His last fight?

[Gob]

Ali, one of the best-known figures of the 20th century, was hospitalized this week for a respiratory ailment. Family spokesman Bob Gunnell has said that Ali, 74, was in fair condition, but media reports have said he was in rapidly failing health.

Source: Reuters



Asked about Ali's condition, the source said: "It's extraordinarily grave. It's a matter of hours."

The source, who had spoken with Ali's wife, Lonnie, added: "It could be more than a couple of hours, but it's not going to be much more. Funeral arrangements are already being made."

Gunnell did not respond to repeated requests for comment about Ali's condition.

Ali has suffered from Parkinson's disease for more than three decades and has kept a low profile in recent years.

The Radar Online website reported on Friday that Ali had been placed on life support, citing "an insider."

The Reuters source close to the family could not comment on that report.

[Bicycle Bill]

When he does die, it will be interesting to see how many sportswriters and others sing his praises to the heavens.  Especially when you consider how many of these same writers and their peers were crying for his head on a plate over his refusal to report for induction in the military, and his name change when he embraced the Black Muslim movement.

-"BB"-

[RayThom]

I doesn't sound like Ali's going to make it through the night.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more- ... -1.2659649


He was the greatest!

[Gob]

I've never forgiven Dundee for his mendacity when our 'Enry had Ali down.

[RayThom]

"Muhammad Ali, 'The Greatest of All Time', Dead at 74"
Yikes! Ali must have heard me. Rest In Peace.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/muha ... 74-n584776

[Gob]

RIP , you were "The Greatest"

[Lord Jim]

Well, I'm sorry to be the skunk at the picnic, but I have never been any great fan of Muhammad Ali's...

I really disliked Ali when he boxing. I wasn't old enough to have followed his early career, (the Olympics, the Patterson and Liston fights) but I was delighted when Frazier beat him after his boxing suspension, and I rooted against him in every fight the rest of his career...

I found him to be an incredibly obnoxious braggart, (sort of the Donald Trump of boxing) I thought that he and Howard Cosell made a perfect pair, with their mutual self-admiration societies......

Later, as his health deteriorated, I came to feel sorry for him. But I'm never going to think he was some sort of wonderful role model.

[MajGenl.Meade]

I really disliked Ali when he boxing

Racist!

You missed the whole point I think. Clay was the greatest showman of boxing in our lifetime and probably any other. He created a persona that was a dream for marketing and for heavyweight boxing - raising the "sport" from the doldrums with skill and tenacity. He stood up and refused to bow down to white racial attitudes - he was beautiful, he was the greatest, he played the media like a violin.

He was also young and made a lot of mistakes. Regardless of faith issues, he allied himself early with Elijah Muhammed in a thoroughly errant association with evil that he never saw until too late. What he did see was an organization that held its beliefs in opposition to the oppressive majority weight of society and that welcomed him as belonging.

I think you missed (by virtue of age) much of Ali's humor beneath the bluster, a humor that for a while soured as he fought against what seemed the entire world over Vietnam, the draft and his loss of the title because of his principled political stand. Yes, for some years in the ring and out (years you apparently do recall), he developed a hardened exterior and much of his humor was replaced by a bitterness - but only for its season. Unfortunately, he imbibed this hardness from the Nation of Islam and did not take any principled stand when it came to his close friend, Malcolm X.

We all have our own reactions to people, to events, to stories. And timing often has something to do with it. It's a shame you didn't see the Ali that many others did see and perhaps you haven't noted what amounts to a secular redemption in him over the past 30 years.

This book review is one I think you'd find interesting - and the book even more so.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/books ... olm-x.html

[Crackpot]

I wonder if there will be a full autopsy on him. I know it has been long questioned if he truly had Parkinson's ok if his symptoms were a effect of all the punishment is head took.

[MajGenl.Meade]

I wonder if there will be a full autopsy on him. I know it has been long questioned if he truly had Parkinson's ok if his symptoms were a effect of all the punishment is head took.

CP - you've gone all cockney on us!

AIn't 'e?

[rubato]

I wonder if there will be a full autopsy on him. I know it has been long questioned if he truly had Parkinson's ok if his symptoms were a effect of all the punishment is head took.

It has long been acknowledged that he had "pugilistic parkinsonism". ie They have made the connection long ago.


He was the greatest. Beautiful. He moved with the grace of a dancer. And he paid a high price for taking the correct moral stand against the Vietnam war. He was right and all the presidents from Eisenhower to Nixon were morally wrong; cynical, deceitful and corrupt. And I give Howard Cosell a lot of credit for turning against boxing, something he loved, when he realized the extent of damage to his friend Ali who he loved even more. Very few people have that much honesty and moral clarity.


yrs,
rubato

[rubato]

I really disliked Ali when he boxing

Racist!

You missed the whole point I think. Clay was the greatest showman of boxing in our lifetime and probably any other. He created a persona that was a dream for marketing and for heavyweight boxing - raising the "sport" from the doldrums with skill and tenacity. He stood up and refused to bow down to white racial attitudes - he was beautiful, he was the greatest, he played the media like a violin.

He was also young and made a lot of mistakes. Regardless of faith issues, he allied himself early with Elijah Muhammed in a thoroughly errant association with evil that he never saw until too late. What he did see was an organization that held its beliefs in opposition to the oppressive majority weight of society and that welcomed him as belonging.

I think you missed (by virtue of age) much of Ali's humor beneath the bluster, a humor that for a while soured as he fought against what seemed the entire world over Vietnam, the draft and his loss of the title because of his principled political stand. Yes, for some years in the ring and out (years you apparently do recall), he developed a hardened exterior and much of his humor was replaced by a bitterness - but only for its season. Unfortunately, he imbibed this hardness from the Nation of Islam and did not take any principled stand when it came to his close friend, Malcolm X.

We all have our own reactions to people, to events, to stories. And timing often has something to do with it. It's a shame you didn't see the Ali that many others did see and perhaps you haven't noted what amounts to a secular redemption in him over the past 30 years.

This book review is one I think you'd find interesting - and the book even more so.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/books ... olm-x.html

yrs,
rubato

[Big RR]

I found him to be an incredibly obnoxious braggart, (sort of the Donald Trump of boxing)

That's where I think you missed it; obnoxious braggart or not, he did something Donald Trump cannot do, he backed it up with talent and intelligence. In his prime (before his refusal to be inducted) he was pretty untouchable, and he fought some of the greatest fights I have ever seen, drawing people in to watch fights who would never have seen a fight otherwise. He raised the profile of boxing and brought it to a far bigger audience, and paved the way for the many others who followed him. And he lost a lot for his stance against the war and refusal to be inducted; agree with him or not, he didn't have to take that public a stances, but he believed it important to stand up for what he believed, and I respect him for that.

RIP Champ.

[Gob]

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali died of "septic shock due to unspecified natural causes", his family has said

[MajGenl.Meade]

Here you go, lib:

[Burning Petard]

Tonite 60 Minutes tonite re-ran an interview with Ali from 20 years ago. It showed Ali in a gym, hitting a heavy bag. The moves were crisp and hard. No tremors. As soon as he stepped away from the bag, the shaking was there again.

Reminded me of the description of Sir Stirling Moss at a historical display of the car he drove to win the 1955 Mille Miglia. Moss was on crutches and had to be lifted into the Mercedes. But once he was at the controls, he was a fully capable racing driver and put the car through it paces.

Real Champions, like Ali, are real champions all their life. The tribute to Ali on CNN given by George Foreman about how Ali defeated him in what George thought was to be an easy win was amazing. George said he did give Ali every thing he had. Ali took it all and then put him down with a quick one-two combination, and mercifully refrained from a third legal hit as he went down.

snailgate

[Joe Guy]

What I remember about Ali is that other than my mother, my father and all the friends of my parents pretty much hated him because he was a loud mouth and had dodged the draft. I remember most of what I saw on TV about him was negative too. I could be misremembering the TV comments but that's what I recall.

It was only later in Ali's career that I started hearing good things about him. Of course, now he is a hero and everybody says they always liked him.

[RayThom]

Out of the ashes arose a Phoenix. A man of true conscience. RIP, Muhammad.

[oldr_n_wsr]

RIP Muhammad Ali.
He was the best for the sport at the time. Boxing has had a slow(?) decline since.

I remember watching his fights against Foreman, spinx, norton.... While I was alive during the early 60's, I did not watch boxing until later and probably the only reason was Ali, although I did root for Foreman.

He was the first (only?) heavy weight to box like a middle/light weight with the handspeed and footwork.

And I amd not drawn to a professional boxer (nor actor nor football player, nor.....) for their political opinion.
He did what he thought was right. My thoughts on his political/moral actions mean nothing.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Leonard Cohen particularly admired boxing legend and activist, Muhammad Ali, who died June 3, 2016. In I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen, author Sylvie Simmons reports that when she asked Leonard who his hero was, he immediately named “poets and spiritual leaders – Roshi, Ramesh Balsekar, Lorca, Yeats – adding the caveat, ‘I admire many men and women but it’s the designation ‘hero’ I have difficulty with, because it implies some kind of reverence that is alien to my nature.'” The next day, however, Sylvie received the following email from Leonard:

"i forgot
my hero is muhammad ali
as they say about the Timex in their ads
takes a lickin’
keeps on tickin’"

And, Adam Cohen (Leonard's son) named his own son, Cassius, after his (Adam’s) hero Cassius Clay aka Muhammad Ali. He’s named Cassius, Adam explained to Brigit Grant in 2012, because "I don’t think the rabbi would have appreciated Muhammad Cohen"

There you are then. Case closed.