Muhammad Ali, who won Olympic Gold Medal as Cassius Clay in 1960, was without doubt the greatest boxer and a showman of immense talent, the most famous sport personality ever to grace boxing or indeed any sport. Unfortunately he carried on far too long and took too many punches that gave him Parkinson’s disease ruining his retirement when he hang up his boxing gloves in 1981.
He passed away at the week-end in a hospital near his home in Arizona where he spent most of his retirement years in a dry healthy climate. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky and was famously known as “Louisville Lip” as he was master at oratory with one line sharp sentences and his love for poetry. His famous line was “Float like a Butterfly, sting like a Bee”
He talked up his own talent in verses but his refusal to serve in Vietnam War made him unpopular in his own country with a three year ban from boxing. His friendship with controversial Malcom X and converting to Islam further completed his life. But that was a minor hiccup in his otherwise brilliant boxing carrier. He reigned supreme at a time when heavyweight boxing was blessed with such famous, fearsome names like Sonny Liston, Joe Frazer and George Foreman. He will always be remembered as great talent the like of which only emerge once in a century.
Bhupendra Gandhi
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