Personally it can't be anyone but Ali. He is the only fighter known and loved World Wide by the causal and hardcore fans. He also was able to take major fights to 3rd world countries and still draw crowds.
I suppose that Joe Louis was the most successful in this regard. He had a huge impact, in winning over public opinion, to the desegregation of sports.
Wait a minute... 1. Ali from 1965-68 was not the good mood guy who appeared in Diff'rent Strokes at the end of the 70's. He was full of anger and had some radical influences in his environment. Later he regret and turned away from these people and distanced himself from that ideology. And btw. there was often bad blood and heated atmosphere prior to the Ali fights. So you can not blame Patterson for this! 2. Patterson did not avoid fights. This goes back to Cus D'amato. His Agenda was to ban the Mafia infiltrated IBC from sports and refrained cooperation with all persons related to the IBC. (Maybe he also wants to protect this fighter who knows?) 3. Patterson stood up for Liston. He felt that he deserved a chance. He appealed to the poeople to respect Liston and that he made his way despite his background. And he was personally involved to make the liston fight happen. Sonny said that in interviews. 4. Patterson lived boxing! He was a trainer, functionary and youth worker for the rest of his life. He was a respectetd person, a friendly guy to everybody and never spoke a bad word about anybody. 5. The considerate, likeable Ali of the 70s honored Patterson as a fighter and as a human being. Ali gave him credit after the Fight in 72 and there were plans for a 3rd fight at the time he fought Leon Spinks if i remember correctly.
Max Schmeling Floyd Patterson Marvin Hagler Ken Norton Rocky Marciano (old) Ali (old) Foreman in my eyes very authentic sincere people who have used boxing to make the best out of their lives, imrove their characters and give something back to the people. Fair but hard and honest sportsmen.
We were saving Jack Dempsey for you, of course. In all seriousness, I can't believe I didn't think of him. He was certainly boxing's ambassador. His restaurant was a hub for New York boxing deals, as I understand it. My Grandfather met him sometime in the thirties. Said he was a total gentleman.
1. Ali didn’t have to be a Normal Rockwell painting grandfather to be treated with basic human respect. Floyd refused to call him by his name (yet he adopted a kid named Tracy Harris and let him change his ‘given’ name to add Patterson to it many years later ... hmmm). He said he was going to bring the title back to America, demeaning Ali as if he were a foreign invader on Floyd’s turf. “The image of a Black Muslim as world heavyweight champion disgraces the sport and the nation,” Floyd said. Floyd bashed Ali’s right to religious freedom, upon which America was founded, guaranteed by the constitution. Ali was quoted as saying he would not bash Floyd’s religion, that he had many Catholic friends of all races, that claiming (as Floyd did) that the Muslims held the heavyweight championship was like saying the Baptists owned the title when Joe Louis was champ. Floyd was Catholic. You want to put the track record of the Catholic Church up against that of any other religious sect? LOL. 2 and 3. Floyd did dodge Sonny Liston. He finally fought him but it was past-due. He did finally come from behind Cus’s shirttails and took his whupping, but he took his time about it. You know who he did not duck as heavyweight champion? An amateur with zero professional fights named Pete Rademacher. He disgraced the most important title in all of sports by taking a paycheck to let a challenger so unqualified that he did not even have a single professional fight get a shot while Sonny had to wait for years. That’s not an ambassador. That’s an embarrassment. 4. Yes, Floyd was a boxer and stayed in the sport. So what? As far as never saying a bad word about anyone, see his comments about Ali (whom he refused to call by his name). 5. Never heard that one. Floyd hadn’t fought for six years at that point. I’m glad Ali was able to forgive Floyd if that’s the case. Hey, we disagree on Patterson. I’m not saying he was an awful human being — far from it — but he was NOT an ambassador for boxing.
Because the black muslims were a hate group and Ali was preaching hate at the time despite what morons today think about him. Calling white people blue eyed devils, blaming them for all of the evils in the world, calling non black muslims the n word, trashing homosexuals as the f word, calling black women who dated white men whores, I could go on and on. He toured all over the country well into the seventies preaching this **** so floyd was perfectly justified in decrying Alis behavior. And how was Floyds defense against Liston past due?? Liston screwed himself by trying to accost a woman in a secluded park at 3am while impersonating a police officer, fled, got caught and arrested and lost his ranking because of it. How is Sonny being a criminal Floyds fault? When Floyd fought Liston he didnt have to. The president even asked Floyd not to fight a convicted felon like Liston who continued to be on the wrong side of the law. Patterson stood up for Liston saying hed paid his debt to society and should be allowed to show the people he could be a champion. Its not Pattersons fault Liston spent the next several years getting arrested numerous times, taking part in potentially fixed fights, and dying of either (take your pick) a drug overdose or a hit by his shady mob associates. Yeah Patterson was the bad guy there...
Floyd didn’t call out Ali’s behavior. What did Muhammad Ali do that would mean he shouldn’t be called by his name? What did Muhammad Ali do to be labeled as not being an American? As far as the Black Muslims, you want to compare their track record to that of Floyd’s Catholic Church? Now many child molesters have they covered for over the years. How many people did this relatively new, relatively small group of people — the Nation of Islam — murder in the name of their Allah than the Catholics murdered over the centuries in the name of theirs? Does all of this reflect on Floyd? Bull hockey. And whatever sins Sonny committed, he served his time. Using that as an excuse for avoiding his deserved title challenge after he paid his debt to society is a complete dodge — he was a licensed professional boxer who earned that on merit inside the ring. Again, bull hockey. How many times have you posted about Cus deliberately keeping Floyd from fighting Sonny because of Cus’ war with a promotional group? Now you want to change that and say it’s about something else. Would you like to present your proof of Sonny Liston being involved in fixed fights? Or is mere innuendo and rumor enough reason to keep someone from getting their rightfully-earned title shot? Every word I wrote about Floyd is true. You don’t want to address that and instead want to use guilt by association with Ali because of his religion (as if Floyd’s had a leg to stand on) — a freedom guaranteed by the constitution of these United States of America, which I suppose you’d rather revoke for people who believe or worship differently than you, as Floyd apparently did — and justify Patterson ducking Sonny Liston because of crimes for which Sonny had already served his time, as if someone previously being convicted and imprisoned is a valid reason for keeping them from competing in the athletic arena. As usual, instead of debating something on its merits and addressing valid, factual points you just throw a bunch of mud and avoid the truth completely.
First of all...your points are not totally false but you just exaggerate a little. You are blowing up this religion and politics stuff a lot. I don't think it's good for this forum. In my opinion that shows that you are too emotionally into it. Instead of picking up my points, you accuse me of many things i didn't wrote. Just 2 examples: -many people still called him Clay during the 60's (Btw: Later Ali said "Floyd is the only man who's allowed to do that"). You make Floyd look like a monster (in your first part) just because he said Clay. And add all this political stuff. -Liston himself stated that Patterson conviced Cus and helped to make this fight happen. It pretty much seems like Cus did't wanted Liston. And there were interview footage where Floyd had to justify himself to journalists why he was giving Liston a chance. And he ansered pretty much like this: "I grew up under similar circumstances. Liston has fought his way up and deserves a chance to fight for the title" But again you say Patterson dodged this Patterson was like that. The truth is how can we know?! Maybe it was all PR and both men were lyiing maybe all the trivial rumors are bull**** I accept your opinion on Floyd, but i think your criticism was over the top. All i wanted is to pick up your points and add some aspects you didn't consider. I just wanted to show you the other side of the coin. Let's finally agree to disagree.
Yeah by keeping his mouth shut and not saying or doing anything controversial. Credit should go to his management and advisors for his Unthreatening public friendly image that he presented.
First off, it’s a shame that Louis, being black, had to keep his mouth shut and not say or do anything controversial. If he opened his mouth about anything he’d have probably been lynched, while boxing history is full of white fighters who were openly racist and suffered no consequences. Second, if you’re going to give credit here why not give it to Joe? What do we know about Joe that makes you think it was the people around him who made him carry himself with the class that he did rather than his own demeanor?
At one point, Riddick Bowe. He not only gave a super generous contribution to starving folks, but rode down to make SURE they got the food.
