An unconquerable spirit and will

Muhammad Ali, who celebrates his 70^th birthday today in an Olympic-year, was the best boxer of his generation, perhaps of any generation.  Some would argue he was perhaps the greatest sportsman of all time. But in his time he had bigger fights than just in the ring. One was naked racism in his native land that he was so proud to represent at the Olympic Games of 1960.

When he arrived in the Olympic village in Rome in 1960 as an 18-year-old, few had heard of Cassius Clay, and most expected Zbigniew Pietrzykowski, from Poland, three-time European champion and veteran of 231 fights, to dominate the light-heavyweight title division.

But the athletic Clay dominated his fight against the south-paw and won convincingly.

He was so proud of his gold medal he didn’t take it off for weeks, displaying it for everybody to see.

Fiercely patriotic, he answered a Russian journalist who asked him how he felt about not being allowed to eat in certain American restaurants, by saying : “We got qualified men working on that problem. We got the biggest and the prettiest cars.

“America is the greatest country in the world. I got lots of places where I can eat – more places I can than I can’t.”

But when he arrived back in America, he and a friend stopped in Louisville to order two burgers and two vanilla milkshakes. They were refused service. Clay played his trump card. “Miss,” he said. I’m Cassius Clay, the Olympic champion.”

The owner of the restaurant interrupted and said to the waitress: “I don’t give a damn who he is. I done told you, we don’t serve no niggers.”

Ali said that whatever illusions he built up in Rome as the all-American boy were gone, his Olympic honeymoon was over. He walked to the middle of a bridge over the Ohio River and threw his medal into the water. “I saw it as it was. Ordinary. Just an object,” he said.

Steve Redgrave, five-time Olympic gold medal winner, reminisced about Ali’s career when Ali lit the Olympic flame at the Olympic Stadium in Atlanta over 30 years later.

“I thought how fitting (it was) that the greatest athlete of the 20th century should have his place again in Olympic history. It was a moving moment … He remains, despite the controversies and his sad decline into illness, the greatest athlete and character I’ve ever seen.” (Source: Great Olympic moments, by Steve Redgrave).

World champion

Ali beat Sonny Liston in 1964 to become the heavyweight boxing champion of the world, but there were many rumours about the fight and about the way in which a listless Liston succumbed, claiming he had a sore shoulder.

Ali’s greatness was defined by four fights – three against Joe Frazier and the fourth against George Foreman.

The first fight against Frazier, the title-holder, took place on 8 March 1971 at Madison Square Garden and was called the Fight of the Century.

Ali dominated the first three rounds, peppering the shorter Frazier with rapier-like jabs that raised welts on the champion's face.

Frazier began to dominate in the fourth round, catching Ali with several of his famed left hooks and pinning him against the ropes to deliver tremendous body blows.

Ali was visibly tired after the sixth round, and though he put together some flurries of punches after that round, he was unable to keep the pace he had set in the first third of the fight.

His speed and combinations kept him on roughly even terms with Frazier, however, and the fight was very close until late in round 11. During that round Frazier caught Ali, backed into a corner, with a crushing left hook that almost floored Ali, sending him falling into the ropes.

Ali managed to survive the round, but from then on Frazier seemed to come back in the next three rounds. At the end of round 14 Frazier held a lead on the three scorecards.

Early in round 15, Frazier landed a spectacular left hook that put Ali on his back (for only the third time in his career). Ali, his right jaw swollen grotesquely, got up from the blow quickly, and managed to stay on his feet for the rest of the round despite several terrific blows from Frazier.

A few minutes later the judges made it official: Frazier had retained the title with a unanimous decision, dealing Ali his first professional loss.

Both men spent time recuperating in a hospital following the grueling fight.

The second fight between the two, also at Madison Square Garden in New York City in January 1974, lacked the spark of the Fight of the Century and of the later Thrilla in Manila. It was described by one columnist as a fight between two former champions, both past their best.

Frazier had been dethroned by Foreman, who had him on the canvas six times within two rounds in their title-fight in Jamaica in 1972.

Ali dominated the fight, throwing and landing more punches than Frazier. When Frazier got close Ali would initiate a clinch and hold him until the referee broke the clinch.

Ultimately, Ali won it unanimously on the scorecard of all three judges.

George Foreman

Ali met Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle in Zaire in 1974. Ali decided to allow Foreman to punch him to the body. He called it his Rope-A-Dope tactic. Most critics warned about the tactic, calling it suicidal.

Angelo Dundee, his coach, yelled at him between rounds: “You are going to get killed.”

But gradually, Foreman started looking jaded, demoralised. Ali taunted him and fired back bursts of blows to the head.

In the eighth round, Foreman punched away mechanically at Ali on the ropes and missed. When Ali suddenly sprang into action and caught Foreman with two hard rights to the head Foreman turned, only to take a left hook, and then a chopping right to the head sending him stumbling past Ali to the canvas.

He was so exhausted that he could not beat the count.

As Peter Arnold and Bob Mee described it in Lords of the Ring: “Ali, the former vilified draft-dodger and upstart, was now an international celebrity upon whom sporting and other bodies showered awards. He was invited to the White House. He was as near to Superman as anybody could get …”

Near death experience

The new heavyweight boxing champion of the world defended his crown three times in 1975. It included the Thrilla in Manial in October 1975 against his old foe, Frazier.

Ali dominated the early exchanges, slamming Frazier with a flurry of combinations. Ali was keen to dominate and to assert his authority.

By the fourth round Ali began to tire from all the energy he had expended in the searing heat and Frazier turned up his own offence and began punishing Ali to the body and the head with his trademark hooks.

By the sixth round, Frazier had staggered him in turn and seemed to be gaining control of the bout.

Finally, in the 10th round, Frazier began to slow down and tire and Ali slowly turned the tide.

In the 11th round he used his speed to dance more, and to unload a series of fast combinations on Frazier, which severely bruised his face by the end of the round, swelling Frazier's eyes to the point that nothing but a tiny slit remained open.

That set the pattern for the next four rounds, in which Ali dominated. In round 13, he sent the Frazier’s mouth guard flying into the crowd.

In round 14, Frazier was almost blind as he stepped in, and was met once more with punishing blows from Ali.

Seeing the results of round 14, Eddie Futch decided to stop the fight between rounds rather than risk a similar or worse fate for Frazier in the 15th. Frazier protested shouting "I want him boss," and trying to get Futch to change his mind.

Futch simply replied, "It's all over. No one will forget what you did here today.”

Ali admitted it was a near-death experience. Perhaps this fight is a vivid demonstration of what Ali, the Olympic and sporting icon was all about.

He was a great athlete, a charismatic sporting hero who possessed the gift of the gab. But above all, he had an unconquerable spirit and will, and that is why, in the mind of many critics, he is truly The Greatest.