Happy Birthday Ali, Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee
By Robert Brizel, Real Combat Media Correspondent
New York, NY (January 18th, 2013)– When Cassius Clay won the Heavyweight Olympic Gold Medal in 1960, nobody could have imagined then the fighter Muhammad Ali would emerge as much later on. Perhaps the tragedy of the Vietnam War motivated Cassius Clay to launch his own defiant antiwar protest during the heart of the Vietnam War. Throughout it all, Muhammad Ali has retained his aura as a gentle giant, though still defiant.
On January 17, 2013, the occasion of Muhammad Ali’s 71st birthday represents a most significant change in the life of Muhammad Ali. Angelo Dundee is not there. Of all names past and present, from Rocky Marciano to Archie Moore, from Joe Louis to Floyd Patterson, from Henry Cooper to Trevor Berbick, from Oscar Bonavena to Howard Cosell, from Sonny Liston to Don King, From Smokin’ Joe Frazier to Jerry Quarry, Angelo was always there for Muhammad. No longer in 2013.
Angelo Dundee was Ali’s other half, the water on the fire, the man who not only trained Muhammad but understood him best. True, Ali’s life read like a century old sequel to the Galveston Giant, Jack Johnson, disposing of the great white hopes as the black fighter everyone grew to hate due to his Islamic religious beliefs, then came to love. The Greatest was great, and if he had retired after the second Spinks fight, Muhammad would have been better off.
Ali’s last decent fight was a ten round exhibition against the late football player Lyle Alzado. Ali was not himself in his last two bouts against Larry Holmes or Trevor Berbick, bouts which should not have been given medical clearance. As the late Joe Louis so aptly put about champions aging in the ring “You can see things, but you can’t do them.”
The hardest thing about Muhammad Ali’s Parkinson’s Disease from repeated ring wars is his eerie silence. For any other fighter, I could accept it all without a second thought. For Muhammad Ali, the poem, the public speaking giant, the rabble rouser who was to boxing what Bobby Fischer was to chess, the whole world watched and listened and was spellbound by Ali. To live in such a state of personal humility, one wonders how Ali feels inside. Somehow, it is obvious if Muhammad Ali had to live his life all over again, he would not change a thing. The public would not have him any other way than himself. Muhammad Ali became Muhammad Ali at a time when America was going through the Civil Rights Era. We lost President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
America still has Muhammad Ali, former world heavyweight champion, living history and symbol of our time. For what it’s worth, happy birthday, champ, and many more. More than words, we miss you incredible smile, and we miss your wit and wisdom. You made us laugh when he needed it most, an icon of virtue, now alone in solitude. Hey Ali……..peace brother.
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