THE GREAT ALI IS PASSING ON

By Effey

No matter how great we are, we all must eventually pass on.  Ali claimed to be the greatest.  And indeed he was!  New generations will never know the magic spell he had on my generation, world-wide.  He was the Fred Astaire as well as the Shakespeare of the boxing ring.  No fighter was as nimble as he.  No other fighter generated the excitement in boxing as he did.  He didn't win all his fights, but even the fights he lost in some inexplicable way were magical.  He won the world heavyweight champion title three times!  That was unheard of.  And when he lost his fights, to his audience he still won.

People laughed at him when he predicted in poetic style in which round he would knock out hs opponents but he always came through as predicted.  He taunted his opponents and they fell into the trap.  When they opened up he took the punches, and when his opponents became over confident he finished them off, 1-2-3.  All in all, he won 56 fights lost 5 and knocked out 37 opponents!!  What a record!!!

But there was much more to "The Great One".  He spoke his mind and he also fought our government and won in the end.  He refused to serve in the Army during the Viet-Nam war.  The government stripped him of his title but the Government really lost, because in the end he won his championship title back again. 

But perhaps more important than anything else, he became a driving force in the Civil Rights Movement, as powerful in his way as Martin Luther King was in his way.

The Civil Rights Act had not yet been passed.  When he fought in the ring he also fought for the legislation which ended the discrimination against the black community of the time.  The discrimination should have rightfully been ended at the end of the Civil War, but it didn't.  Ali earned the respect of the majority of white Americans and somehow through his personality helped bring about the respect for the African American community that it well deserved.  Ali's fight has now ended.  The Government has ended the discrimination against the African-American community, but the fight has not yet ended completely.  Much work still needs to be done.  But the Pioneers, Muhammad Ali and Martin Luther King are gone.  Who will lead the rest of the struggle?

I had the pleasure of meeting Muhammad in person, together with his manager and coach, Angelo Dundee, his sparring partner Jimmy Ellis and Ali's biggest fan and promoter, the great sports journalist Howard Cosell.  I am still basking in the glory of that moment in my life-time, when I was a lot younger.

Ali, Thank You.