Ali’s relationship with those before him?

Interesting he'd rank Patterson over Norton.

 

Kinda disrespectful to tell everyone though, isn't it ....... Lol

 

Misquoted into what I was thinking.

 

Joe Louis once said that he wished that he had the fire of a Jackie Robinson to tell the black mans story.

I think that he had to bite his tongue a lot, and that stayed with him afterwards.

For all that, he was what you might call a moderate civil rights activist.

 

I view it like he was investing in future generations. He took some hits for the team. It's easy for somebody today to look at him and say Uncle Tom but they would be wrong. The time and the place.
Without Joe Louis doing his thing there is no Jackie Robinson on to Jim Brown, Bill Russell etc.The time and the place. Joe Louis was the foundation.
In a pure boxing sense Joe Louis made the Heavyweight Championship the Heavyweight Championship! It was big but made it bigger. He fought everyone, he was an active champion, he gave rematches, when he got beat he owned it and beat the guy who beat him. He praised his opponent and was gracious in victory.
He made it.

 

And perhaps Ali took the next logical step, albeit in a haphazard way.

 

He did. Ali said some things that needed to be said. Anything negative towards Joe Louis I wished he had kept those in the holster. Ali was still a kid basically.

 

Ali was a bit of an ass hat to the fighters before him, and in his time, pre 1970. He would disrespect fighters before him, and taunt those in the ring with him often standing over them when there were down.

If you were born after 1990, you might think Ali was a loved guy. Not so much in his time. His popularity soared after he retired and became sick, partly because he had one heck of a career, and partly due to the politics of those in boxing that loved to watch Ali stick it to the man, even if he as but a puppet of the nation of Islam for a while.