Read this in The Manila Times digital edition.
MY condolences to the families and friends of the two Ateneo athletes who tragically and unnecessarily passed away. If you are disappointed or worse by Ateneo’s response to date, look up the meaning of the word “jesuitical.”
Happy Independence Day. As it is a holiday, I will indulge the readers and myself with a lighter topic.
I only have one sports poster, which I ordered a couple of years before he died, and I am so happy I did, as it is an autographed (with certification) picture of Ali over the knocked-out Sonny Liston. It is a famous and iconic photograph that hangs in my bedroom. While others like Michael Jordan are pretty good trash talkers, no one even came close to Ali — the Louisville Lip. I am old enough to have been a fan while he was active and what he said out of the ring was as devastating as what he did in it. For me, he is the greatest boxer and trash talker, and great for inspirational quotes as well. As my friend, the boxing journalist Brin-Jonathan Butler, said when I interviewed him on “Banker After Dark” (if you like boxing, watch the two-part show, what a wealth of revelatory stories, especially on Cuban boxers), if even Ali could not escape the debilitating effects of boxing, which is for many the loneliest sport to be an athlete in, what chance do others have? That is why I soured on boxing when I saw what happened to Ali and his motor skills, which reduced him to near silence.
Before getting to the quotes, he was divisive but to many like me, an inspirational icon. He was strongly for civil rights at a time when African Americans were actively seeking full civil rights and converted to Islam, hence changing his name from Cassius Clay (which he called his slave name) to Muhammad Ali. He was stripped out of his title and was banned from boxing for over three years while in his prime for refusing to be drafted to the United States military, saying he had no fight with the Vietnamese. While this made him very controversial in the US, it made him very popular and respected in the Third World. Whether you agreed with him or disagreed, he stood by his principles even when he had his career taken from him. That is courageous and admirable. A great man and as an athlete, and the three-time world heavyweight champion, as he said, “the greatest.”
On to the trash talk and quotes. My favorite taunt and trash talk of all was when sportscaster Howard Cosell (who wore a toupee) opined prior to the “Rumble in Jungle” (a great phrase of his like the “Thrilla in Manila,” which remained in use long after the fight when something special was happening in Manila), that he thought like most writers that Ali was going to be demolished by Foreman in 1974 and was no match against the young, strong and agile Foreman. He knocked out Joe Frazier and Ken Norton in early rounds, and Ali struggled against and lost to both. Many like Cosell feared Ali wouldn’t just lose, but be hurt in the fight as he wasn’t the fighter he was five years before. Ali replied that he would win and added, “I spoke to your wife, and she said you aren’t the man you were 2 years ago, and that thing on your head is a phony and comes from the tail of a pony.” I still laugh when I watch that from the film “When We Were Kings.”
Here are some of his other incredibly witty and cutting quotes. You probably have your favorites, and others are more famous, but these are my favorites. What a joy to read them again and recall having heard him say some of them with his bravado and style.
“I am the greatest. I said that even before I knew I was.”
“If you even dream of beating me, you’d better wake up and apologize.”
“I should be a postage stamp. That’s the only way I’ll ever get licked.”
“I’ve seen George Foreman shadowboxing, and the shadow won.”
“I’m not the greatest; I’m the double greatest. Not only do I knock ’em out, I pick the round.” For one fight he said, “In round nine, you’ll be mine.” And toyed with his opponent then knocked him out in the ninth round.
And some inspirational ones — “Only a man who knows what it’s like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.”
“The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.”
“Even the greatest was once a beginner. Don’t be afraid to take that first step.”
“You don’t lose if you get knocked down; you lose if you stay down.”
Let me close with my two favorite Ali quotes of all, and it is not trash-talk but captures the essence of why he remains the greatest.
“I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’”
And “It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.”
The author is an independent director of the state-run Maharlika Investment Corp.