It has been said many times that all you need to die is to be alive, and that only when you die, is your legend born. That is not the case with Muhammad Ali.
In our current era of social media technology, with millions of views on random YouTube videos, likes, dislikes, pokes, Facebook and Instagram sharing and other media frenzy, some of the glorified words reserved for certain situations and people have become misused on a regular basis. Even the phrase “Living Legend” has fallen into dispair being constantly misused at times with people who are great but not worthy of that qualification. However up until yesterday there was one person who was absolutely worthy of being referred that way in our planet, a person who maybe would have been humble enough to dismiss being called that. Yet to me, that was the only way to describe Muhammad Ali: A Living Legend. Well… that, along with his self-proclaimed way to describe himself: The Greatest.
I was named after Muhammad Ali and as a kid my parents always told me that they chose Ali because he is “a great man.” My parents rarely agreed on anything, however on this particular subject I will never forget that particular choice of words coming from both of them: “a great man. As a curious four-year-old kid, I wondered to myself: what exactly is “a great man“? How does a man become “great“? What did Ali do to become “great“? What was so special about him that both my parents agreed to name me after him? Days later, I asked both my parents the same question again, this time separately. One day to my mom, another day to my dad.
My mom replied that first of all, Ali was an incredibly handsome man. A man with presence. A towering man, with a huge back, great legs and huge chest. A gifted man with a gorgeous body and a unique face. But not only was Ali physically handsome; he was a man with a beautiful soul and a wonderful heart. He spoke from his heart and he was sincere, and he had the best intentions for his people. He had strong principles and beliefs, and he fought for them. He took a stance against the Vietnam War, and war in general. He refused to serve for his country on the premise that he wouldn’t kill people he had no quarrel against. He was a peaceful man who wanted peace for all mankind. For those of you wondering, my mom is a blonde, caucasian.
When I asked my dad -a hispanic mixed african american-, he said: “I told you. We named you after Ali, because Ali is The Greatest.” It impressed me and I was kind of left puzzled that my dad simply reiterated what he had already said me before. Plain and simple, that was his answer. I responded to my dad: “Dad, that is not an answer. I need a logical answer.” So he handed me two Betamax video tapes: “Watch them“, he said.
The video-tapes were a two-part documentary about Ali’s life. The first video covered Ali’s beginnings, his victory in the Olympics and his surprise victory against Sonny Liston. I particularly remember that when the documentary reached the beginning of the Ali vs. Liston fight, I thought Ali was going to lose. Then it moved on to their subsequent rematch, and then through his complete dominance of every single opponent he faced, including the dismantling of Floyd Patterson, Ernie Terrel, Zora Folley, and what arguably is the greatest display of utter heavyweight power brilliance on a ring, his fight versus Cleveland Williams. I was completely shocked after seeing the way Ali moved, hit, and overall put on a display of a perfect performance in those three rounds.
Then, the documentary got interesting. It was no longer about fights anymore and about a great fighter. This guy was now refusing to serve in the US Army, in a stance that was completely unheard of coming from a celebrity. I thought to myself:
“Why is this idiot refusing to serve for our country? Who does he think he is? If the US Army tells you, you have to serve for America, then you must serve for America. Ted Williams did it on WW2 and Korea, and so did James Stewart, Joe Di Maggio, Elvis Presley, and many others. What’s the big deal? Why is he refusing? He must be scared of going to war, and that’s it.“
I also thought to myself: “This guy is an idiot. I am ashamed I was named after him. I have to get my name changed as soon as I can. It’s embarrasing that my parents named me after him. I will not carry with this through my life.“
Despite being very young, I was a precocious kid. I learned how to read at a very early age. You could say that I was somewhat of a prodigy. By the time I was five years old, I had read about American history, famous American personalities, and I remember I had glanced the name Muhammad Ali here and there, but for some reason I was not too interested in him, perhaps because to me at that point he was only a boxer. On the other hand, guys like Ted Williams “The Greatest Batter who ever lived”, Jimmy Stewart “the best classic actor of Hollywood”, and Elvis “The King”, were my role models and examples of what I should become as a grown man. Ted Williams gave up five years in baseball to serve in WW2 and in Korea. Had he played those five years, his numbers and his records would have been even more impressive than what they are. The same reasoning applies to Di Maggio. So to me, I saw serving for your country as a sacrifice. People like them deserved respect and praise. Therefore, to learn that Muhammad Ali had refused to serve for his country, when several other personalities enlisted and fought to defend America before him, felt to me like a complete degradation of his name, his career and everything he stood for.
It was at that point when the first part of the documentary suddenly got cut off, and I realized I had to switch to part 2 on the other tape, which I did. The last lines of the first tape were something around the lines of “Ali was facing jail and about to be sentenced to prison.” While switching the tapes, internally I wished that he had been sent to prison.
The second part resumed where the first one had ended. Now we were getting on the task of explaining and answering all my questions. “Why did Ali refuse to serve? Who does he think he is?”… as well as to answer other questions that hadn’t occurred to me like: “What were the consequences? What happened next?”
In a matter of minutes my mind was blown away. I quickly began to understand the reasons behind Ali’s actions, and realized that as painful as it was to refuse to serve and defend America, Muhammad Ali actually had a point behind his actions. In fact, he had a very good point.
The documentary spent around 45 minutes addressing the complicated issue of communism, the Vietnam War, the USSR, the hippie movement, Martin Luther King, John Lennon, and the similar context of the culture of the time. Still, every film, every piece of interview, every extract in which Ali spoke, made more and more sense with every passing minute. All of a sudden I started to feel proud. Whereas the hippies were a bunch of… well, hippies, and other personalities like Dr. King and John Lennon were… well, personalities, there was something different about Ali. I remembered my mom’s words. Ali spoke with sincerity and from his heart. He wasn’t looking to congegrate thousands of people with peace songs like John Lennon, or was academically skillful and politically trained as Martin Luther King. Ali simply spoke from his heart what he believed was -and is- right: war is wrong. Killing people for no reason, is wrong; and he, just like any other 25 year-old from Kentucky, or Idaho, or Oregon, or Michigan, had no reason to fight against other people, and die for absolutely no cause that wasn’t peace.
The film then followed the overrule of his sentence by the US Supreme Court, and his glorious comeback to recover the title that at first I believed had been justifiably taken away from him, but that now I understood that in reality what had happened was that three years of his peak time were taken away from him.
As the documentary reached the part where Ali was about to face Foreman in Zaire, I thought to myself: “This is it. This is IT. He will win this fight.” It’s hard to put yourself in the context of 1974, but I guess I could understand why most people thought he wasn’t going to beat Foreman. I mean, this guy Foreman was huge and he had knocked Frazier out six times in just two rounds, and knocked out Ken Norton out like twice in two rounds as well. Ali on the other hand hadn’t been able to even beat them without going the full distance of 15 rounds, and hadn’t been able to send either of them to the canvas even once.
Finally, once the documentary reached the part in which Ali knocked Foreman out for good, and he was crowed as World Champion, it was at that precise point that everything came together and I had finally understood that Ali is The Greatest.
Rest In Peace.
HR