I’m surprised he lived this long. The report I heard on the news didn’t sound good.
He hasn’t really lived “this long.” He’s only 74.
Boxing takes a toll.
Yeah, that’s pretty long for someone who used to get hit in the head for a living (granted, he gave better than he got).
He’s been living as a shell for a real long time.
Saw The Champ at O’Hare once. I am sorry that it has come to this. There won’t be another.
He’s been unable to speak for, what, 25 years?
The Rachel Maddow Show has just been interrupted for the announcement of his death.
Float like a butterfly, Cassius.
Grave condition indeed.
I’ll confess to not knowing much about him. Besides being a good boxer and showman, why do people like him?
Title should be updated - he passed away.
There are several reasons but I like him because of his personality, showmanship, integrity and some of the greatest fights ever. He once said before his first fight with Sonny Liston, the then current champ and one of the most fearsome looking fighters ever, “the crowd did not dream when they put up the money / that they would see a total eclipse of the Sonny.” He recited many short couplets before his fights, though that was the best. However in my mind his greatest accomplishment was his refusal to be inducted into military service during the Vietnam war. He spent 4 years of his boxing prime in exile because of a principled stand against the war, having been arbitrarily stripped of his title. He made appearances around the country in support of the peace movement and that alone makes him “The Greatest.”
He and Don King were responsible for the mushrooming popularity of heavyweight boxing. Until Don King killed it.
RIP The Greatest.
Ali is down for the count. 1,2,3,4… get up!
Looks like the champ lost this fight.
Damn. Another icon of my childhood gone. I saw the fight when Ken Norton broke his jaw in 1973.
RIP champ
Not to mention how he won a gold medal in the 1960 Olympics, and, upon returning to his hometown, was still subjected to racism. He was so disillusioned by it all that he threw his gold medal (which he loved so much that he’d sleep with it on) into the Ohio River.
He never really said anything about that until 1975, and a lot of people thought he was making the story up.
He knew he was the Judas Goat of the US in the 1960s. Such awareness and acceptness of the sins of a country was honorable.
His daughter Maryum was just on a reality show on A&E. 60 Days In
I don’t think you should qualify for “grave” condition until you are actually dead. Alas, he has achieved that condition.
Back to being known as “Clay.”
yes Ali is definitely in grave condition now. The OP was quite prophetic.
Ah, bummer, but he lived his life larger than any of us every will!
The young Cassius Clay was remarkably beautiful & charming. His journey as Muhammed Ali showed great strength of character.