A True Legend passes, Muhammad Ali 74

[al**bear]

After a long illness, His Body just couldn't fight it anymore

[al**bear]

At least He is now at rest,

He should have been resting many years ago, but He seemed to have been used as a cash cow, by money sucking Parasites. When He should have been lying on a sun lounger for the last 10 years, in His own garden left at peace, instead of being dragged around the World in endless 'tours'.

That was hard to write without swearing or naming names.

[al**bear]

I remember my Dad staying up all night to listen to the second Ali v Liston fight

He rushed to toilet  and missed the early KO

[margaret*e]

RIP Ali.

[right-then-petal]

R I  P  Muhammad Ali.

                         Rest At  Last The Final Bell.

[fallen-archie]

Float like a butterfly to the cradle in the sky,

Legends like Ali will never die!

RIP

[margaret*e]

http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/local-news/the-day-muhammad-ali-came-to-south-shields-1-7947523

[soppysofty]

Just been listening to the TV coverage of Ali's passing and a thought crossed my mind.

Why do we wait until someone has died before we say how great they are, how loved they are, how we could not live without them?

Surely we should be saying that every day to our loved ones so they know they are loved, appreciated and cared about?

Bit difficult to tell someone how great they are when they have gone.

Just my thoughts.

[cee-dee]

It's not just this passing, it's all "notables". The news is:- the person died, all the rest of the waffle is just garbage padded out by so-called "correspondents", hangers-on and/or so-called "editors".

On and on and on ad infinitum. In a way, it degrades whatever made the person "notable".

[evoman3957]

I would think he was the ultimate example of fame and notoriety, you could walk into a little village in the "Congo " and say the name "Muhammad Ali" and they'd know who you were talking about.............they don't come any bigger than that !!

[joe_bloggs*]

He also refused to fight in Vietnam

"

"My conscience won't let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, some poor, hungry people in the mud, for big powerful America, and shoot them for what?" Ali said in an interview. "They never called me ni**er. They never lynched me. They didn't put no dogs on me."

His stand culminated with an April appearance at an Army recruiting station, where he refused to step forward when his name was called. The reaction was swift and harsh. He was stripped of his boxing title, convicted of draft evasion and sentenced to five years in prison"

Cannot help but think one or two people praising him now he's gone would be castigating him back then,funny old world!

Some great photos here:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/gallery/2014/oct/30/muhammad-ali-25-best-photographs-cassius-clay-...

[artful_dodgings]

Not sure if I'd go along with Ali being cajoled into doing something he didn't really want to do.I don't believe anyone could do that if he felt it was alien to his nature. Yes there are a lot of parasites in sport, you've only got to look at Blatter and his henchmen to realise that.

I think his promo tours were for the benefit and for the encouragement of young boxers, those coming up, and those thinking about it. Here was a man who was devoted to his art, and his illness meant nothing to him in the great scheme of boxing. It was his life, his vocation, and his love, and I think he really enjoyed these tours, and his Parkinson's wasn't going to impinge on that. I'm sure he thought it much better anyway than lying on some sun lounger, being fed grapes and Milk Shakes by some flunky. Not sporty minded in any way, even less so by boxing, but 'Legend' is a word that is bandied about freely these days. But Ali was - IS - a Legend. And as Evo alluded to, I don't think there was anyone on the planet who wasn't aware of who, and what he was.

R.I.P.

[watchfan700uk]

Ali didnt spend any time in prison - he got 5 years but was out on bail all that time until his conviction was overturned.

[evoman3957]

On the whole, I'm not a fan of conscientious objectors; but given the need to directly defend their own country, I'm sure there would be a lot less of them. It's when people are given some tenuous link, between killing people in their own country; on the other side of the world and it being in defence of the INVADERS country........that people start asking questions as to the validity of the argument. One has to ask how we'd feel ( or more to the point the USA ) if countries from the other side of the Planet, came to fight on OUR soil; under the excuse that they were stopping us from terrorising them. So I'd hardly condemn Ali, for his moral stance........it was certainly far more logical than the alternative.........and considering the USA lost and withdrew from Vietnam, with their tail between their legs,.......they didn't learn much did they !!

[joe_bloggs*]

As Ali said himself:

" If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.”

I think if a few more people since then had acted with that kind of integrity the world wouldn't be in the mess it is today