The Bee’s Sting: Was Muhammad Ali perfect?
July 17th, 2009
By Bolish Gudgworth: Muhammad Ali; three-time Heavyweight Champion of the World, Olympic Gold Medallist, 1999’s Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Century and one of the youngest and oldest Heavyweight Champions of all time. The list, of course, is endless. The man at one point was perhaps the most recognized person on the face of the planet. His influence was so global he was invited to speak with Brezhnev at post-détente Cold War tension; he even became a diplomat despite proclaiming himself “I don’t know nothing about politics.”
Truly, no boxer, or even sportsmen became so important to popular culture as Muhammad Ali. In the 1970’s despite being years detached from his prime, Ali became the crown of a heavyweight division going through its golden age. The division was overloaded with talent such as Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Earnie Shavers and Ken Norton and Ali was the centrepiece.
Of course, it is not hard to see why all this was possible for a country boy from Louisville. Muhammad Ali was witty, extravagant and always lively at press conferences. It also helps that Ali was handsome, tall (at 6 ft 3 “) as described by Neil Leifer as a “photographer’s dream…a photographer couldn’t miss with Ali”. But even with all this hype, it is impossible to mention Muhammad Ali without talking about Joe Frazier. And now we have the crux. Almost everyone who knows anything about boxing knows of the devastating, brutal and yet classic trilogy of Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali. People know about how Ali degraded, humiliated and ridiculed Frazier over more than a decade and especially at Manila, and yet people seemed to gloss over that quite conveniently: No, Muhammad Ali was far from perfect.
I am going to attempt to explain why. Muhammad Ali was Muhammad Ali, and there is nothing wrong with that. But when I see article after article of “junk documentary” constantly building and creating the “Ali Myth”, I feel sorry not only for the generation today who see Ali as world figure and human rights champion, but also for Ali himself. His accomplishments are obscured and hidden behind the growing canvas of celebration for all the wrong reasons. “Respected” journalists try to convince us (and people unfortunately believe them) that Ali was a heroic fighter and representative for the Civil Rights Movement in America throughout the 1960’s, and ranks side by side with Dr King. Although Ali’s brashness, confidence and extravagance did assert a feeling of pride in young black men and women in America, I don’t think Ali had the depth and understanding of his revered colleague.
Furthermore, Ali’s treatment of Joe Frazier, while entertaining and perhaps comforting to him, wrecked Frazier’s sense of identity, confidence and pride. For this, I have a hard time conforming to the new millennium’s adoration and “love in” with Muhammad. If he was so perfect and ideologically sound, then why did he do that to Joe Frazier?
Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier met sometime in the late 1960’s. Frazier, while indifferent to the “Ain’t got no quarrel…” statement, and Ali’s stance on the Vietnam war, he financially supported Ali through that period where the government banned Ali from fighting. And in return? Ali humiliated Joe. Even in 1971, when Joe defeated Muhammad in the Fight of the Century, it was still Ali who got the publicity. He called Joe ugly, stupid and uneducated. But what is so unforgivable in my eyes, is how Ali robbed Joe of his identity as a proud black American. Ali’s constant dissection of Joe, calling him an Uncle Tom, split America in half. Joe wound up becoming the white man’s champion and was booed and slighted even in his hometown of Philadelphia. Later in 1975, to promote the “Thrilla in Manila”, Ali called Joe a gorilla, and screamed about to anyone who would hear that Joe was too ugly to be a champion, and other nations would laugh at the USA!
Don’t get me wrong. Muhammad Ali is a great, extravagant personality that made boxing exciting and enthralling for us to watch. His greatest achievement in my mind was how he successfully smashed the race barrier that had opposed many black sportsmen in the 20th Century. After all, characters like Joe Louis were diligently and constantly trained to conform to the white man’s image of what a heavyweight champion should be, whereas Ali made his own image of a champion.
But on the other hand, Muhammad was in many ways a flawed personality, and one that has been given far too much credit over the last two decades.
Tags: 13 Responses to “The Bee’s Sting: Was Muhammad Ali perfect?”
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I gotta agree with the author of this article. I do not think Ali meant to be so malicious. I believe he felt he was selling the fights by making Joe look a fool.
Joe Frazier has,(though I hope not always), been overlooked because of what Ali represented to many during the Civil Rights struggle. Ali was never a spokesman but the Nation of Islam saw in him a symbol they could use to promote their questionable idealogy.
History should forgive Ali for his unreined exuberance. More importantly we should sing the praises of a truly great fighter, because Joe you deserve it.
Top Quality article – There’s no doubting Ali was a man of great boxing ability, but the best of all time – No.
Plus his connection with the Nation of Islam movement who are complete racists has to be questioned. If a white boxer associated with a similair (white) movement, he would rightly be challange over such connections.
There is this myth like memory of Ali, which does not reflect the real life. As for all that Uncle Tom stuff with Frazier, that is sickening.
Please no-one call me a racist, I am both a black American and a hard-core boxing fan.
Muhammad Ali is the greatest of all time
Bill Bollocks. The writer ain’t calling Ali racist. Think…..
It’s so ironic that it’s not the black people rather the white racists who label Ali as a racist. Ali raised his voice when White America was lynching innocent black people everywhere. Calling someone who looks like a Gorila is not racist. Ali did the same with Liston. Today, it’s the neo-cons who seem to be so bloody interested to portray Frazier as a hero at the expense of Ali. Wasn’t he the one who ran away from Foreman like a three-legged street dog?
Bolish Bollocks. Ali is the greatest. This is evident in the fact that people like you still write so much about him for whatever reasons even 29 years after his retirement.
Let me start by saying that the greatest boxer ever was Sugar Ray Robinson. he went 85-0 as a welter but actually fought around 142-143. He was later 128-1-2 with one loss to Jake Lamotta when he moved to middleweight, and even then fighting at way under 160. He later beat Lamotta 5 times.
I am mentioning these facts because people tend not to know them. I love Ali and Pacman but first Sugar did things that Ali only can dream about & he did it with tremendous speed and power. Pacman has done a lot for boxing but there is no way that Sugar would consider fighting a bigger man by asking him to meet him.
He routinely gave up many lbs and still kicked serious ass. He retired and came back too many times and fought in his late 30′s and mid 40′s when most guys quit around 36, except for ARchie Moore who fought til almost 50. He also was a big ladies and party life man who often did not train for fights and still kicked ass.
Ali was and probably will always be the biggest boxing personality )Jack Johnson was the 2nd) who crossed over into mainstream. This had political, social and humane overtones but importantly, he also was a great boxer.
He came along at the right time when the civil rights movement was taking course and at the same time took a stance on the Nam War. At first it was unpopular but as the deaths started to mount and the Us was also losing, he gained national and international support.
Ali was a very proud man; somewhat articulate and with street smarts, he was not however formally educated. Simultaneously, he was used by many people to further their causes. Reporters also loved him because he would playfully give them quotes, many of which were misquoted.
It is a fact that Frazier supported his cause and wanted him to fight again. Of course Frazier (my favourite heavy of the 70-’s) had dual reasons. As a black he knew it was for social change and as a competitor, he knew Ali was a challenge he had to face to enhance his legacy.
I truly believe that Ali did the taunts to get an edge over his opponent, but he went too far at times and especially against Frazier. The least he could have done was to privately admit that to him and years later, to publicly say that. Frazier was forever haunted by this First he took ALi’s “0″ and Ali was at that time already an iconic figure. He also destroyed the mythical man who also now accepted by poor whites and most educated young folks. Ali was not perfect but he was perfect for America at the time and his aura, his personality were large.
He was Jack Johnson but without the mostly biased media coverage. He was Jackie Robinson, Michael Jackson and all the black superstars who either opened doors. Who proved that despite unfair treatment and the constant obstacles placed in front of them, they could find a way to not only let their greatness and ability shine, but also lay the foundation to destroy ridiculous myths of racial stereotypes and inferiority. Ali was not perfect but in the eyes of those who cared to open them, his arrival was perfect.
Rgearding the idiot who feels that the lumbering
giants and robots that are heavyweights, i.e. the Klitchkos, puhleeezzzzeee. Smell the salts and wake up to reality. Big and ponderous they are but Ali was by far the fastest heavyweight ever. He may not have had their power, but he always was in the best condition, physically & mentally. Both Klitchskos are not in that league. Ali would cut them both to shreds with tremendous speed and accuracy, using that little blade he used to hide so no one could see (ha,ha)! Again, he was not perfect but he always found the perfect game plan which he customized to beat each opponent.
I wish to emphasize this; who among us could handle that type of pressure that he faced at that time? He was not perfect as a boxer, look at his record. He was not perfect as a husband nor a father. He was not perfect as a businessman nor as public figure. Who is?
But when you take a retrospective view of his achievements and the indelible mark he has left in our minds and psyche, not to mention his place in history, who cares if he was perfect in these areas we mortal humans wish to grade him in.
I wish to close by saying: here is a mere mortal man from whom perfection was demanded by those who loved and hated him in just about everything he did or conceived. He delivered in most but the more he delivered, the more people expected and demanded.
The Bible tells us there was only one perfect man and mankind destroyed him. Ali was not perfect, heck he almost single handledly destroyed himself tying to be perfect in our eyes.
He himself would be the first to admit he was not perfect but let us not judge him on whether or not he was perfect. Let him judge him by normal standards and the obstacles he overcame. On that basis, he still was not perfect but damn well, ALMOST!
monoliknock them downobliterate US started to lose fight. he was the greatest too fights in his he went fighting at welter
A good article.Joe did certainly help Ali when he was in prison and also tried lifting the boxing ban due to them being friends. But you must understand that Ali’s harsh comments against Joe, whether they were genuine or not, were aimed to win the psycological mind fight before the actual physical fight started. The sad fact is that Boxing is a `kill, or be killed` sport, where friendships are put aside to win at all costs. I still believe that Muhammad Ali was the greatest boxer of all time due to a combination of his boxing skills and popularity.
did moica childworth write this?
Quality article, I cant stand the man although i respect and admire the skills, which he had. Joe Frazier on the other hand i fully respect, quality fighter and a nice bloke. If Ali had been a good person maybe he would have been more a legend or on the other hand, not as highly thought of by those in the media who bigged him up due to his skills along with arrogence.
The Klitschko brothers would demolish Ali…seriously, im not sayin it to get a reaction, I genuinely believe that. As would have Lewis. Tyson maybe not as he is as overhyped as it comes (look at his record, its very siimlar to Hattons, won one big fight and failed miserable for the rest of his career, yet Tyson is remembered as a great – I dont get it).
Good article on Ali.He was p4p the best boxer great heart which he showed against Smoking Joe.As a person not so good he’s racist rantings,the need to insult fighters before the fight I did not get.Great fighter who will not be rememberd just for boxing.
legend , best ever, period