There Is Only One Muhammad Ali
Posted on 12. Jan, 2012 by admin in Featured
There Is Only One Muhammad Ali
There can’t be many a greater champion than Muhammad Ali, the most famous boxer in history, and highly probably the best boxer to grace the ring. Ever!
You wouldn’t think it (where did time go?), but Ali turns 70 on January 17. Yes, 70!
It seems only yesterday he was wowing the world with his boxing prowess, his one in a million character spawning as many memorable quotes and jokes as top-class fights, trading put-downs with his arch-rivals Joe Frazier and George Foreman. At times his politics and bravado shocked, and often angered, America, but the three times undisputed world heavyweight boxing champion is now perhaps the most revered sportsman on the planet (He was voted sportsman of the 20th century by both the BBC and Sports Illustrated).
It all started in Louisville, his home town and now site of the award-winning Muhammad Ali Centre, a shrine to boxing, yes, but now also revered for its clever audio-visual and interactive storytelling about the inspirational man and person who became as fabled as a civil rights activist, a peacemaker and a philanthropist as he did a warrior in the ring (and the press conference).
His story is a humble one; all down to a stolen bike. Ali, then 12, and known as Cassius Clay had his bicycle stolen at the school gym. He approached a policeman, saying he was gonna whoop the culprit. The policeman said he better learn to box first. He did! Within weeks he won his first bout. He soon became known as The Louisville Lip. The world now knows him, simply, as Ali, the greatest.
As Ali would say: “I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.”
Happy birthday Ali.
http://www.ali.com
http://www.alicenter.org
