Muhammad Ali turned professional in 1960 and defeated Sonny
Liston for the first time in Feb. 1964 to win the heavyweight
title; to give you a timeframe. Identify the following opponents
that he fought from 1966 to 1972. 1) G.C. 2) H.C. 3) E.T. 4)
Z.F. 5) J.Q. 6) O.B. 7) B.M. And, 8) Name the five he lost to
in his career. Answers below.
The Champ
Muhammad Ali turned 65 on Wednesday. Dave Anderson had
some of the following thoughts in The New York Times.
“Boxing still has its health in some of the lower weight classes,
but the heavyweight division that Ali ruled is in intensive care.
With four obscure heavyweight champions decreed by four
obscure governing bodies, there is no one familiar champion. If
those four supposed titleholders marched through Times Square,
few, if anybody, would recognize any of them or even know any
of their names.
“But if Ali, even in his dull mask of Parkinson’s disease, were to
appear there today on his 65th birthday, he would stop traffic….
“You’re the reason the best boxing now isn’t the live bouts on
HBO, Showtime or ESPN. You’re the reason the best boxing
now is on ESPN Classic whenever you, Joe Frazier and George
Foreman dominated the Golden Era of heavyweight boxing….
“With or without the title, you fought all over the world:
Toronto, London, Frankfurt, Zurich, Tokyo, Vancouver, Dublin,
Jakarta, Kinshasa, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, San Juan, Munich and
Nassau in the Bahamas as well as Madison Square Garden,
Yankee Stadium, Las Vegas, Miami Beach, Los Angeles, San
Diego, Houston, Cleveland, New Orleans, Atlanta, Louisville,
and even lonely little Lewiston, Maine.
“With or without the title, you were a ‘world’ heavyweight
champion. There was never a boxer who was such a world
traveler, and there never will be again.”
Ali did two interviews for Playboy, the first as Cassius Clay in
1964 as he explained how it all began.
“Well, on my 12th birthday, I got a new bicycle as a present from
my folks, and I rode it to a fair that was being held at the
Columbia Gymnasium, and when I come out, my bike was gone.
I was so mad I was crying, and a policeman, Joe Martin, come up
and I told him I was going to whip whoever took my bike. He
said I ought to take some boxing lessons to learn how to whip the
thief better, and I did. That’s when I started fighting. Six weeks
later, I won my first fight over another boy 12 years old, a white
boy. And in a year I was fighting on TV. Joe Martin advised me
against trying to just fight my way up in clubs and preliminaries,
which could take years and maybe get me all beat up. He said I
ought to try the Olympics, and if I won, that would give me
automatically a number-10 pro rating. And that’s just what I
did.”
November 1975…Ali discusses his fight with George Foreman
in Zaire.
Ali: After the first round, I felt myself getting too tired for the
pace of that fight, but George wasn’t gonna get tired, ‘cause he
was just cutting the ring off on me. I stayed out of the way, but I
figured that after seven or eight rounds of dancing like that, I’d
be really tired. Then, when I’d go to the ropes, my resistance
would be low and George would get one through to me. So
while I was still fresh, I decided to go to the ropes and try to get
George tired.
Playboy: What was your original Foreman fight plan?
Ali: To dance every round, I had it in mind to do what I did when
I was 22, but I got tired, so I had to change my strategy. George
didn’t change his strategy, ‘cause he can’t do nothin’ but attack –
that’s the only thing he knows. All he wants to do is get his man
in the corner, so in the second round, I gave him what he wanted.
He couldn’t do nothin’!
Playboy: Did Foreman seem puzzled when he had you cornered
but couldn’t land any punches?
Ali: Nope, he just figured he’d get me in the next round. When
he didn’t do it in the third, he thought he’d get me in the fourth.
Then he thought it would be the fifth, and then the sixth. But in
the sixth round, George was so tired. All of a sudden, he knew
he’d thrown everything he had at me and hadn’t hurt me at all.
And he just lost all his heart….George knew he’d been caught in
my trap and there wasn’t but one way he could get out of it: by
knocking me out. He kept trying with his last hope, but he was
too tired, and a man of his age and talent shouldn’t get used up
that quick. George was dead tired; he was throwing wild
punches, missing and falling over the ropes. So I started tellin’
him how bad he looked: ‘Lookatcha, you’re not a champ, you’re
a tramp. You’re fightin’ just like a sissy. C’mon and show me
somethin’, boy.
Playboy: Does your claim of being the greatest mean that you
think you could have beaten every heavyweight champion in
modern ring history?
Ali: I can’t really say. Rocky Marciano, Jack Johnson, Joe
Louis, Jack Dempsey, Joe Walcott, Ezzard Charles – they all
would have given me trouble. I can’t know if I would’ve beaten
them all, but I do know this: I’m the most talked about, the most
publicized, the most famous and the most colorful fighter in
history….Besides all that, I’m the onliest poet laureate boxing’s
ever had. One other thing, too: If you look at pictures of all the
former champions, you know in a flash that I’m the best-looking
champion in history. It all adds up to being the greatest, don’t it?
Playboy: Do you think you’ll be remembered that way?
Ali: I don’t know, but I’ll tell you how I’d like to be
remembered: as a black man who won the heavyweight title and
who was humorous and who treated everyone right. As a man
who never looked down on those who looked up to him and who
helped as many of his people as he could – financially and also in
their fight for freedom, justice and equality. As a man who
wouldn’t hurt his people’s dignity by doing anything that would
embarrass them. As a man who tried to unite his people through
the faith of Islam that he found when he listened to the
Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And if all that’s asking too much,
then I guess I’d settle for being remembered only as a great
boxing champion who became a preacher and a champion of his
people. And I wouldn’t even mind if folks forgot how pretty I
was.
[Note: I’m ignoring Ali’s treatment of Frazier and others for this
piece.]
Jerry Izenberg is the long-time sportswriter for the Star-Ledger
who has known Ali for over 40 years. Izenberg visited Ali two
months after his brutal bout in 1980 with Larry Holmes. In the
final round before the fight was stopped, Holmes landed 127
blows within a three-minute period.
“He was less than a month from his 40th birthday. We were
sitting in his home in Los Angeles and when the subject of age
came up he said: ‘You know, when we first met, you had hair.’
“And I told him: ‘As I recall, you didn’t have that spare tire
around your waist. But you have to admit that both of us’ – I’m
11 years older than he is – ‘have had a damned good life.’
“ ‘What you mean had? I’m not dead yet,’ he said. And then he
laughed and he leaned forward and smiled, and as though sharing
a great secret, he said:
“ ‘Listen, Jerry. All this running around and hollering…all the
boxing and all the championship belts…even this pretty face, all
of it, and I mean all of it, was just the beginning.
“ ‘The boxing arena was just the door that opened the world
stage for me. I have their attention and now it’s time for the real
business. Using my name and this face to help people with the
power to do it to fight poverty, illiteracy, child abuse and hunger.
You never thought of me this way, but I always did.”
Alas, during training for the Holmes fight, one of three in
particular he never should have entered the ring for (the others
being Earnie Shavers and his last one, Trevor Berbick), Ali was
feeling the first signs of Parkinson’s, though he didn’t know it at
the time. Growing up, like so many of you I was captivated by
the man and I always felt his best days would, indeed, be outside
the ring. A healthy Ali today would have been a tremendous
force for good.
Jerry Izenberg writes of the days back at Deer Lake, Ali’s
training camp.
“Laughter was the camp’s national anthem. And always I will
remember the long lane of boulders that marked the road in, each
boulder painted with the name of a great fighter – all the names
were there except one.
“He never said why, but all of us knew. The name was
Muhammad Ali and no rock on that mountain was big enough
and bad enough to earn it.”
Happy Birthday, Champ.
—
James Brown, part IX
I can’t help but note some more tidbits concerning “The Hardest
Working Man in Show Business” after Rolling Stone came out
with its first issue following Brown’s death on Christmas Day, as
reported by Gerri Hirshey. [I’m also listening to his definitive
box set, “Star Time,” as I write up this chat.]
Brown’s concerts were “no less than public self-immolation. It
could sound like a killing floor, with vocals somewhere between
the screech of the A-train and a plump fryer meeting its fate. JB
re-enacted his own death-by-desire every time he took the stage
and barked, ‘Hit me!’ to his dangerously sharp band. Each
performance cost him seven to ten pounds, some of it sweat
straight through the soles of his pointy-toed boots. And if he
took the stage like a prince, he left it like a shipwreck survivor:
Blood seeped from punished knees; the inflated, sculpted hair
drooped like licorice as Mr. Dynamite assured his poleaxed
communicants, ‘Ah’m tahred…but Ah’m clean!’”
Hirshey, who covered him for decades, writes, “If I ever came
within a light-year of understanding James Brown, it was in
deepest ‘Georgia-lina,’ as he called his sanctuary: Augusta, and
Beech Island, South Carolina, across the Savannah River, where
he made his home. Despite the mantle of urban cool, despite a
brief New York residency in the Sixties….‘I am country. I
stayed country. Couldn’t do nothing about it, if you want to
know the truth….And entertainers like me, from the South, you
meet up on the road and you could tell if a guy was missing
something. I used to talk about being homesick with Otis
Redding.’”
But of all the material goods James Brown won and lost,
including the private plane, the fleet of cars, and 500 suits, “the
thing James Brown clung to most tenaciously was his home and
the ability to walk the streets around it with uncompromised
ease.”
“ ‘Now Elvis,’ said Brown, ‘he got so far away from it, he
couldn’t do that. He told me he’d ride around Memphis, around
the streets he come up in, all alone at night. Ride around on his
motorcycle when he was sure the rest of the world was asleep,
just kind of haunting them places he hung around as a kid. He
was a country boy. But the way they had him livin’, they never
turned off the air condition. Took away all that good air. You
get sick from that.’” [Gotta agree with him on that one. I hate
air conditioning.]
I didn’t realize how broke up Brown was over Elvis’s death,
staring down at “the bloated face in the coffin and through tears
ask(ing) the King, ‘How you let it go?’”
Gerri Hirshey also relates a funny story about Brown and
Muhammad Ali and their “road tests of pandemic R-E-S-P-E-C-
T. When in Manhattan together, most likely in the company of
Rev (Al Sharpton), they argued good-naturedly over who could
stop traffic for the most blocks.
“ ‘Yo, Rev. Get us a car.’ A beat, a wink. ‘Get a sunroof, Rev –
pleeeease!’
“The summoned limo purred to some congested intersection in
either Harlem or midtown and discharged one of the competitors.
As startled but adoring cops scurried to restore order, Brown and
Ali would roll off to repeat the exercise in another nabe.
Sharpton recalls those wild rides all too well: ‘Two role models
of black American manhood. Acting like little kids. They knew
they were loved. But they had to feel it in the streets – again and
again.’”
Sharpton was Brown’s aide-de-camp and spiritual adviser:
“When (Brown) spoke out after the assassination of Martin
Luther King Jr., he had a very calming effect. He was given
credit for helping to stop riots in several cities. Many years later,
I asked him about that. He said he spoke out because he felt like
it was a desecration of the memory of Dr. King, who fought all
his life for nonviolence. He didn’t want King to be remembered
for violence at the end of his life.
“In late 1981, I was visiting him in Augusta, Georgia. At the
time, I was getting ready to join a march that Stevie Wonder had
called with the Rev. Jesse Jackson to protest and ask Ronald
Reagan to make the King holiday a federal holiday. So I said,
‘Mr. Brown, you know Reagan. Those are your guys. Why
don’t you call them and tell them to make it a federal holiday?’
He said, ‘Well, you call the White House and tell them I want to
see them.’ I called, but didn’t think anything of it. Three or four
hours later, they called back and agreed to see him on King Day.
I was shocked. At the meeting, he told Reagan, ‘We need this
holiday.’ I won’t say that he single-handedly changed Reagan’s
mind. But he made his feelings very clear….
“I think the difference between James Brown and other icons is
that he was one of the few – the only one I can think of – who
made it on his terms, which is why he was so loved. Because he
never changed. There were other entertainers who became the
first blacks to go mainstream. He was the first to make the
mainstream go black.”
Gerri Hirshey concludes with Brown’s best last words: “I do not
ever stay angry, no. Because I believe in God’s justice. I believe
there will be justice, or I could not go on. Could not keep
runnin’ the way I do. And if some record company, if some DJ
don’t want to know me, don’t want to recognize me in all that
stuff you hear in the Top Ten today, well, all right. Because God
knows James Brown good as I do. In the year 3000, people say,
‘Who was James Brown?’ Now I bet you got an idea who James
Brown is. But it ain’t the same answer as His and mine.”
David Robinson
David Picker had an update on the former San Antonio Spurs star
in the Sunday Times. Back on 1/6/04 in this space Robinson was
the first recipient of a “Bar Chat Lifetime Achievement Award”
for being such a good guy. In fact, I once said Robinson would
be a good future Secretary of Education (“Week in Review”,
5/10/03). Heck, these days I wish he was president.
So what’s he up to since retiring in 2003? Robinson and his wife
founded Carver Academy in 1997, a faith-based school for
grades Pre-K to sixth in the shadows of the Alamodome where
he used to play. Most of the 117 students are African-American
or Hispanic and from low-income families. Which means that
Robinson has to spend a fair amount of time fund-raising.
Get this. Each student is taught three languages; Japanese,
German and Spanish. “Attending chapel is a ritual, and so is
learning to read music. ‘Just basic things that make them more
of a renaissance person,’ Robinson said.”
“ ‘My 10-year-old takes this ballet class there that is incredible,’
he added. ‘It’s funny seeing these little black kids dancing
around in their little leotards. But they love it. It’s things that
they never would be exposed to.’
“Robinson says the school tries to instill six basic principles:
leadership, discipline, initiative, integrity, faith and service.”
Robinson received the National Civil Rights Museum’s Sports
Legacy Award on Monday, but in typical humble Robinson
fashion he said, “Awards, it’s nice. What does it mean, though?
I’m 41 years old. I haven’t done anything.”
Just wait.
Stuff
–Phil Mickelson is back this week after taking four months off
following his disaster on the 72nd hole of the U.S. Open and a
miserable showing at the Ryder Cup. So Lefty is participating in
the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and he claims he’s ironed out his
swing. Plus he’s lost 25 pounds through a workout regimen.
Golf needs Phil, especially in those weeks Tiger’s not playing,
but I’m just convinced his psyche is so damaged from last year’s
debacles that it will take him some time to come back. [Now
watch him win this week.]
–Selena Roberts of The New York Times wrote a column on
phenoms like Michelle Wie and soccer’s Freddy Adu, both now
17. There are concerns that when Adu turns 18 he’ll bolt for
Europe, which would be a blow to the M.L.S. just as David
Beckham is getting started with his project.
As for Wie, Roberts, like so many others, is questioning her
schedule; including the decision to continue competing as much
as possible against men.
“This is not about surrendering her dream,” writes Roberts, “but
about Wie’s persevering confidence in a sport that leaves divots
in players’ self-esteem. Psyche is everything on a tee box. And
with every bogey at a men’s event, the scrutiny on Wie increases
and fickle bloggers sharpen their keystrokes.”
As for her efforts on the PGA Tour, “(the) novelty has worn thin
around Wie, not for the adoring galleries, but for her male peers.
They don’t utter a word of disdain anymore, just indifference.”
“ ‘It used to be, you know, when she was 14 and she got in this
event for the first time, it raised eyes and you heard guys
grumbling and it was such a bigger deal,’ Jim Furyk told
reporters at the Sony Open, adding: ‘I don’t hear guys talking
about it anymore. There’s not like a buzz in the locker room,
‘What’s she shooting?’ or anything like that.’
Selena Roberts:
“Apathy is the enemy of celebrity superstars. And like most,
Wie likes attention….
“She can’t wait to play another PGA event. Everyone can
respect her goal to play among men, but let’s hope impatience
doesn’t burn out brilliance.”
–College Basketball…AP Poll
1. Florida
2. Wisconsin
3. UCLA
4. North Carolina
5. Kansas
6. Pittsburgh
7. Ohio State
8. Texas A&M
9. Oregon
10. Alabama
I have to admit I’m not fired up this year; which is what happens
when your team (Wake Forest) is struggling for a second season
in a row. But to me the story the rest of the way is whether or
not Florida can keep it’s streak of NCAA basketball and football
championships intact, and can Ohio State’s 7-foot freshman
phenom Greg Oden lead the Buckeyes to the title?
No doubt there are some other entertaining stories; such as Air
Force’s highest ranking ever, #11 in both AP and ESPN/USA
Today. And Virginia Tech is #23 in AP after dusting both then-
#1 UNC and Duke in consecutive contests.
Meanwhile, UConn is not in the polls for the first time since
March 2003, while Duke’s #17 ranking in the ESPN/USA Today
survey is its lowest since the 1996-97 season.
–While a slew of players announced they were leaving school
early for the NFL draft, including Ohio State’s Ted Ginn Jr. and
Antonio Pittman (as well as Wake Forest linebacker Jon Abbate,
a big blow for us), Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, a
hometown boy and a surefire 1st or 2nd rounder if he had forsaken
his senior year, said he’s coming back to try and lead Louisville
to the NCAA title next year. That’s cool; and this despite a
change at head coach. So we award Brian Brohm with the Bar
Chat “Good Guy” award….and we hope he stays healthy so he
can cash in in an even bigger way at the 2008 draft.
–So Jesse, the Mtigwaki brat, stole Liz’s grandfather’s
harmonica and Liz just found out. Oh, sorry; this has to do with
“For Better or For Worse.” Anyway, Jeff B. says it’s a lock. Liz
is going to hook up with Pitiful Wimp Anthony. My brother and
I are hoping Chopper Pilot Warren wins her over, but this isn’t
looking likely and Team Editor is going to owe Jeff $5, which
means I’ll have to take it out of petty cash.
But Jeff and I are also trying to figure out how Liz aged like 25
years overnight. Very disconcerting, since it’s hard enough
trying to figure out the characters because they’re all freakin’
drawn the same! Geezuz. Get your act together, Ms. Johnston.
–Phil W. alerted me to the Division III basketball game between
Guilford and Emory & Henry; the latter the 3-point shooting
machine. Guilford won the contest, 130-114. But that’s only
part of the story.
Guilford was 45 of 66 from the field (40 of 49 from the line). But
from 3-point land it was 0 for 3.
Contrast that with E&H, which was 21 of 73 from downtown!
Plus E&H played 14 guys between 11 and 16 minutes apiece.
That would have been fun to watch…especially with an adult
beverage or two.
–We note the passing of NASCAR great Benny Parsons who
succumbed to lung cancer at the age of 65.
Born on July 12, 1941, in rural North Carolina, Parsons worked
at a gas station and cab company owned by his father when the
family moved to Detroit. But the self-professed “taxicab driver”
made it to NASCAR, winning 21 races, including the 1975
Daytona 500 and the 1973 Winston Cup title. Of his 526 starts
on the NASCAR circuit he had 283 top-10 finishes. Parsons is a
member of both the International Motorsports and Stock Car
Racing Hall of Fame and was generally acclaimed to be the
nicest guy the sport has ever produced.
Top 3 songs for the week of 1/21/67: #1 “I’m A Believer” (The
Monkees) #2 “Snoopy vs. The Red Baron” (The Royal
Guardsmen) #3 “Tell It Like It Is” (Aaron Neville…pretty
amazing to think he’s still around…then again, Tony Bennett
currently has a pop hit at 80)…and…#4 “Good Thing” (Paul
Revere & The Raiders) #5 “Words Of Love” (The Mamas &
The Papas) #6 “Standing In The Shadows Of Love” (Four Tops)
#7 “Georgy Girl” (The Seekers) #8 “Sugar Town” (Nancy
Sinatra) #9 “Nashville Cats” (The Lovin’ Spoonful) #10 “Tell It
To The Rain” (The Four Seasons)…..pretty awesome top ten.
But the following week, 1/28/67, it got even better as you replace
#s 9 and 10 with “Kind Of A Drag” (The Buckinghams) and
“(We Ain’t Got) Nothin’ Yet” (Blues Magoos)
Muhammad Ali Quiz Answers: 1) G.C. – George Chuvalo 2)
H.C. – Henry Cooper 3) E.T. – Ernie Terrell 4) Z.F. – Zora
Folley 5) J.Q. – Jerry Quarry 6) O.B. – Oscar Bonavena 7)
B.M. – Buster Mathis.
8) The five who Ali lost to: Joe Frazier (Mar. ’71), Ken Norton
(Mar. ’73), Leon Spinks (Feb. ’78), Larry Holmes (Oct. ’80),
Trevor Berbick (Dec. ’81).
Finally, after costing many of you $500,000 or more thru my
college football selections this past fall, I’m back with two
can”t misses for this weekend….wager $300,000 per, or whatever
you’re comfortable with.
Take the Pats and 3 vs. Indy. Take the Bears and give 3 vs. New
Orleans. [I see the line on this last one is now 2 ½, but I’m so
comfortable I’m throwing in the extra ½. It’s the Bar Chat
Guarantee!*]
*Bar Chat Guarantee may not be applicable where you live.
Check with local authorities before raiding your college or trust
fund. Also, don’t place bets based on the hope the estate tax will
be repealed.
Next Bar Chat, Monday p.m.
