Hey, if you missed it, and have a computer: you can watch it on your computer..... http://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/253256771667/The-Trials-Of-Muhammad-Ali ......................................................................................................................................... This was a very interesting program: it took me way back....as a 10-12 yr old, I was training at a boxing gym in Richmond, Melbourne....and Cassius Clay as he was known then, was fairly regarded by all Auzzies back then as having a big mouth.......in Auz, from memory, we got to see only a few news snippets of his destruction of Cooper, Liston and Patterson. I think Mahammad certainly developed into a much better spokesman, and boxer. Lucky, as fate would have it, I would meet Mahammad Ali about half a kilometre from that Richmond gym when he was doing road work after the Logies in Melbourne, about 15 years (1979 ?) later. For me, this documentary program illustrated Ali's development (public speaking) and growth into an intelligent and sensible being; to a large degree, this was assisted by his great mentors, his Islamic religion and its values. I think Ali had rock solid, valid argument for his draft-dodging. Why would you give your life to a country that continually violated the values it preached? The only benefit America had from the Vietnamese war was the theme and making of Forest Gump (my favourite movie). The three year break that Ali was forced to have in boxing just made him smarter, maturer and stronger........it would be a boxing rarity that a three year comeback would result in so many world titles. Anyway great program. Also, you see Ali a stage performer, during his three year break from boxing, you see him dressed up and singing in a stage performance, a play that is formulated around the oppression of black people. cheers... This is Ali and never comes another...
That was an excellent documentary. I agree with your comment about Ali improving his spokesman skills during his enforced downtime. In some ways that time completed him. Though Angelo Dundee always maintained he didn't come back the same fighter and there were things he could no longer do. I loved the comment of Ali's daughter when she said she though of him more as the 8th wonder of the world than a father.
9522 Good summary mate....yes his daughter declaring him the 8th Wonder of the world...was pretty accurate. I often wonder where America would be on the racial card, if Mahammad Ali had not been such an explicit spokesperson...maybe President Obama would have only made it to Deputy Mayor.......
Not many boxers could rightfully claim to have changed the course of history outside of the ring. But Ali sure can. It was also interesting to hear from his brother. I knew he had one, but had never seen or heard from him before.
I remember reading somewhere that Ali's brother had fought on the undercard of one of his big fights, and Ali commenting that he watched his brother's fight on TV from the change rooms prior to his own fight. Looking at Boxrec, Rahman Ali fought on the undercards of both Ali vs Bonavena and Ali vs Frazier I, both at Madison Square Garden. So it was probably Ali's first fight against Frazier he was referring to.
............................................................... There was a critical time, i thought, where Mahammed might have scored an onshore bullet. Martin Luther King and a few others had been silenced for their race defying efforts. Maybe the boxing crooks in America had bigger guns. His loving brother was full of emotion and joy (wonderful)
I wasn't aware Ali's apartment was destroyed by arson the same night Malcolm X was shot until I saw the show last night. Looking back, Ali was probably very lucky nobody bumped him off along the way. Many far less famous and less controversial people have been assassinated over the years.
