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Ali's treatment of Frazier in the run up to their fight was absolutely disgraceful. To not only label Frazier as a 'Gorilla', but also claim he was 'working for the enemy' (Whites supremacists and whites against civil rights) in that time of social and political climate in racially divided America was childish, damaging and divisive. Instead of using the fight to present a unified front on favor of better conditions for working class blacks in America, Ali used common racial stereotypes of the kind the KKK and other such organisation would use, against his own kind.
I reject the media interpretation of Ali as this leader who used boxing as a conduit to educate and inspire people to question America's involvement in the Vietnam war as well as America's own issues with race and its position in society. To myself the documentary on Thriller in Manilla showed evidence to suggest Ali was impressionable rather than a decisive human being. He was confirmed by some as a mouthpiece for the Nation of Islam, something which had been suggested in the years before. It was even stated that Ali was told to say his reason for not going to war in Vietnam concerned lines of race and that actually his own reasons had nothing to do with his core belief system and values.
Through it all, it seems Frazier was the one who was actually the real working class black man Ali claimed he was speaking out for. Ali apparently didn't have a job in his early years, whilst Frazier worked laboriously in the fields grafting to make living, often faced by the fiercest of racism.
It seems it was Frazier who even lent Ali money and supported Ali as he tried to gain back his boxing license after it was taken away over Vietnam.
It appears Frazier was the one, who received death threats after Ali's cynical portrayal of him as an inside man who made money and built up a business based on betraying his own people. Frazier's children were even targeted and its seems a genuine threat of violence existed towards his family.
All this, because Ali was scared of Frazier, he knew what Frazier could do to him and he sold himself out completely just to gain and edge in a boxing match. Thats' all this was, a boxing match, but thanks to Ali, he managed to destroy part of another human for life. Frazier cannot ever forgive him for what Ali has done to him and his family. He might say it every now and again, but Ive seen footage of him taking credit for putting Ali in his current condition and claiming its justice for what Ali done to him.
Im sick of the media portraying Ali to be something he is clearly not, in many respects, he is a distortion, a media creation. In my eyes he is great fighter, but not a great man.
Rant over.
I reject the media interpretation of Ali as this leader who used boxing as a conduit to educate and inspire people to question America's involvement in the Vietnam war as well as America's own issues with race and its position in society. To myself the documentary on Thriller in Manilla showed evidence to suggest Ali was impressionable rather than a decisive human being. He was confirmed by some as a mouthpiece for the Nation of Islam, something which had been suggested in the years before. It was even stated that Ali was told to say his reason for not going to war in Vietnam concerned lines of race and that actually his own reasons had nothing to do with his core belief system and values.
Through it all, it seems Frazier was the one who was actually the real working class black man Ali claimed he was speaking out for. Ali apparently didn't have a job in his early years, whilst Frazier worked laboriously in the fields grafting to make living, often faced by the fiercest of racism.
It seems it was Frazier who even lent Ali money and supported Ali as he tried to gain back his boxing license after it was taken away over Vietnam.
It appears Frazier was the one, who received death threats after Ali's cynical portrayal of him as an inside man who made money and built up a business based on betraying his own people. Frazier's children were even targeted and its seems a genuine threat of violence existed towards his family.
All this, because Ali was scared of Frazier, he knew what Frazier could do to him and he sold himself out completely just to gain and edge in a boxing match. Thats' all this was, a boxing match, but thanks to Ali, he managed to destroy part of another human for life. Frazier cannot ever forgive him for what Ali has done to him and his family. He might say it every now and again, but Ive seen footage of him taking credit for putting Ali in his current condition and claiming its justice for what Ali done to him.
Im sick of the media portraying Ali to be something he is clearly not, in many respects, he is a distortion, a media creation. In my eyes he is great fighter, but not a great man.
Rant over.
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