Did You Fear That Ali Would Have Been Assasinated During The 1960s?

Cue Tyson Hooooooook saying something like "I wish he did"

 

i was actually going to put that

 

It was always on the cards.

There have been atempts upon the lives of champions because of what they represented in the ring before.

Jack Johnson and Jem Mace both ended up on thge business end of a gun because people did not want them as champion.

 

This speculation came to a head in the lead up to the second Ali/Liston fight in 1965. After Malcolm X's assassination by the NOI,there were rumours that some of Malcolm's supporters were going to even the score,by taking out a prominent supporter of the DIS-honourable Elijah Muhammad. Plus cranks from the KKK were always threatening to kill Muhammad. It's a testament to Ali's character that he went about business as usual.

 

It always annoys me when some modern day fighters make up flimsy excuses for bad performances,when you think of Muhammad Ali and Jack Johnson having their very lives threatened,and still coming up with the goods on fight night.

 

Yeh it's always suprised me that he made it through the 60's alive especially when you throw in the U.S Army draft issue into the mix. Then i thought that he's deff going to get it considering extreamists from all sided portrayed him as a disruptive meddling traitor & when he lost to Frazier that proberbly saved his life:yep

 

The Beatles went through the same thing.

Nothing happens when you have proper security.

See, Pia Zadora is still alive..........

 

Ali was NOT a Civil Rights activist.

He was apparently a separatist.
He talked out AGAINST blacks who preferred integration over segregation.
He talked out AGAINST inter-racial marriages.
He believed in blacks being separated from whites.

So, how is that "Civil Rights" ?

 

Ali seemed to polarise AND unite opinion at the same time about some things. The Nation of Islam were a separatist movement,but Muhammad attracted fans of both black and white during his exile,while he was lecturing on the college circuit. The NOI were a puritanical group,which was very male chauvinist oriented,yet women loved him. He also had more white people in his entourage than practically any black champion. I've long been of the opinion that Muhammad believed in certain things that the NOI preached,but to be a member of an organisation like that,you had to go along with the whole price list of things. It was only later on that he had the confidence to speak his more well rounded view.

 

Having white friends and women fans doesn't make him a Civil Rights activist.
He simply wasn't.
He may have become part of the "anti-war movement" due to his refusal to join the armed forces, but people who think he was part of the black "civil rights" thing are confused.

I don't think you can assume he always had "well rounded views", I think he was more likely a devoted follower of Elijah Muhammad and lapped up every word he spewed as divine truth. Later he got wise, CHANGED his views, and reverted to true Islam. But that was a long time after the 60s had passed.

 

Yeah. After losing the FOTC,a lot of people started to respect him a bit more,as he proved that he could take heavy punishment.

 

Good points,but I very much doubt whether he was a racist. It was just that the NOI made him feel proud to be black,and going by the climate of the times,who can blame him ?

 

Of course Ali was not a civil rights activist in the professionally political sense.

But as a matter of personal conscience, he stood up for universal civil as well as human rights in a simple, individual way:

"I am proud of the title 'World Heavyweight Champion,' which I won in the ring in Miami on February 25, 1964. The holder of it should at all times have the courage of his convictions and carry out those convictions not only in the ring but throughout all phases of his life.

It is in light of my own personal convictions that I take my stand in rejecting the call to be inducted into the armed services. I do so with full realization of its implications and possible consequences. I have searched my conscience, and find I cannot be true to my belief in my religion by accepting such a call.

My decision is a private and individual one. In taking it, I am dependent solely upon Allah as the final judge of these actions brought about by my own conscience. I strongly object to the fact that so many newspapers have given the American public and the world the impression that I have only two alternatives in taking this stand --either I go to jail or go to the Army. There is another alternative, and that alternative is justice. If justice prevails, if my constitutional rights are upheld, I will be forced to go neither to the Army nor jail. In the end, I am confident that justice will come my way, for the truth must eventually prevail."

--Muhammad Ali, in a statement issued right after his refusal of induction at Houston, April 28, 1967.

This, lady and gentlemen, must be accepted as the sentiment of a congruent, respectable man.

It really is a wonder someone didn't try to get Ali. Perhaps fear of the Nation gave him at least some protection.