{"id":1381,"date":"2007-01-17T23:37:00","date_gmt":"2007-01-18T03:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=1381"},"modified":"2014-12-17T18:50:25","modified_gmt":"2014-12-17T22:50:25","slug":"muhammad-ali-still-the-greatest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=1381","title":{"rendered":"Muhammad Ali: Still the Greatest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nToday is Muhammad Ali’s 65th birthday<\/strong>. It’s hard to believe that the champ<\/strong> is 65<\/strong>. It’s harder still to believe that Parkinson’s disease<\/strong> has been able to rob Ali<\/strong> of much of his health for many of these years. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
I was five years old<\/strong> when Ali<\/strong> beat Liston<\/strong> for the title. Here was this brash young kid<\/strong> bragging that he’d beat this monster of a man.<\/strong> Then he did it. And then he did it again in a rematch. Ali<\/strong> was “the man.” He talked a lot of smack, but he backed it up. Plus it was obvious that he was having fun, so much of what he said seemed to be playful kidding around [until you stepped into the ring with him]. Ali<\/strong> was as cool as The Beatles<\/strong> or Elvis<\/strong>. In fact, Ali was the greatest<\/strong>.<\/span><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

I can remember the controversy that sprung up when Muhammad<\/strong> refused to enter the draft. Although I was against the war in Viet Nam<\/strong>, I felt that it was wrong to not support your country. Still, I admired Ali <\/strong>for standing by his convictions no matter the cost. And cost him it did. He was stripped of the title and not allowed to fight during three<\/strong> of what could have been his most productive years. <\/span><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

When Ali<\/strong> was once again allowed to fight, I can remember staying up late to watch it with my dad. Ali<\/strong> was fighting a tough guy named Jerry Quarry<\/strong>. Ali<\/strong> won by TKO<\/strong> in the 3rd<\/strong>. I had just turned 12<\/strong> and Ali was still the greatest<\/strong>.<\/span><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Less than a year later Ali<\/strong> fought Joe Frazier<\/strong> in what was to be the first of three legendary fights<\/strong>. Although Muhammad<\/strong> lost the fight, the battle become the thing of legends. Ali<\/strong> continued to fight and win.<\/span><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Two years<\/strong> later, Ali <\/strong>fought and lost a split decision to Ken Norton<\/strong>. I was surprised about the loss, but even more so when I learned that Ali<\/strong> fought most [if not all] of the fight with a broken jaw. Six months<\/strong> later Ali<\/strong> beat Norton<\/strong> in the rematch. I was 14<\/strong> and Ali was still the greatest<\/strong>.<\/span><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ali <\/strong>fought again the following month for an easy win. and then two months<\/strong> after that beat Joe Frazier<\/strong> in their first rematch<\/strong>. Their battle was another classic<\/strong> that went the entire 15 rounds<\/strong>, but this time Ali <\/strong>came out on top. Nine months<\/strong> later Ali <\/strong>entered the ring to fight Big George Foreman<\/strong>. Foreman<\/strong> was undefeated<\/strong> and had knocked out Frasier<\/strong> early. Heck, Foreman<\/strong> knocked almost everyone out early. Ali <\/strong>wasn’t given much of a chance. Of course we all know that Ali KO’d George<\/strong> in the 15th<\/strong>. I stayed up late listening to the results over the radio. I had just turned 16<\/strong> and Ali was still the greatest<\/strong>.<\/span><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

In March of 75<\/strong>, Ali<\/strong> fought Chuck Wepner<\/strong>. No one gave Wepner<\/strong> ANY chance of winning. Still “The Bayonne Bleeder”<\/strong> went the distance in a losing effort and actually knocked Ali <\/strong>off of his feet at one point in the fight [although many say that it was more of a trip]. This fight, of course, is what inspired Sylvester Stallone<\/strong> to come up with “Rocky.”<\/strong> Ali <\/strong>followed with wins against Ron Lyle<\/strong> [talk about a huge, tough, ex-con] and Joe Bugner<\/strong>. <\/span>In October of 75<\/strong>, Ali and Frazier<\/strong> met for the 3rd<\/strong> and final time. Ali won<\/strong>. I was 16 <\/strong>and Ali was still the greatest<\/strong>.<\/span><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ali<\/strong> fought regularly defending his title, winning against name fighters like Jimmy Young, Ken Norton<\/strong> [again] and Ernie Shavers<\/strong>. The Shavers fight<\/strong> was especially exciting. It was September 29, 1977<\/strong>. I was 18 years old<\/strong> and watched the fight while in Orlando<\/strong> for one of my first comic book conventions. After the fight, I got together with a bunch of my friends and played some poker. Of course we talked about how Ali was still the greatest<\/strong>!<\/span><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ali’s next fight<\/strong> was against a kid who had done well in the 76 Olympics<\/strong>. His name was Leon Spinks<\/strong>. The fight was televised on regular tv and I can remember watching it and seeing that the kid was winning. Spinks<\/strong> won with an upset decision. Ali<\/strong> later said that the loss to Spinks<\/strong> hurt more than any other of his career. Seven months later, at the age of 36<\/strong>, Ali <\/strong>beat Leon Spinks<\/strong>. I was 19 years old<\/strong> and Ali was still the greatest<\/strong>.<\/span><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Muhammad<\/strong> didn’t fight again for over two years<\/strong>. Larry Holmes<\/strong>, one of Ali’s former sparring partners<\/strong> was champ<\/strong>, and Ali <\/strong>came back for “one last chance” to see him “dance.” I was at the pay-per-view<\/strong> the night that Holmes beat Ali.<\/strong> It wasn’t pretty. Still Muhammad<\/strong> gave it his all. As he did again when he came back 14 months later<\/strong> to fight a losing battle against Trevor Berbick<\/strong>. I was 23 years old<\/strong> and although Muhammad <\/strong>had lost, I felt he was still the greatest<\/strong>.<\/span><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

As the years have passed, Muhammad Ali’s legend<\/strong> has grown. He earned the nickname, “The People’s Champ”<\/strong> thanks to his popularity with folks of all races, soci-economic backgrounds and religions. Ali’s fans<\/strong> weren’t limited by borders. During his career he fought in 12 different countries<\/strong>; and was considered a true citizen of the world. Ali<\/strong> is probably more popular now than he was when he was in his fighting prime. <\/span><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today Muhammad Ali<\/strong> is 65<\/strong> and he’s still the greatest<\/strong>. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is Muhammad Ali’s 65th birthday. It’s hard to believe that the champ is 65. It’s harder still to believe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[49,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","category-trivia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1381"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11368,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381\/revisions\/11368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}