Life of an angry, kind giant
Muhammad Ali was so much more than a dazzling boxer SA remembers Ali
FORMER world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, whose record-setting boxing career, flair for showmanship and political stands made him one of the best-known figures of the 20th century, died on Friday aged 74.
Ali, who had long suffered Parkinson’s syndrome, which impaired his speech and made the once-graceful athlete almost a prisoner in his own body, died a day after he was admitted to a Phoenix hospital with a respiratory ailment.
Even so, Ali’s youthful proclamation of himself as “the greatest” rang true until the end for the millions of people worldwide who admired him for his courage both inside and outside the ring.
Along with a fearsome reputation as a fighter, he spoke out against racism, war and religious intolerance, while projecting an unshakeable confidence and humour that became a model for African-Americans at the height of the civil rights era.
“Muhammad Ali was one of the greatest human beings I have ever met,” said George Foreman, who lost to Ali in Zaire in a classic 1974 bout widely known as the “Rumble in the Jungle.”
“No doubt he was one of the best people to have lived in this day and age. To put him as a boxer is an injustice.”
Ali enjoyed a popularity that transcended the world of sport, even though he rarely appeared in public in his later years.
“We lost an icon,” said Delson Dez, 28, a construction worker who was holding up a poster of the fighter in Scottsdale, Arizona, soon after Ali’s death. “He talked trash but he backed it up,” Dez said.
Few could argue with his athletic prowess at his peak in the 1960s. With his dancing feet and quick fists, he could – as he put it – float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.
He was the first person to win the heavyweight championship three times.
But Ali became much more than a colourful and interesting athlete. He spoke boldly against racism in the 1960s, as well as the Vietnam War.
During and after his championship reign, Ali met scores of world leaders and for a time he was considered the most recognisable person on earth, known even in remote villages far from the US.
Ali’s diagnosis of Parkinson’s came about three years after he retired from boxing in 1981.
His influence extended far beyond boxing. He became the unofficial spokesman for millions of blacks and oppressed people around the world because of his refusal to compromise his opinions and his stand against white authorities.
Giant
“We lost a giant today. Boxing benefited from Muhammad Ali’s talents but not nearly as much as mankind benefited from his humanity,” said Manny Pacquiao, a boxer and politician in the Philippines, where Ali fought arch-rival Joe Frazier for a third time in a brutal 1975 match dubbed the “Thriller in Manila.”
In a realm where athletes often battle inarticulateness as well as their opponents, Ali was known as the Louisville Lip and loved to talk, especially about himself. His taunts could be brutal. “Joe Frazier is so ugly that when he cries, the tears turn around and go down the back of his head,” he once said.
He also dubbed Frazier a “gorilla” but later apologised and said it was all to promote the fight.
Once asked about his preferred legacy, Ali said: “I would like to be remembered as a man who won the heavyweight title three times, who was humorous and who treated everyone right.
“As a man who never looked down on those who looked up to him… who stood up for his beliefs… who tried to unite all humankind through faith and love.
“And if all that’s too much, then I guess I’d settle for being remembered only as a great boxer who became a leader and a champion of his people.
“And I wouldn’t even mind if folks forgot how pretty I was.”
Ali was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on January 17, 1942, as Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr, a name shared with a 19th century slavery abolitionist. He changed his name after his conversion to Islam.
Ali is survived by his wife, the former Lonnie Williams, who knew him when she was a child in Louisville, and nine children. – Reuters MUCH like our own Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali had an aura about him and an ability to touch people in a way they seldom forgot.
Moments in history touched by Ali washed over social media yesterday within minutes of the news of his passing. There were tributes to him as a boxer and a man who stood against social injustice.
Former Sunday Tribune journalist Santosh Behari recalls getting to shake hands with “The Greatest” after a magic show at the Maharani Hotel in Durban in 1993, where Ali had been the guest of honour.
“I was just a cub reporter and it was a moment I will never forget. Getting close to him was not easy. He was shaking as many hands as he could. He had been enthralled by the show, but I think he saved the best for last.
“As they were walking to the lift, he turned his back to us. He stood for a few seconds and I don’t know how he did it, but all of a sudden he levitated about 30 centimetres off the ground for about five seconds. He then turned around, raised his hands, smiled and got into the lift.
That meeting was so special, I will take it to my grave,” he said.
Ali became friends with another Durban journalist, Farook Khan, who is seen with the champion on this page.
Radio personality David O’Sullivan posted on Facebook his recollections of covering the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996, where swimmer Penny Heyns earned gold for South Africa after our re-entry into world sports after apartheid.
He writes that there was uncertainty as to who would light the Olympic torch – boxer Evander Holyfield, basketball player Michael Jordan or swimmer Janet Evans.
One by one the stars took torches and paraded on the field, with Evans coming to stand at the base of the unlit cauldron. It looked like she had been given the honour, with a spotlight on her.
“Suddenly, a large person moved into that spotlight holding a torch. Triumphant music was blaring, but the noise the crowd made was unlike any I’d heard in a stadium. There was a huge gasp a split second before people recognised who it was. Then there was an explosion of sound, a massive wild outpouring of emotion by 90 000 as they realised the man was Muhammad Ali. The big screen flashed his name and Olympic record – gold medallist, boxing, 1960.
To suddenly see this sporting icon in the flesh, left arm shaking as he lit his flame from Evans’s torch, was overwhelming. It seemed to take an age, and suddenly a ball of fire hurtled into the sky and into the cauldron, which burst into flames.
“I looked around me at the people screaming, hugging and weeping. People were cheering and crying at the same time. I realised we had witnessed something special. Gone was the trademark Ali swagger and brashness, in its place a dignified presence soaking up the deafening adulation.
“The day I saw him light the Olympic flame is one of my great sporting memories. RIP,” he wrote.
Caryn Dolley reports from Cape Town how Ali left one of his VIP drivers with his fondest life memories, taking the boxer to the famous Bo-Kaap and to see the lights shining over Sea Point.
Standing on a rocky cliff at Silvermine one night in 1993, he looked at the lights spread out below him and remarked: “It looks like a jewel box has tipped on its side and spilled over.”
Fareed Hoosen recalled praying in a Joburg hotel with Ali.
“He would get up very early every morning for his prayers. He’d call me in to pray with him.”
Before prayers, over a cup of tea, Ali would listen as Hoosen told him about his family. Hoosen and his colleagues were present when Ali met Nelson Mandela.
“Mandela was pouring him tea. We were there, watching one icon pour tea for another.”
He said Ali and Mandela had been cut from the same cloth.
Hoosen kept in touch with Ali for a while and still communicates with his daughter, Laila.
“The time I spent with him spiritually changed me.” he said.
Tributes came in from, among others, DA sport spokesman Solly Malapsi, who said Ali left a lasting legacy for sportsmen to have a voice and take a stand against injustice.
“He was one of the most colourful sporting characters who was able to match courageous words with his performance in the ring. Even more interesting, he was one of the first black sportsmen who took on the injustices of black people in America, which inspired many others.
“I do not think that prominent boxers like Floyd Mayweather would be so vocal if it had not been for Ali’s influence,” he said.
Role model
ANC provincial spokesman Mdumiseni Nduli said Ali’s death robbed young stars of a role model.
“He was one of the most outstanding athletes who was highly respected and inspired many. We believe the outstanding work he did for humanity will live on,” he said.
The IFP said not only the boxing fraternity but the whole world had been saddened by his death.
IFP sports spokesman KP Sithole said, “We remember his inspirational words: ‘I am the greatest. I said that even before I knew I was. I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world I really was the greatest’.”
The Nelson Mandela Foundation conveyed condolences to his family and friends. Chief executive officer Sello Hatang said: “Nelson Mandela, a boxing enthusiast most of his life, acknowledged Ali as his boxing hero. Madiba had great respect for his legacy and spoke with admiration of Ali’s achievements.”
It was no accident that a photograph of the two men together was positioned right next to Madiba’s desk in his office at the Nelson Mandela Foundation. Nor is it surprising that in Madiba’s later years his favourite book at the office was an autographed copy of the outsized Ali biography Greatest of All Time.
Film-maker Anand Singh said: “I was fortunate to have met him on many occasions, including at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, but the most memorable meeting was in Los Angles with Madiba. It was a privilege to be in the company of these two great men who loved to be in each other’s company.”
• MultiChoice will pay tribute to Ali on a special pop-up channel on DStv channel 199. The channel will run until next Sunday, broadcasting his greatest fights, interviews and documentaries about his life. DStv customers on Premium, Extra, Compact, Family and Access channels will be able to tune in.