~~~ ESB Box! Writing Championship™ - September - My Favourite Fighter's Style ~~~

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“Hit and not get hit.” This was the heart of Muhammad Ali’s unique style. And the fistic master honed it to an art. He was a boxer, yet, as geniuses do, he created something new.

Idealism, not raw anger, propelled the Ali offense: fast, long-range jabs and straight rights, to open the way for combination flurries punctuated with rat-a-tat hooks and uppercuts. Scoring points, protecting that “pretty face”, winning rounds sufficed. Little bloodlust. A hint of compassion. Yet the prowess to close the show on a stunned foe.

Ali said of his legs, “Here’s my defense.” Prodigious legs, yes, and superhuman reflexes. Dazzling side-to-side, back-and-forth movement on the toes allowed Ali to stay out of range while seeking the opening. Complementary were sleek shoulder rolls and magical head punch-slipping: now turning both cheeks to avoid oncoming missiles, now pulling straight back faster than a speeding bullet!

A duck and half pirouette off the ropes (Ali seemed in two places at once: now back against the ropes, now snarling behind your back!) and a commanding clinch and shove (lethal dragons became immobilized lambs). And when youth and its gifts had to give way to experience, Ali joined the greatest artistic improvisors of all time by simply covering up against the ropes, daring, deflecting, absorbing, mentally mastering the strongest men, to finally explode back and send them plunging to defeat.

The unique Ali style proves how dedication begets manifold tools and resources truly your own.