Muhammad Ali: A Tribute to “The Greatest” in the Ring and Out…

By Dave “Madcap” Mroczek

A great human being passed away last Friday. To call him simply a great prizefighter under values the man’s contribution to this world. This man of course is Muhammad Ali “The Greatest”. He is the only man ever to have won the heavyweight crown three times. That is THE heavyweight crown, not A heavyweight crown. His style was as electric as his smile, his punches as fast and sharp as his words. His accomplishments in the ring have been well documented, and are known to all who grew up in that era, or even have a passing interest in boxing history. The only man whose heavyweight resume could possibly rival Ali is the great Joe Louis, it is a fine distinction for either man to be mentioned alongside one another. Muhammad Ali the boxer, as amazing as he was, was no comparison to Muhammad Ali the man.

There are so few athletes who manage to transcend their respective sport. Most sports are lucky to have one or two of such men. Michael Jordan in basketball, and Babe Ruth in baseball come to mind. But there is something about a great heavyweight prizefighter that captures the world’s imagination. Many champions, such as above mentioned Joe Louis, Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield and others, managed to gain riches, fame, and recognition for their achievements. Others like Larry Holmes, Rocky Marciano, and Wladimir Klitschko would achieve in the ring but fall far short of capturing the public’s full attention. Only a select few would actually prove to have a character that became bigger than boxing.

Jack Johnson did it in the 1900s, becoming the first black man to win the heavyweight crown. In an era of persistent and open racism, Jack, much like Ali did when drafted into the Army, took a stand on behalf of himself and his race and refused to toe the line in order to appease his white detractors. His swagger, bravado, and “golden smile” made him the most villainous caricature in America. The powers that be would line up one white challenger after another, including drawing the undefeated James J. Jeffries out of retirement to take up the cause as the “Great White Hope”.

Johnson would relish in defeating these challengers one by one, all the while smiling and taunting. He loved that he was hated, was able to rattle the cage of white America, and it made him from a mere man into a real legend. Only once in exile in Cuba on trumped up federal charges would he be defeated at last. By a purpose-trained white giant by the name of Jess Willard, no less. He was trained up and sent to Cuba specifically to collect the world’s greatest prize when it was known that Johnson was too old, and out of shape. But it didn’t matter. Johnson had already done what he came to do, he shook up the world not unlike a certain champion would claim in the future.

Jack Dempsey would capture the world’s attention in a love-love relationship. He would flatten the same giant that felled Johnson in spectacular fashion, sending him falling all over the canvas. This was a new breed of boxer, a vicious puncher, a killer, a destroyer of men. He became the first athlete to get paid a million dollars for a fight, in the 1920s, remarkably. He was the most famous man in the world by far. He was the man that turned boxing from a seedy sideshow, a curious oddity, into a glamorous spectacle. Women were accepted as ringside spectators for the first time. Boxing went from a dirty little secret joy to the hottest ticket in town, a veritable roster of who’s who desperate to see the great Dempsey in action. When Jack Dempsey was knocked out of the ring by Luis Firpo, and re-emerged through the ropes to come out victorious, he came back as more than a man, he came back through those ropes immortal. By the time he lost his title to Gene Tunney, then gave his championship best in his desperate effort to regain the crown, he was the most beloved man in the world.

Mike Tyson would also become larger than life, but in a purely negative way. “The Baddest Man on the Planet”, Mike would prove his prowess to the world. He smashed his way up the rankings, leaving no chin un-walloped, until he was the lineal king. But the man who focused Tyson on the task at hand, Cus D’Amato, had died years earlier, and ever so slowly the man who had destroyed so many others slowly turned his metaphorical gun on himself and began to self-destruct. Mike Tyson would lose the crown to a lesser man, Buster Douglas, in a classic case of buying into one’s own hype, and believing in invincibility. From there it was downhill. The man who had so perfectly captured the taste for brutality that lies deep within every man found himself doing hard time in prison, he had become a loose cannon.

Upon his release and return to the prize ring, his life had become a circus act. Between sucker punching random people, making outrageous sexist and vile statements, and his inability to stay out of trouble, Mike Tyson remained the most famous man in the world, a true train wreck, impossible to look away from the spectacle yet also impossible not to shake your head and say “for shame”. For many years the top prizefighters wanted nothing to do with Tyson after he got out. While his name and drawing power were huge, no amount of money could tempt the top five into the ring with a man who appeared to be an absolute maniac.

Tyson represented everything that was bad about America, a sad statement of a man who was clearly mentally ill at the time, and a danger to himself and others he came across, protected and allowed to run amok because he was rich and famous. By the time they finally made the big fight with Evander Holyfield, Tyson was no longer on his level. He was defeated soundly. In the rematch he bit part of his ear off in perhaps the most bizarre and sickening display ever in a boxing ring. By the time he fought Lennox Lewis, he had no chance of actually winning, and was there in name only.

Muhammad Ali, on the other hand, was greater than them all. His boxing achievements aside, like Jack Johnson he stood up for himself and his race during a turbulent time in American history. He refused to submit to the will of the powers that be, and made a real statement on humanity. That a man, no matter how rich and famous he is, no matter how much he would be coddled by the armed forces like Joe Louis and Elvis Presley had been before him, could make a stand on principle. He had no fear of jail, nor did he have any fear of standing alone with his faith and convictions no matter how unappealing they were to white America. Like Jack Dempsey, Muhammad Ali would turn his fights into a spectacle not to be missed.

Even now some fifty years later the night of the Ali fight is fondly remembered and discussed in the locales where his fights took place. People love him, and he loved people. Like Mike Tyson his brash talk and outlandish statements made him seem off kilter at times, and at times even bordered on harassment and downright mean-spiritedness. But unlike Tyson the public never feared him. Other fighters did. The public loved him. While some found him mouthy at the time of his reign, he became the most beloved man in the world by the end of his time in boxing.

He became a beacon of hope to the disenfranchised people of America and the world, a voice for peace. Muhammad Ali was a man who began as an outspoken prizefighter, and ended up on a level with Mother Theresa and Nelson Mandela, one of the greatest treasures humanity has ever produced.

Rest in peace Muhammad Ali.

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