If Ali had been around in the 40 s?

in retrospect its hardly a crime though.

again, in retrospect, its the reverse of a crime. The USA entered the war to settle an oil crisis with China, and ended it by nuking 2 cities, the worst war crime against citizens to date and one that wont be ever surpassed.

 

Seems most likely.

I think he would have still been a bit rebellious, but within the restraints of his time period. Ali was clearly "touched" in the head. A very special mind.

 

Well Ali claimed that the Viet Cong never did anything to him as the reason he didn't go to Vietnam.

The Japanese in fact BOMBED the united states and the Nazi's wanted to take over the world and kill black people. I'm sure he would have been willing to go into the army and do something.

 

A lot to wrestle with here.

If Ali comes along in the 40s he likely never falls under the influence of the NOI, which was then a much smaller organisation.

I think that the NOI took the same stance on World War II as it did on the Vietnam War, i.e told its followers not to get involved.

A lot of people who refused to fight in Vietnam, would have taken a different stance regarding World War II, and Ali might well have been one of them.

 

I think we all need to remember Joe Louis was the first black champ to came after Jack Johnson.

What seems clear is that there seems have been a gentlemans agreement that the title was going to stay white.

For certain, if it was going to happen at all, I n order for it to be good business, Whoever came after Johnson was going to have to be a lot more humble than Johnson was to get an invite to the party. And don't forget the deal Louis's people had to do with Braddock just to get that shot. Jacobs gave a piece of his HW promotions to Braddock.

If Ali is coming up in Joe Louis's place he is not getting that invite into the big leagues without going through the same hoops. Nobody is taking a chance in the 1930s without assurances that Ali would conform. I don't think in the 1930s Ali even gets that deal to turn pro off the millionaire group that navigated his run to the title. Those guys would be looking for a white guy to bankroll. Ali would need Julian Black and Mike Jacobs.

Ali almost killed the championship as it was when he came out as a Muslim in the 1960s. It forced Ali to defend in Canada, London and Germany because America did not want him. It created his draft. It created his exile. And I think it had a lot to do with the WBA splitting off with Ernie Terrell too.

The world was not ready for Ali until 1970.

 

Ali had a 7th grade education, and got rope-a-doped by the Nation of Islam in real life. Back in the late 30's, the Head of the Muslim Brotherhood was affiliated with the Nazi's, and spent a great deal of time in Berlin during WW2. Not a good group for Ali to been affiliated with in the WW2 period.

 

This.. No agenda, he just got on with it.

 

Ali would have caused controversey in some form or another no matter what decade he was born in. Im sure if he was born in the 80's he would have been on youtube critcizing the Bush administration for getting America involved in a war with a country that never actually had "weapons of mass destruction" and had nothing to do with 9/11. He wins the title from a fading Holyfield or Lewis and gets stripped going to court while being investigated for countless flagged videos and controversial articles.

If he was an active champion during world war 2 he might have served since the Nazis were truly evil and the Japanese attacked first. But he wouldnt have just remained silent seeing the US drop the atomic bombs and he damn sure wouldnt have said nothing seeing all the black soldiers come home and still being treated like 2nd class citizens under segregation.

 

Big difference between Vietnam War and WW 2 . Vietnam War was fought to stop
the spread of communism. The Nazi threat was their ideology of the Aryan race and
committing genocide against minority races or religions.
Ali would have recognized this and like all boxing champions who were inactive during
the 40's because of WW 2 Ali would do his patriotic duty for his country. The Vietnam War
did not have the people 's support unlike WW 2 where the people were behind the
soldier's who went to war.

 

Quite unpopular ? Well, they would have thrown him in jail, and thrown away the key.
During Vietnam, in the late 1960s era, Muhammad Ali had plenty of defenders.
If that happened in 1940s during ww2, he'd have had none. To this day he'd be infamous, an obscure war-time traitor, and more or less expunged from boxing history and American history.

 

Draft dodging was a crime. Hence people being thrown in jail for it.

 

The Nation of Islam didn't have a quarrel with Hitler.