Cassius Clay/Muhammed Ali exile years

If you are going to ,get on your hate soap box as usual ,you might at least spell the man's name right.atsch

 

I think Muhammad Ali wanted Sonji Roi to change her name to Sonji X.
Throw away the mini-skirts, nice mod clothes, lip-stick and stay home
to cook, clean and have children, and serve her man.

As soon as she said she wanted to have a life too, he informed her that she did not
have the 'right' to make her own choice, and that her 'choice' would be done for her.

Odd, the same things he was fighting for himself, he prevented an independent woman
the same rights....

 

As for lovely ironies: At a party, Ali and Sonji had an argument in the bathroom about how she dressed, and Ali started to rip her clothes and slapping her. After a while it got so bad that no other than Sugar Ray Robinson came to the door trying to break it up. Ali told him to mind his own business if he didn't want to cop a beating. Ray went away.

 

bok,

If you can, go back and watch the tape of the Ali vs Liston II fight in Maine.
The camera pans Sonji in the audience, and she looks ravishing, done to the 'nines'.

Then the after fight interview, while Muhammad is describing the 'anchor punch' to all the news media while he's on the podium, Sonji rushed up to congratulate Muhammad,
and as she interupts him, he flashed her a look that said "I could kill you woman'.

Priceless,,,,,,,,,,,,,'pacifist my ass'

 

I think most on this forum recognizes that humans in general are multifold and complex creatures, and that this applies to Ali more than most.

I must give him props for publishing in full a recorded conversation he had with Sonji some years after the divorce, though. It makes him come off like a true ass. The bathroom incident is described by Sonji in that conversation.

Did you see my post about him being offered to star in a Jack Johnson picture? Do you know anything about that?

 

Bok,,

I've never heard of that one, but he might have been very good in that role.

Never thought, that role as a slave on a white slave traders ship in 'Mutiny'
served any purpose.
The movie was never produced, as the backers who were to put up the $1,500,000
for film production never had any cash, it was just a scam.
It was nothing more than a publicity stunt (Film Company from Spain)

Though, Sonny Liston as 'Farmer', the truck driver in 'Moonfire' (1970 release) was acceptable,
for a 'B' movie.

 

Well, boxing commissions and local authorities had suspended or banned fighters and managers for being undesirable characters long before they did so with Ali.
Boxing history is litterred with local politicians and officials telling certain individuals they cannot ply their trade in this or that backyard.

Sonny liston could never get licensed in certain states, not for anything he'd done in the ring. Just by being associated with 'bad elements'.

Really, put into perspective, Ali didn't suffer half as much as most young 'draft dodgers' did, not to mention the guys who were forced to go and get killed.

i guess the tragedy for Ali was he was so damn good at boxing at the time he got banned.

 

I'm guessing Ray wanted to show Ali how to execute the perfect combination on one's wife.
What's with these boxers as wife-beaters ? The noble art, my ass.

 

Yeah. Perhaps he could accept Ali's slapping flurries in the ring, but when it came to wife beating he wanted proper combinations.

 

:rofl

 

Thad Spencer on Muhammad Ali,

Look, I feel bad for the guy, but he brought all this on by himself.
There has to be some moron in his group advising him, because every move
he's made has back-fired on him.
For me, all I want to do is fight the best of my abilities, and make a little
money for me and my family.
I have bills, just like everone else.
If I get a shot at the Title, so be it.
If I win the thing, I will do my darned hardest to keep it,
and make as much money as I can.

But Ali has taken this to a different planet. If there is no large fight purse,
then he won't fight.
I'm happy making $35,000 for a fight, and so are the other fellow's.
But Ali, with his farm of people, $35,000 won't cover his damn expenses for a week.
He has way to many mystery people with him, and if you try to discuss any
possible fight with him, his manager has a bucket full of demands and rules.

It's not worth the effort anymore. I hate this sport of boxing.
I say, let Ali have his 'toy', and let him play with it.

 

December 1967,

'IN DEBT $80,000, LOST $8 MILLION, MUHAMMAD ALI SAYS"

Speaking on a London, England Television Program,
ex-Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali said since his conviction
for refusing to be drafted into the U.S. Army, he has lost $8.2 Million
worth of movie contracts, commercial endorsements and heavyweight
title fights.
He also said, he was $80,000 in debt.

 

November 1969

'MUHAMMAD ALI TO PLAY 'BUCK WHITE' IN HOLLYWOOD FILM'

Muhammad Ali (erstwhile Cassius Clay), deposed but undefeated heavyweight
boxing champion, is slated to take his Broadway potrayal of 'Buck White' into a
motion picture version of the musical 'Big Time Buck White'.
Hollywood Producer Zev Buffman announced that, he has signed Ali for the movie
which will be based on Joseph Dolan Tuotti's successful off-Broadway play with
a musical score by Oscar Brown Jr.

Included songs will be 'We Came In Chains' and 'Mighty Whitey'.

 

I recall that about the Jack Johnson film. He was offered the part,so I hear,ahead of James Earl Jones in The Great White Hope,but he rejected it because of the sleeping with white women bit.

 

Yeah. He was banned from plying his trade at home AND abroad. The land of the free.....? :roll: