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

I don't see him as either, but I detest the revisionist history that he was one of the greatest moral persons that ever achieved any kind of fame.

Absolute dog****, and I'm actively offended when people prop him up.

 

sure I know what I am talking about. I lived through the era unlike most of you tw!ts:rasta

 

aint no Vietnamese every call him the N word !
standing up for his belief and not fighting the white man's war !
you said cheated on his wives but wives is plural meaning more then one wife :huh loss me on afro history scumbag, were you talking about muslims, malcom x or the nation of islam. all 3 were and still is good for young african american men, especially the kids from the ghettos. ali is a icon amongst african americans i cant really speak for any other races.

but why do people get so personal with fighters, they get there info from where ever and run with it. speak it like its in the bible, fighters are human as well i think. so the following never surprises me about any fighter great or not.

drugs abuse
domestic abuse
gambling
infidelity
murder
suicide
he did this or that. i mean ****, its life. i dont put to much into boxers personal life. i became a fan of the fighters i liked by the way they fought in the ring. not because who they sleeping with or what they doing with there money. or anything else that just dont really concern a fan, a fan should stay in a fans place i think. ONLY GOD CAN JUDGE, F YOUR HONOR !!

 

He was charismatic, "pretty" and fame hungry - a perfect material for a media darling, a pop-culture star loved by the masses.

One thing I admire him for outside the ring is how he stood against the war in Vietnam. For that he deserves to be applauded. The rest of his phenomenon is basically just a noise.

 

So what ?

Most of the individual accusations leveled at him in this thread are probably true. And verifiable.

Nobody, especially not Ali, would claim he was a saint.

The man had his faults, and at 22, he was open to being used by less than stellar groups to feed their causes. But as CJ has already mentioned, most of the Holy Joes posting vituperative bile against the man were not alive when Ali's career was in progress and never had to deal with the **** he dealt with (couldn't eat in most Southern restaurants, couldn't go in the front door, couldn't stay in many hotels, etc. Negroes were still being lynched when Ali was a teenager)

So some of his early attitudes might well be given , if not a pass, then at least an explanation.

The man was the single greatest source of pride for his race for at least a decade.

And while he was hated by some in the US in the sixties, he was loved by far more throughout the world ever since.

Put up the name of any hero, boxing or otherwise and we could find plenty of faults with them.

I'll never support some of the treatment he dealt Joe Frazier outside of the ring, but I believe it was promotion that got out of hand and Ali came to regret it and apologized.


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

It was mostly on account of his qualities, his faults notwithstanding.

It was because of his accomplishments in the face of great adversity, and his charisma.

It will be a long while before we'll see his likes again.

 

All long before my time but what did his peers during the 60s/70s/ think of him and everything around him outside the ring? The likes of Fraizer, Foreman, Norton, Holmes,etc? What were their views then and more recently post retirement?

 

I think its based on his stance on Vietnam. Many people believe he had such high principles that he was willing to put his beliefs over his pro career.

 

He did. :conf

 

Did he refuse to be drafted because he believed the war was wrong or because the Nation forced him to?

 

True, he was still searching for himself at that time. NOI also gave him the line 'No Vietcong ever call me N...".

That's what I liked about the old-school guys though, you know for all the shit talk we have nowadays they went out and did it. Those 3 years must of been tough, it was a stance of principal. The fact that he's one of few of his generation left (those that have passed; Lyle, Frazier, Dundee and now Norton) shows a great mental fortitude to me personally and the man's strong will to live.

 

The Nation was not a very good place to "find yourself." They milked him dry

1: I agree. Thoses guys were from the golden days of heayweight boxing

2: In a way his exile was the best thing that happened to him because the American public was rapidly turning against him due to his treatment of Patterrson and joining the NOI. When he returned he was a superstar.

 

He didnt wanna fight the white mans war..... but he took their money.

 

When it comes to celebrity culture people will idolize anyone who is successful/popular and hyped by the media, just look at Tyson, a sadistic, violent ****** - and people still love him and even excuse him for ****.

As for Ali, I never bought into the hype about him being some sort of ambassador for humanity, but then he's hardly the walking incarnation of Satan either.

 

Tyson is a good example. Biting off Evander's ear was disgusting

I guess Ali is what ever people want him to be.

 

Bert Sugar said the gold medal story is bullsh!t

Says hes basically just lost the medal.

And Ali himself never read all those books about him