# Muhammed Ali hospitalized in "grave" condition \[Update, RIP\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 3, 2016, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438 "2016-06-03T23:42:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2016, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/1 "2016-06-03T23:42:47Z")
I’m surprised he lived this long. The report I heard on the news didn’t sound good. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/2 "2016-06-04T00:13:15Z")
He hasn’t really lived “this long.” He’s only 74. Boxing takes a toll. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/3 "2016-06-04T00:49:13Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > 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). ---
**Author:** ![Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/4 "2016-06-04T00:52:12Z")
He’s been living as a shell for a real long time. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/5 "2016-06-04T02:39:24Z")
Saw The Champ at O’Hare once. I am sorry that it has come to this. There won’t be another. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/6 "2016-06-04T03:48:36Z")
> [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](#): > > He’s been living as a shell for a real long time. He’s been unable to speak for, what, 25 years? ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/7 "2016-06-04T04:17:50Z")
The Rachel Maddow Show has just been interrupted for the announcement of his death. Float like a butterfly, Cassius. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/8 "2016-06-04T05:31:51Z")
[A fitting tribute from Ben Folds](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOKhqYMjXj8) ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/9 "2016-06-04T05:36:17Z")
Grave condition indeed. I’ll confess to not knowing much about him. Besides being a good boxer and showman, why do people like him? ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/10 "2016-06-04T05:41:42Z")
Title should be updated - he passed away. ---
**Author:** ![denquixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@denquixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/denquixote)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/11 "2016-06-04T05:49:12Z")
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.” ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/12 "2016-06-04T05:56:12Z")
He and Don King were responsible for the mushrooming popularity of heavyweight boxing. Until Don King killed it. RIP The Greatest. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/13 "2016-06-04T05:56:39Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/14 "2016-06-04T05:58:14Z")
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. [Until the medal was found in 2014.](http://empirenews.net/muhammad-alis-olympic-gold-medal-found-in-ohio-river/) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/15 "2016-06-04T06:16:48Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/16 "2016-06-04T06:17:40Z")
His daughter Maryum was just on a reality show on A&E. 60 Days In > **[Muhammad Ali’s daughter went undercover as an inmate in an Indiana jail —...](https://www.businessinsider.com/maryum-ali-muhammad-60-days-in-jail-incarcerated-undercover-2016-3)** > > VIDEO: "Did I do the right thing here?" ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/17 "2016-06-04T06:27:54Z")
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.” ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/18 "2016-06-04T06:55:19Z")
😉 yes Ali is definitely in grave condition now. The OP was quite prophetic. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/19 "2016-06-04T11:03:05Z")
Ah, bummer, but he lived his life larger than any of us every will! ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/20 "2016-06-04T11:26:53Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > Grave condition indeed. > I’ll confess to not knowing much about him. Besides being a good boxer and showman, why do people like him? The young Cassius Clay was remarkably beautiful & charming. His journey as Muhammed Ali showed great strength of character. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438.md?page=2)