The Incredible Life of Muhammad Ali

Since Muhammad Ali died about 2 weeks ago, the world does not seem to be the same to people who in their childhood, considered Ali a hero. In the history of sports, nobody has ever been close to Ali as far as his skill as an athlete and personality as a sports celebrity. Muhammad Ali was actually funny. An athlete who is funny? This has never happened before or since. Will we ever see someone as funny as Muhammad Ali was who was a huge sports celebrity? Most likely this will never happen again. For his size, Ali was the fastest and most skilled boxer of all time. This skill, like all skills with age, faded and the world hoped that he would retire at the peak of his career in August 1974 after he shocked the world and defeated a heavily favored George Foreman. Since Ali died some 2 weeks ago, for me the world does not seem to be the same as it was. The likes of Muhammed Ali is likely to be never seen again.

Back in Ali's heyday which was for the most part in the 1970's people were not only just fans of the man, many loved him. And it was that love for a great man and a great career that disgusted many of us when he continued to fight after the tremendous peak he reached in 1974 when he defeated George Foreman. Part of the reason for not stopping these fights was of course because of the money, the other part probably was that he was so used to be at the top of all headlines and everybody talking about him and being the most famous man in the world. He also truly believed that nobody could ever beat him and during his 61 fights, he was very wrong 5 times and the tremendous courage that enabled him to face Foreman when nobody thought he could win, was ultimately his undoing and the direct cause of him getting Parkinson's disease in 1984. Ironically the other reason why Ali developed Parkinson's was probably because of the strategy he used against Foreman called the "Rope-a-dope", which was Ali absorbing constant hits to the head in the hopes that his opponent would punch himself out. Ali continued to use this strategy for all fighters after Foreman and those fights on top of all the rounds he sparred added up to way too many hits to the head and to Parkinson's disease.

In all the years from 1984 when Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease to his death in June 2016 its always been very difficult to see Ali looking old, far beyond his years, the shaking and the fact that one of the most entertaining voices in history was mostly silent except for some slurred speech and mumbling. For a big fan like myself it was tragic to see his deterioration over so many years and in the end, the pictures we all saw of him at age 74 looked absolutely nothing like he used to look just 10 years earlier. The deadly disease Parkinson's attacks the body in several ways and definitely in accelerating the aging process. Any person witnessing this for any period of time has to appreciate that now Ali is no longer suffering , which is a life for his last 22 years he definitely did not deserve.

One of the greatest things Ali did in his career was to give up boxing and refuse to be drafted into the Vietnam War. We all have known for decades that the Vietnam was not only unjust but just about one of the worst mistakes this country has ever made. Ali's many speeches during this period were some of his greatest and did a great deal towards a new understanding that the United States should never have gone into Vietnam and any person has a right because of his religion to refuse to kill other people.