I’m not the slightest bit embarrassed to admit I cried on Saturday. Muhammad Ali was my idol and it breaks my heart to think that he’s gone.
We all suspected the day was going to come sooner, rather than later. The glimpses of him in public became less and less frequent and when we did see him the thing that struck home was how much further he had gone in his decline.
But when that day finally came, it was still an enormous wrench.
I grew up watching and reading about Ali from the late 1960s and through the ‘70s, back in those days way before the arrival of pay television made coverage of sport wall-to-wall. But he was still so incredibly larger than life.
I’ve lost the taste for boxing these days, but I loved it back then and Ali was the reason. I wasn’t old enough to have seen much of anything in sport before him, but I’m 57 now and I haven’t seen anything like him since, in any sport.
He was majestic inside the ring and defiant outside of it, with his willingness to stand up for his beliefs in the areas of the Vietnam war, religion, and racial discrimination, no matter the cost to himself and his career.
The key moments in those amazing Ali-Joe Frazier fights are burned in my brain.
The knockdown by Frazier in the first fight, with a left hook thrown as well as perhaps has ever been thrown. It looked like it could kill someone. Ali lost the fight, but he somehow got up from that horrific blow, which I thought was amazing.
Their second fight was the least memorable of the three, but what Ali’s win did was make it one-all and set things up for the inevitable decider.
But first there was the title fight against George Foreman. Not many people gave Ali a chance, but his brilliant mind came up with the rope-a-dope tactic that exploited the fact knockout king Foreman had a history of short fights.
He aimed to suck Foreman in to wearing himself out and Foreman obliged, but first Ali had to be prepared to absorb a pounding to the arms and body. Once it was clear Foreman was out of gas, Ali opened up and quickly knocked him out.
Just a few weeks ago, I watched a replay of the third Ali-Frazier fight, the ‘Thriller in Manila’. How incredibly brutal both the 13th and 14th rounds, in particular, were, before Frazier’s corner stopped him from coming out for the last and Ali won.
It reminded me of the physical cost to Ali, and Frazier as well, of their careers, and how criminal it was that Ali had been allowed to have those two fights at the end of his career, as a 38-year-old against Larry Holmes and finally at 39 against Trevor Berbick.
The early signs of what would later be diagnosed as Parkinson’s disease were already there, but, somehow, Ali was cleared to fight – twice – and each time he copped a beating. It will always remain one of sport’s biggest disgraces that it was allowed to happen.
When he was at his best, Ali’s showmanship was incredible. His wit was as quick as his lightning reflexes.
He wasn’t just boxing, although that was big enough. The heavyweight champion of the world was also sport’s most revered figure back then. He was sport, and he transcended sport, paving the way for so many athletes to be themselves – and sell themselves via self-promotion.
But this was boxing in the 1960s and ‘70s, so Ali was inevitably going to be ripped off to some degree from within. He was also said to be generous to a fault. It was said to be why, when it should have been all over, that he had to keep fighting.
Working as a sports journalist, as I do, you get to meet a lot of big stars, and you become used to that. But I’ve always considered myself very fortunate to have met both Pele and Jack Nicklaus, been photographed with them and obtained their autographs.
I had always hoped to meet Ali and complete a glorious treble, but it wasn’t to be. I’ve still got the memories, though. Ali was a magnificent athlete and a beautiful man. He’s still ‘The Greatest’, and he always will be.
Let’s get ready to rumble! Pick a fighter and place your bets with PlayUp for great odds. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.
A bloodied Tim Tszyu has been cruelly denied in his quest to emulate his legendary father Kostya and become a unified world boxing champion…
Liam Wilson has suffered further heartbreak in Arizona, the Australian boxer losing his super-featherweight world-title fight against Mexican Oscar Valdez. In front of a…
Tim Tszyu has the chance to emulate his legendary father as a unified world boxing champion after the stakes were dramatically raised for his…
Australia's Alexander Volkanovski has lost his UFC featherweight title to Ilia Topuria, with the Spaniard scoring a stunning second round knockout in the main…
Jason Moloney has survived an enthralling 12-round world title defence against Saul Sanchez in Canada, opening the door to a blockbuster unification fight in…
Conor McGregor says he's returning to the UFC for a fight against Michael Chandler on June 29 in Las Vegas, calling it the "greatest…
