I
liked Muhammed Ali and watched most of his fights. He wasn't a big hitter but
he was a technical boxer who was very fast, good on his feet, and he had a
tremendous reach. His jab constantly pummelled you.
Like
most people he had his own flaws. He was certainly a racist who believed that
black people should not have sexual relationships with white people and vice
versa. He was against miscegenation, interracial marriage, and said interracial
couples should be lynched. In that respect he was no different than the
KKK, or the segregationist Governor of Alabama, George Wallace, or the Governor
of Georgia, Lester Maddox.
Interracial
marriage was illegal in Alabama until 2000. He called Joe Frazier an
"Uncle Tom" and a "gorilla." Martin Luther King Jr, called
him a "champion of segregation." Ali admitted to having addressed a
Klu, Klux, Klan, rally in the 1970s, to preach racial separation. In later life
he toned down many of his extreme racial views and did a lot of charity work.
He fought a battle against Parkinson's disease for over 30 years.
In
August 2009, he came to England, to open Ricky Hatton's gym, in Hyde, Cheshire.
Hatton said: "We took him for a walk
around Hyde afterwards the place came to a standstill. Everywhere you looked
there were people pulling over in their cars just so they could get a glimpse
of the man..."
In
spite of his racist views, which many overlooked or ignored, people had a great
deal of affection for Ali, who they saw as a boxing legend, which he was. Ali
died of sceptic shock, in Arizona, in June 2016, aged 74.
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