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in my book mandela is my #1 ATG.
respect
respect
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great threadComment
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A great great man that already has his chapter in history written. Heard his family turned the *****'s down from seeing him lol.Comment
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even in "his younger years" he looked 100Nelson Mandela is now on life support and likely doesn't have long left.
Maybe many people have forgotten but once upon a time Nelson Mandela was a boxer himself and remained a great follower of the sport into his late age, even showing up in support for boxing events held in the country. It sucks some of the better pics are censored though. There's a pic there of Mandela pretending to punch Ali. It's censored here so it's worth googling if you haven't seen it before.
[IMG]http://www.***************.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Nelson-Mandela-Boxing-Gloves.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://www.***************.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Mandela-Ali.jpg[/IMG]
You can read about some of his boxing history here:
Even while he was imprisoned in an impossibly small cell on Robben Island, Nelson Mandela maintained a physical-fitness regimen. In his younger years, he was also a heavyweight boxer, as depicted in this photo (which was made for "Drum" magazine).
It depicts Mandela on the roof of a Johannesburg building. Cropped out of the image is Jerry Moloi, with whom Mandela had been sparring.
In his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela describes his love of boxing (and why he did it):
"I did not enjoy the violence of boxing so much as the science of it. I was intrigued by how one moved one's body to protect oneself, how one used a strategy both to attack and retreat, how one paced onself over a match.
Boxing is egalitarian. In the ring, rank, age, color, and wealth are irrelevant . . . I never did any real fighting after I entered politics. My main interest was in training; I found the rigorous exercise to be an excellent outlet for tension and stress. After a strenuous workout, I felt both mentally and physically lighter. It was a way of losing myself in something that was not the struggle. After an evening's workout I would wake up the next morning feeling strong and refreshed, ready to take up the fight again."Comment
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Cheers had no idea he boxed. Taken some of his quote for my sigComment
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this came out today
http://www.iol.co.za/sport/boxing/ma...7#.UdV17GK1Gj8
Soweto – In a sweaty township gym where Nelson Mandela once trained as a young boxer, athletes are still pumping iron today, inspired by the peace icon's example as he fights for his life in hospital.
Things haven't changed much since the early 1950s, when a youthful Mandela worked out on week nights at the Donaldson Orlando Community Centre, or the “D.O.” as it's still affectionately known.
Spartan and slightly run down, the walls ooze with the intermingled history of sport, community life and the decades-long fight against apartheid oppression.
It was here that Mandela came to lose himself in sport to take his mind off liberation politics.
Nestled in the heart of South Africa's largest township just south of Johannesburg, the community centre was also where famous African songbirds like Miriam Makeba and Brenda Fassie first performed.
The 1976 riots against the imposition of the Afrikaans language in black schools were planned from the D.O. as Mandela and other leaders languished in apartheid jails.
“Here, look, these are the very same weights Madiba used for training,” proud gym instructor Sinki Langa, 49, told a visiting AFP reporter, using Mandela's clan name.
“They have lasted all these years,” he said as he added another set to a bar his fellow trainee Simon Mzizi, 30, was using to furiously bench-press, sweat dripping down his face.
Nearby, other fitness enthusiasts worked out to the tune of soothing music – which unusually for a gym included opera.
The D.O. – or Soweto YMCA as it is called today – opened its doors in 1948, the same year the apartheid white nationalist government came to power.
Built with funds donated by Colonel James Donaldson, a self-made entrepreneur and staunch supporter of the now governing African National Congress (ANC), the D.O. centre includes a hall, and several sparsely furnished smaller rooms like the one where Mandela sparred as a young man.
Today the gym is housed in an adjacent hall, which was the original building on the grounds erected in 1932.
Mandela joined the D.O. in around 1950, often taking his oldest 10-year-old son Thembi with him.
In a letter to his daughter Zinzi, while on Robben Island where he spent 18 of his 27 years in jail, Mandela recalled his days at the gym.
“The walls... of the DOCC are drenched with the sweet memories that will delight me for years,” he wrote in the letter, published in his 2010 book “Conversations with Myself”.
“When we trained in the early 50s the club included amateur and professional boxers as well as wrestlers,” Mandela wrote to his daughter, who never received the letter because it was snatched by his goalers.
Training at the D.O. was tough and included sparring, weight-lifting, road-running and push-ups.
“We used to train for four days, from Monday to Thursday and then break off,” Mandela told journalist Richard Stengel in the early 1990s, while writing his autobiography “Long Walk to Freedom”.
When he was handed a life sentence in 1964, Mandela kept up the harsh regime of his training to stay fit and healthy.
“I was very fit, and in prison, I felt very fit indeed. So I used to train in prison... just as I did outside,” Mandela said in a transcript of his conversation with Stengel, given to AFP by the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory.
Mandela was eventually released from jail in 1990 and in 1994, he was elected South Africa's first black president.
In “Long Walk to Freedom”, Mandela admitted he was “never an outstanding boxer”.
“I did not enjoy the violence of boxing as much as the science of it,” the elderly statesman said.
“It was a way of losing myself in something that was not the struggle,” Mandela wrote.
“Back in those days, boxing was very popular – it was part of that culture,” Shakes Tshabalala, 81, who has been involved with the centre from the start told AFP.
Pugilism always played a big part in Mandela's life and at his nearby house, today a museum, boxing-related items like the WBC World Championship belt donated by Sugar Ray Leonard are on display.
Back at the centre, a new generation of youngsters are training.
Although few of them box today, they draw their inspiration from Mandela's example in healthy living.
While the ailing 94-year-old statesman is battling a recurring lung infection, the gym-goers firmly believe the liberation icon will return for one last round.
“Mandela was a sportsman. This is why today he is still alive,” said gym instructor Langa.
“I am worried about him, but I know he'll win. He's a fighter,” he said. – Sapa-AFPComment
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Great quote. Here's the pic with Ali.
[IMG]http://*******.com/oslnalh[/IMG]Comment
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