Can anyone tell me why Muhammad Ali is so revered outside the ring?

I must admit I have never understood half of the fuss over Ali. I'm not saying he wasn't a great fighter but ****ing HELL.

 

Quite simply for his Charisma....watch tapes of him outside the ring interacting with people and just joving along...forget sports and forget hollywood and forget politics, Ali was simply one of the charismtic people ever to live....basically he was one incredibly cool muthfukka...and that cant be learned or taught, it is god given and incredibly rare and that is why people flock to see it....and oh yeah, he could back up everything he said which puts the whole thing on another even more rare level

 

Ali was a great fighter but he was a horrible man pay back is a mother.

 

1. Charisma and natural charm
2. Having strong beliefs and standing by them.
3. He backed up most of his claims inside the ring. He was truly great.
4. He traveled widely: he fought in many countries and visited many places, enhancing his worldwide exposure and appeal.
5. He has done a lot of good things outside the ring: one example many people don't know about was when he talked a suicidal man off the ledge of a building he happened to be close to at the time.
6. He was an icon for different groups: African-Americans, anti-war protesters, kids growing up.

 

Ali was a complex man, as are many people. Inside the ring he was magic, and somewhere along the line he was influenced by Muslims to the extend that he came to believe that Cassius Clay was him slave name, so he changed it to Muhammad Ali.

Later he was told he had to go to war, and he said, I don't have any quarrel with the Vietnamese, they aren't the one's locking up my brothers and treating us blacks as second class citizens. So he refused to go to war on religious grounds and eventually won in the Supreme Court.

But he did a lot of bad things too. He committed adultery, he went way overboard in his treatment of Frazier to the point of causing him a lot of pain.

But this payback comment is pure crap. He stayed in the ring too long, absorbed too much punishment and ended up getting Parkinson disease. So he went from the most athletic man on the planet to a shadow of himself, not because he "deserved it" but because he stayed in the ring too long, and absorbed too much punishment. Probably the fights between himself and Frazier and Foreman caused most of this.

But he was one of a kind. I remember when I was younger they had a song about him. Essentially he was the '60's version of Jack Johnson.

here's a link to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsDHi-vJCYs

 

Read Ghosts of Manila and get back at me.

 

So is strapping bombs to your chest and blowing people the **** up.

Who gives a **** about that.

 

White people have a problem with black people when they simply react to the racism that is sent their way. Ali stated, that no Vietcong ever called him a ******. The white establishment in the U.S. was still treating minorities like crap, and Ali stated what many were just thinking.

I find it laughable that some white people call people like Ali racist. I don't like mother ****ers that don't like me. Doesn't make me racist.

 

I never liked the guy outside of boxing. What you say is all true. It goes without saying he was for segregation. He's despicable in my eyes.

Many people didn't see that side of him or refused to. He grew up in an era where there were far worse things out there and people found courage through him because he was a symbol of strength and spoke his mind. I can understand that. Just like in Dark Knight, the symbol is often more inspiring than the real man.

 

He didn't speak his mind he spoke what others wanted him tne of the biggest myths is he was a great person complete bull and I'm getting upset about it,screw him.

 

Called for the death of people participating in interracial marriage as well.

Obviously it was just empty rhetoric like most of what the man said, but still... Some ignorant, even ****ed up, dangerous stuff came out of the guys mouth.

The man jumped from figure to figure throughout his life. He was a puppet for Malcom X, Don King, Islam and others in general

Definitely didn't do much thinking of his own.

Great fighter, poor human being.

 

amen