**To PBF fans...including EZE....I am here....**

While I won't dispute that Ali never lived like a militant muslim (The NOI has had a historic problem of its leadership loving the young ladies out of wedlock), I don't doubt the sincerity of his political convictions to not get involved in the Vietnam War. If he had enlisted, he would have been under no more danger than George Bush of getting his head blown off in combat. He would have been used as a recruiting tool to get other young men to enlist in the war. Can you imagine how the hawks in Washington would have loved to see him going into the ring in a U.S. Army robe? I can hear it now, "And in green trunks, heavyweight champion of the world, Sgt. Muhammad Ali!" It would have been a very easy thing for him to have enlisted, but he took the hard and ultimately moral way out.

I speak from experience to a degree here. The Air Force used my father in this matter during the same era; basically he had standing orders to go to Laos that were suspended as long as he performed at an international level in his chosen sport and split his travel time between competition and recruiting drives. It motivated him, and everyone else who was under the same proviso, to train like hell to avoid ending up in the jungle.

 

I have new found respect for Floyd after the post fight interview. I'm always respected his abilities in the ring immensely, and he was very humble and gracious after last nights win. It's not that he's been an ******* in other post-fight interviews, but there seems to be real sincerity in his words last night.
More and more I think his whole overblown ego thing is something of an act.

 

Yeah...Ali cared so much about other Blacks that he would go on national TV and call Joe Frazier a ****** or a gorilla or a house negro for doing nothing more than being a reserved & respectful champion...

Ali was so upstanding that he would cheat & cheat & cheat on his wife w/ so many women & father illegitimate children...

 

Regardless of what you or I think of him, the facts make it very clear that he didn't dodge Army service because he was a coward (like every other athlete, he would have been a propaganda tool for the service) or for money (he lost his championship, the best years of his career, paid untold legal fees, and a lot of cash in the process) as a result of his decision. That leaves only political conviction as a reason for doing what he did. I can forgive all of his other foibles for this singlular act of bravery. You apparently can't. What more needs to be said?

 

This is why you are a ****ing ****** and fail at correctly analyzing fights.

 

I don't always agree with your analysis of the fight game, but all of the above is right on the money.