I know Gorgeous George was a big influence on Ali. Ali said that's where he got his showmanship from.. Ali talks about it here. A funny and interesting clip. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PNsLB7gyiw&feature=related[/ame]
You could argue that even Ali wasn't as hated as Gorgeous George. The fans really went after him at every opportunity. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYq_FVXdg84[/ame] 1:10 [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_db3IFLxxtw[/ame] 7:20 Nevertheless he made more money than any other athlete in his time because the people wanted to see him get beat.
I just came upon this video of Gorgeous and Cassius independently, but I thought I'd do a search before starting a new thread - and sure enough here it is! I think that Clay-Ali is vastly overrated as a boxer, but he was a flamboyant showman, as was, of course, the original Gorgeous one. This content is protected
George was the first big wrestling star thanks to television...he was one of the biggest"bad guys" in wrestling history...he passed away...I think...the day after christmas 1963...
Yeah, and he was one of the guys that popularized early tv. He fell upon hard times though. He was a bad alcoholic.
People say Ali wasn't intelligent, that was entrepreneurial genius right there though combined with charisma and wit
But here's the rest of the story: It belatedly dawned on Ali that he had confused Gorgeous George with Freddie Blassie, and it was really Blassie's wrasslin heel act that he copied. This was clearly true as Ali wasn't doing GG's homo act. Ali and Blassie actually teamed up together for the boxer-wrestler travesty vs. Inoki in 1976, and here they are together on tv, Ali and Freddie Blassie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Fyc8ER32Xrc This content is protected Classy Freddie Blassie
