days
without an appearance by Muhammad Ali.  His entrance is
reminiscent of the old pantomime ritual of boos for the
villain in this case, the promoter and cheers for the hero, the
great man.  The louder the boos, the better the promoter
likes it.  He has made money.  The louder the cheers, the
better Ali feels.  They have not forgotten him.

You know when Ali has arrived: the stadium is on its feet.
You see him cross the floor of the arena he still stands head
and shoulders above the rest.  He walks slowly, deliberately,
for he suffers from Parkinson's syndrome.

When the MC announces Ali's name, "The one'n'onlee Moo-
ham-mud Al-leee!", he effortfully raises his arm, and sits
down slowly.  Sometimes he climbs into the ring, raises both
arms and crosses the canvas to wish the boxers well.  You
feel afraid for him, in case he should stumble.  But he is not
afraid.

"I ain't dead.  I'm just getting started," he would say.  "When
I was boxing, I used to get up at 6am to go running.  Now I
am up at 5, praying, and reading the Koran."

Ten years have gone by since Ali last climbed into the ring in
order to lay a glove on an opponent or to try to.  After losing
that undistinguished non-title bout against Trevor Berbick,
on points, a grossly overweight Ali admitted that he was too
old for the game.  "For the first time, I feel 40 years old", he
said.

Ali is 50 on Friday, but he does not seem old, despite his
affliction.  In his own way he is almost as active as he was
before.  He has a problem with his speech, but it does not
stop him doing what he wants.  By the standards of the man
who could not stop talking, the original grandmaster of rap, it
is as if he has been silent.  Silent but not silenced.  For he still
travels the world as an ambassador extraordinary, to fight
the corner of the poor.  Even his fourth wife, Lonnie, who is
14 years younger than he is, cannot keep up with his
travelling schedule.

"I have the most recognisable face in the history of the
world," Ali told Thomas Hauser, his official biographer.  "I am
the only man in history to become famous under two
different names and I feel like I should be doing more to
help people" or, at least, those people who are more familiar
with his face than with those of the five United States
presidents who held office during his boxing years.

No wonder it has been said that more people have written
about Ali than about Abraham Lincoln, Jesus Christ and
Napoleon.  Within the babble of reflections that words and
pictures create, the image of Ali becomes refracted, like a
cubist portrait with two faces: Cassius Clay and Muhammad
Ali.  So varied are the opinions that he seems to be all things
to all men: the clown and the ringmaster, the world champion
and the people's champion, demi-god and demagogue, the lip
and the lout.  As a result, Ali has become the subject of
obsessive debate, even in circles that frown upon boxing.  Is
he this important?  Why do so many people see Muhammad
as a mountain?

There are those who will climb the face of the mountain to
glimpse a smile that takes them back to their youth.  As
Lonnie says: "For many people Muhammad represents the
best time of their lives."  Or, as Jose Torres, a former world
light heavyweight champion, said: "If you lived in his time
you knew him."

Some are not interested in Ali's exploits beyond the roped
limits of the ring.  They admire and respect him solely as a
boxer, to be compared with Sugar Ray Robinson, who many
believe was the greatest, or with the greatest heavyweights
Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Mike Tyson:
"Would he have beaten Tyson?"  "Would Marciano have
knocked him out?"

The importance of Ali is that during his career he reflected
the Zeitgeist of America.  He coaxed society to make space for
him, and thus for his young admirers.  For them he became
the symbol for improving the environment they lived in and
for understanding their goals and for daring to make a
contribution.  He removed the mask that had been placed
over the face of his people and allowed white people to see
the beauty hidden for so long.  Ali provided, as Robert
Lipsyte, of The New York Times, put it, "A window on a lot of
social, political and religious things that were going on in
America; a window into the black world that wouldn't have
been available to most of his listeners any other way."  That
achievement alone made him the greatest sports personality
of all time.

"Boxing was good to me while it lasted," Ali said.  "But it was
only the start of what I wanted to accomplish in life.  Now I
can rest up for my true mission, loving people and spreading
the word of God."

His conversion to Islam was the most important development
in his career.  Although he was often portrayed as being close
to Malcolm X, the militant black leader, his conversion was
brought about by Elijah Muhammad, the minister of the
Nation of Islam movement.  Ali's religion gave him a reason
to oppose the Vietnam war, enabled him to win his case
against conviction for draft evasion in the Supreme Court,
helped him to endure a three and a half year absence from
the ring and return to become the first man to win the
heavyweight title three times.  His religion gave him a
greater purpose in life after he developed Parkinson's
syndrome.  He gave away thousands of autographed tracts
from the Koran, even though his signature fetches 25 dollars
a time.

During his career, Ali made more money than the combined
incomes of all the heavyweight champions who had gone
before him.  His first bout with Joe Frazier made them 2
million dollars each.  His three contests with Frazier made
him 11 million dollars, the Rumble in the Jungle with George
Foreman brought more than 15 million, his two contests with
Leon Spinks made him 7 million.  In 15 bouts between 1971
and 1978 he grossed 43 million dollars.

It is curious that despite earning so much money, Ali claimed
that he needed one more fight, against Larry Holmes in 1980,
to set himself up for life.  Ali was to receive 8 million dollars.
It was a contest that was universally criticised as being a
fight too far.  Ali's people were concerned about his health.
Ferdie Pacheco, his former physician, said at the time after
20 years of boxing there was no way in which Ali's body
could escape the rigours of hard campaigns.  "All the organs
that have been abused will have to work harder, Pacheco
said.

Ali looked well but, was not in fighting shape.  To combat a
suspected thyroid condition, he had been prescribed a drug
called Thyrolar, which can speed up the metabolism and
interfere with the body's cooling mechanisms.  According to
Pacheco, Ali was a "walking time bomb" in the ring that night,
and could have had a heart attack or a stroke.

The fight itself brought nothing but pain and humiliation for
Ali and his followers.  He fought like an old man and had to
be pulled out in the tenth round. John Schullian, then with
the Chicago Sun Times, said: "You did not have to be a rocket
scientist to know that Ali was facing brain damage.  He
wasn't talking the way he used to, he wasn't moving the way
he used to.  That night they sacrificed Ali.  That's all it was, a
human sacrifice for money and power."

The bout that is often blamed for bringing about Ali's trouble
was the Thriller in Manila, against Frazier.  Ali's cornerman
and friend, Angelo Dundee, who had been with him since his
first professional bout against Tunney Hunsaker in 1960,
says: "In all his fights I never saw Muhammad in worse
shape than in Manila.  When he came back to the corner after
the 11th round, for the first time in his life it looked like he
ran out of gas completely.  It looked like exhaustion was
setting in.  When he sat down he just plopped.  I told him:
"Muhammad, now we are going to have to separate the men
from the boys.  You have got to suck it up."  He sucked it up.

After the fight when asked how he felt, Ali said: "It was next
to death."  Dundee says: "Looking back, it's easy to say, but if
I could pick when Muhammad should have stopped fighting,
it would be after Manila."  Ali had ten more contests after
that, five of which were 15-rounders.

During his last fights, it could be forgotten that Ali was a
boxing superstar. "In the old days you couldn't get to the
fighter," Dundee says.  "You had to go through the manager,
the trainer, the seconds, the publicity guys.  You never got to
the star, much less a superstar.  Muhammad was the most
available superstar there ever has been."

Ali loved to have people around him; the bigger the fight the
bigger the entourage.  He entertained his fans by picking the
round in which he was going to win.  He was not always right,
but after he got "Moore in four" his poems began to catch on.
"He was a fun guy, a putter-onner, a mesmeriser, what I call
a web-weaver," Dundee says.

Ali was also a putter-downer.  He humiliated his opponents
before fights and in the ring, as in the famous incident during
his bout with Ernie Terrell.  Ali screamed, "What's my
name?", with every blow he landed on Terrell's face, because
the World Boxing Association champion had insisted on
referring to Ali as Cassius Clay and not using his Islamic
name.  Ali referred to Floyd Patterson as an Uncle Tom
because the former world champion was the darling of white
America and lived in a white neighbourhood.  "I'm going to
put him on his back, so that he can start acting black," Ali
said before his fight with Patterson.

He had names for all his main opponents.  Sonny Liston was
known as the Ugly Bear, and Ali even turned up with a
beartrap at a weigh-in to rile the world champion.  Foreman
was known as the Mummy and Frazier as the Gorilla.

Early in his career, Ali claimed that if he had not "hollered"
no one would have taken any notice.  "I'd probably be back
in my home town washing windows or running an elevator,
saying 'Yes suh, no suh,' and knowing my place." Yet, for all
his threatening postures in the ring, Ali was very different
from other fighters.  His meanness was mainly superficial.
He was essentially a non-violent man in a violent game.
While he did knock out many of his opponents and stopped
others with chopping blows, he was not consumed with the
idea of destruction when in the ring, unlike Tyson, Louis,
Marciano, Robinson, Leonard, Hagler, Hearns and the rest.
While these were either hungry or men or both, Ali was
neither.  He often carried some of his less worthy opponents.
He would not have subscribed to Tyson's view: "I am in the
hurt business."  Ali would have said: "I'm in the business of
not getting hurt."

Perhaps it was somewhat ironic that in his campaign of 62
fights he spent more time in hospital than his main
opponents.  If he had not been such a gifted boxer he would
probably have gone to college.

He was born into a hard-working Baptist-Methodist family in
Louisville, Kentucky.  He had a secure and loving home life
and was very protective of Rudolph his younger brother, and
other children in the neighbourhood.

His father, Cassius Clay Sr., was an artist and his mother,
Odessa, "a small, fat, wonderful woman who loved to cook,
eat, make clothes and be with the family".  His father said:
"The boys didn't give us any trouble.  They were church boys
because my wife brought them up to church every Sunday.
My daddy used to say: 'Let them follow their mother because
a woman is always better than a man.'  So that's what I did,
and their mother taught them right."

As a boy, Ali believed in angels and, at the age of ten, would
go out into the Kentucky night to look up at the stars and
wait for a message from an angel or God.  He received no
answer, but he had already been given a sign.  As a small
child his parents called him G.G. because he was always
saying, "Gee,Gee".  Ali did not know then that G.G. was to
mean Golden Gloves, the famous American amateur boxing
championship, which he was to win before going on to lift the
Olympic title in Rome in 1960.

There will never be another Muhammad Ali.  Before Tyson
was beaten by Buster Douglas, experts told Dundee that
Tyson would be the greatest fighter of all time.  "Please",
Dundee said, "you can't compare anyone to Muhammad."  One
can only hope that in the age of Tyson, reeking of
materialism and thudding with gangsta-rap, there is still
room for the goals of Ali.