Muhammad Ali article: worth reading

[mokele]

I ran across the following thread:

http://forums.doghouseboxing.com/ind...howtopic=58668

In it is discussed some of the details of Muhammad Ali's life. It's not for those who like a pure, "good guy - bad guy" view of people, but for those who prefer to see the truth however disturbing.

My personal view is that Ali usually meant well but made a lot of mistakes, some of which added to people's misery. Today he seems like a genuinely decent man, but that doesn't mean that we should forget some of the things he did or stood for during portions of his past.

[Heckler]

Its hard to find a truthful accurate account of Ali's life. We go from one extreme like Mark Krams slanted account...ghosts of manila where Ali is shed in negative light so often it becomes ridiculous, he makes claims that are pure speculation and just as ridiculous. I respect Mark Kram as a boxing historian, his opinion in regard to politics i do not. We have other accounts of the mans life that essentially imply he was a perfect, flawless humanitarian which is just as ridiculous. I respect Ali alot as he gave up pretty much everything in a fight for a just cause. People try to portray him as a mindless puppet of the NOI yet whenever he was put on the spot with questions he answered intelligently, articulately and with convinction. He was apparently insincere? Who would throw away money, the championship title, his reputation, everything they had ever worked for and risk going to jail for 5 years for something he they not believe in? defies logic.

I do not respect what he did to Joe Frazier and i acknowledge that he was a womanizer. However, I consider him to be a good man yet flawed like the rest of us.

[Heckler]

Again that is nothing more then another mans opinions. Am i to consider that to be 'the truth'? there maybe truths in it but again alot of it is speculation . We do not know what Ali felt, what his true attitudes were. Its a complex situation, some believe that the NOI thought that whites were the devil... logically Ali thinks the same? Yet Ali respected Angelo Dundee, Howard Cosell and Rocky Maricano and infact refused to fire Dundee after Elijah Muhammad asked him to? Many whites that met Ali have also noted how respectful and courteous he was.

This article you gave a link to again comes across as something produced by another slanted, bitter person trying to deconstruct the myth of Ali being a perfect Human being... which he was not, but in trying to counter such an extreme argument they become just as ridiculous and extreme themselves. Constantly shedding negative light on Ali and making claims without evidence or even a source.

Someone needs to write an account of Ali's life that falls somewhere between Thomas Hausers god-like portrayal and Mark Kram's bitter, biased attack.

[LondonRingRules]

I already know most of the public released details of Ali. Unless there are new private revelations, the article is for latecomers.

[butterfly1964]

bump......

[Southpaw Stinger]

Interesting...

[The Raging Bull]

I'll read it later.

Thanks by the way