Why was Ali never considered a "mob fighter" despite his association with Black Muslims?

Because Ali is too much of a media darling to ever be criticized for joining a literal cult with a pedophile as their leader in Elijah Muhammad.

 

That Chauncey Bailey case was sad. A relative of mine was with OPD and was part of the raid on Your Black Muslim Bakery. I think Yusuf Bey’s son tried to be a boxer and that didn’t work out. Eastbay Express did a long article on them [url]https://eastbayexpress.com/the-sinister-side-of-yusuf-beys-empire-1/[/url]

I think people usually associate mob fighters with La Cosa Nostra and their foothold on boxing in the 40s and 50s. Particularly with Carbo, Palermo, and the alliance with Jim Norris & the IBC, since they had a monopoly over boxing. Their impact on boxing is more known than the black Mafia making threats.

Ali being friends with such a scumbag is a bad look, and people probably don’t want to talk about it. He’s a beloved figure. But I don’t think people call fighters “mob fighters” unless fheir associations had real sway in boxing. Tyson rolled with some infamous criminals. He was supposed to be friends with 2Pac, yet he was friends with Jimmy Henchman, who had 2Pac shot in New York (and supposedly took part in the Lewis-Tyson negotiations). Mayweather was managed by (and later his crew beaten by) a notorious gangster, and Andre ward later managed by him. But they never had the power in boxing like the 40s-50s mafia guys. Lots of boxers are probably friends or acquaintances with scumbag criminals.

The Philly Black Mafia was demented as hell. Those murders at Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s house, the furniture store killings, etc….Teddy Pendergrass’s documentary hinted that Teddy had PBM guys kill his manage, although Sean Patrick Griffin posted in Reddit that he thinks that claim is BS

 

Elijah Muhammad was sleeping with his secretaries, not good and one of the reasons Malcolm left the Nation, but is there any evidence in the public record he was sleeping with children? And every thing Ali believed about race Malcolm did. They both repudiated their views on race, albeit Malcolm much, much sooner.

 

"[Wallace] learnt from his studies that his father wasn't teaching true Islam, and Wallace taught us the true meaning of the Quran. He showed that color don't matter. He taught that we're responsible for our own lives and it's no good to blame our problems on other people. And that sounded right to me so I followed Wallace, but not everyone in the Nation felt that way. Some of the ministers didn't like what he was teaching. Jeremiah Shabazz didn't like it. Louis Farrakhan didn't like it either. They believed Elijah was a prophet, and they've kept the exact ways Elijah taught them. But I've changed what I believe, and what I believe in now is true Islam."

[url]https://archive.org/details/muhammadalihisli00haus[/url]

 

You think Ali was a media darling in the 60s? LOL

 

Ali's association with the NOI and his evolving views of race are part of every serious inquiry into the man.

 

First of all I think you should search around for some of the news reports from the time that Ali was in the Nation of Islam and you'll see that he was very much compared to being mob associated and the Nation of Islam was very much compared to a criminal syndicated. A claim not without some merit in regards to the leadership, especially in those days.

It's also worth remembering that Ali joined the nation right before winning the title, and by the time he was let back into boxing he was already souring on the organization, had been briefly kicked out and disciplined, and would go on to become a Sunni muslim like most of the muslims in the world and reject the NoI's extra mythology that has no route in historical islam.

But a "mob controlled fighter" meant literally controlled by the Italian American mafia, and not belonging to a religious cult that had criminal members who would often act as enforcers for the cult.

I haven't seen any real evidence that the Nation of Islam pulled any sort of the shenanigans that the cosa nostra did in boxing. In fact, other people Ali associated with who were not NoI like Bob Arum and Don King have histories of precisely that kind of thing. So even though there are crimes associated with the organization, a fighter being NoI would not carry the same suspicion as being associated with Frankie Carbo.

That makes sense, right? Because it's about stuff like rigging fights and rankings that matters in relation to a boxers association with a group that may do crime. Lots of boxers belonged to/associate with gangs before and during their career. Reggie Gross was a baltimore drug kingpin's hitman. But he wasn't a "mob fighter," because it largely had no relation to his boxing career. The italian mob ran boxing, especially the hw championship, like a racket for years.

In "Once There Were Giants," Ali is credited as ushering in the modern (non mob controlled) era of hw champs precisely because the NOI had enough muscle to protect him. Granted, the Louisville businessmen who bankrolled Ali's early career were not mobbed up and could have potentially protected him, but that we will never know. I don't think Ali joined NoI because he wanted their protection from the mob, that was just a feature.

And when dealing with religions of all size and level of acceptance you are going to encounter corruption and crimes done by members and clergy. I'm from a Catholic family. Someone could just as easily claim association with the Catholic church links me to some heinous crimes, either historical or contemporary. Just a weird shot to take, but I think that was precisely the point.

 

Let’s open this up further and delve into devout Catholics like Floyd Patterson.

The Catholic Church has been involved in covering up pedo activities and protecting child molesters for untold decades, has started wars, helped Nazi war criminals get out of Germany after WWII with the Rat Line (also taking, and sharing with church officials, wealth stolen/confiscated during their reign), sponsored torture and murder, and has been involved in extortion, theft and other crimes for literally centuries.

That fits the definition of organized crime at the highest level.

So obviously anyone beholden to the church like Floyd was ‘mobbed up,’ right?

 

THIS.

 

this your response to Mormon fighters, too? or Anglican church?

 

We're talking about the present. Ali is currently, by far, the most beloved boxer by the mainstream media and the public. It isn't even up for debate, the man is practically worshipped nowadays.