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Muhammad Ali was ‘The Greatest’, and everyone knew it

Muhammad Ali truly deserved his mantle of 'The Greatest.'
Roar Pro
5th June, 2016
2

Only boxers are allowed to give themselves a nickname. It’s a privilege that comes with having the courage, or stupidity to step into that lonely ring.

Anyone else who gives themselves a nickname is a wanker. Fact.

Most boxing monikers aren’t overly inventive. Some rhyme – ‘The Green Machine’, others reference a fighter’s geographic home – ‘The Marrickville Mauler’.

Some simply state the gender of the fighter – ‘The Man’.

Yet, for all of the thousands upon thousands of boxers who have given themselves a nickname only one ever did it perfectly. Muhammad Ali called himself ‘The Greatest’, and he was. He still is. He always will be. Even in death.

Ignore the statistics and pay no heed to the technical analysis of experts. They are irrelevant and nothing but semantics when talking about Ali.

No matter what the trophies say, Ali was greater than Michael Jordan, Pele, Don Bradman, Jack Nicklaus and all the rest of them combined.

How? Why? Firstly, because Ali said he was ‘The Greatest’. Secondly, because he proved he was ‘The Greatest’. Thirdly, and most importantly, because the entire world agreed he was ‘The Greatest’.

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There is nothing else.

Others have tried to mimic Ali’s greatness with their nicknames, trash-talk, grandiose claims and inflated egos, but somewhere along the way they’ve all fallen short, been found out, exposed as frauds and copycats.

In the same way that there was only ever one Beatles, Hitler and Mother Teresa, there’s only ever going to be one Muhammad Ali. The others are only cover bands.

Ali is ‘The Greatest’ because what he did transcended sport. Everyone loved him. He became even greater in retirement. The myth grew. This was no sad and lonely old former sportsman, recounting history of a questionable accuracy to an audience of drunks at his local, nor a former great, crying for attention, posting photographs of himself in bed, alone, baring his misery for all to see.

This was a flawed, beautiful and now disabled man who brought joy, hope and happiness to millions and millions of people all around the world. A man who had the power to make people believe, smile and love. ‘The Greatest’ was nothing to do with sport. He was all about people.

I don’t like boxing. I question people who do like it. It sickens me. I’d sooner set myself on fire than watch two people punch each other in the head. But, I used to, until the adolescent anger left me.

As a young boy, I watched Ali’s last two fights, against Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick respectively. Both losses. Thankfully, I was too young to understand the dreadful sadness of these fights, but I was old enough to know that this was not how it was meant to be for ‘The Greatest’.

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I’ve loved him ever since then. In the 35 years since I have watched and read everything I possibly could about ‘The Greatest’. Before he so monumentally re-entered the public consciousness at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 I purchased a piece of authentic Muhammad Ali memorabilia.

It’s a famous picture of Ali hovering over a beaten Sonny Liston. Ali signed it while his shaking hands allowed him to do so. Beyond my crappy 2000 Toyota, to this day it remains the only possession of any material value that I own, and still its sentimental value is all that matters.

Since I grew old and wise enough to know how tragic boxing is and that having heroes was for little boys, or for big boys who live vicariously, Ali is the only hero I ever kept.

I’ve often wondered why. Beyond the romance, the boxing brilliance, the charm and the charisma, it’s because he’s basically a social progressive at heart, which is something I reckon we all should be. Simply, he cares about people, and fairness and equality for those people.

Ali only ever tried to do for people exactly what Anthony Mundine and Adam Goodes have tried to do for theirs. Yet, Ali is celebrated across the planet while Mundine and Goodes are often maligned.

Is it that Ali was perceived to have challenged authority, rather than the general populace?

Is it all about the delivery of the message and the messenger who delivers it? Or maybe, back then Ali wasn’t as well received either, when he changed his name, called out racism and refused to go to Vietnam.

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Maybe, like Mundine and Goodes, what he did at the time was nothing short of supremely courageous.

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