# 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:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/21 "2016-06-04T11:35:47Z")
It’s sad, but the man did look terrible for a very long time. Remember how terribly he was shaking due to the Parkinson’s at the 1996 Olympics? ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/22 "2016-06-04T12:06:49Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > 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/) Unfortunately, the “Empire News” site is a satire site. Not as clever as “The Onion”, and much less obvious. That piece of news is fake. Copy-pasted from here: [About / Disclaimer | Empire News](http://empirenews.net/about-disclaimer/) _ **“Empire News is intended for entertainment purposes only. Our website and social media content uses only fictional names, except in cases of public figure and celebrity parody or satirization. Any other use of real names is accidental and coincidental.”** _ ---
**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, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/23 "2016-06-04T12:54:38Z")
Ignorance fought, **JoseB** , though I will add that he was given a replacement medal at the 1996 Olympics. ---
**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, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/24 "2016-06-04T14:10:18Z")
I assume the Parkinson’s was unrelated to boxing, since anyone can get it. Was any of his early deterioration due to boxing, or did he just get unlucky in the genes lottery? ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/25 "2016-06-04T14:28:54Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I assume the Parkinson’s was unrelated to boxing, since anyone can get it. Was any of his early deterioration due to boxing, or did he just get unlucky in the genes lottery? [It’s related](http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/traumatic-brain-injury-a-threat-213647). I was never a fan of his bragging public persona but he was a great boxer and he stuck to his convictions. You have to admire him for that. I once rode in the same plane with him to AVP. When he stood up in the aisle he filled it. He was very gracious to the kids who wanted autographs. Sad that his health was compromised so early in life. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/26 "2016-06-04T14:57:18Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Ah, bummer, but he lived his life larger than any of us every will! > [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > The young Cassius Clay was remarkably beautiful & charming. His journey as Muhammed Ali showed great strength of character. Another of the remaining icons of an age is gone. And one who was never for false modesty about his own iconic status. Through tinted glasses every generation says to themselves as they age, “giants walked the Earth in our days” but this one’s hard to dispute, especially with his global projection during his prime. And I must admit while watching the Olympic opening of Atlanta 96 I teared up, so glad that it could happen while he was still barely able. BTW let’s not forget he may have been, for many people, without their realizing it at the time, the first rapper they ever heard 🆒 > [@](#): > > “You think the world was shocked when Nixon resigned? > Wait 'til I whup George Foreman’s behind. > Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. > His hand can’t hit what his eyes can’t see. > Now you see me, now you don’t. > George thinks he will, but I know he won’t. > I done wrassled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale. > Only last week I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick. > I’m so mean, I make medicine sick.” Age and illness took that beautiful flow from both his body and his words too soon but now that he’s gone we can forever just remember him at his peak, as The Greatest. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/27 "2016-06-04T15:23:25Z")
He even went toe-to-toe with Superman. > **[FIGHTLAND](https://www.vice.com/en/topic/fightland)** > > Everything with the topic 'FIGHTLAND' on VICE ---
**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, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/28 "2016-06-04T15:37:11Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > [It’s related](http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/traumatic-brain-injury-a-threat-213647). Thanks. But that article only mentions that it can be related, not that it actually was in the case of Ali. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/29 "2016-06-04T16:13:33Z")
I watched one of his fights, on TV, with Ayn Rand and a few others. She was a huge fan of his. ---
**Author:** ![KAndre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@KAndre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KAndre)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/30 "2016-06-04T16:57:45Z")
He was so…larger than life. For me, he stood up to “The Man”, demanded respect on his terms, and got it. He was clever, smart, passionate and oh so pretty. He talked shit to everybody, and they took it. He was authentic is a way that’s hard to describe - especially when those who wanted to “put him in his place” declared him a fake - as a boxer, as a Muslim, as an objector to the war. He was the only boxer that I knew that when he fought, everyone around the world would stop and watch. I am the same age as Obama, and he said what I feel: > [@](#): > > “‘I am America,’ he once declared,” Obama continued. “‘I am the part you won’t recognize. But get used to me — black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own. Get used to me.’ That’s the Ali I came to know as I came of age — not just as skilled a poet on the mic as he was a fighter in the ring, but a man who fought for what was right. A man who fought for us.” My grandfather’s boxer was Jack Johnson, my dad’s was Joe Louis, and I got Ali (I was young enough to have missed all of the Cassius Clay brouhaha - he was always Ali to me). I don’t even like boxing, but in the 70’s, he was the spectacle you didn’t want to miss. RIP, Muhammed. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/31 "2016-06-04T17:09:21Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I watched one of his fights, on TV, with Ayn Rand and a few others… Did he knock her out? mmm ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/32 "2016-06-04T17:36:08Z")
…Rumble, young man, rumble. ---
**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, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/33 "2016-06-04T20:43:26Z")
My great-aunt actually babysat him a few times when he was a child (although that may be apocryphal). There’s a quip that no one “gets” unless they have local ties (or are smarter than the average person, Dopers): I knew Muhammad Ali when he went by his real name. Walnut Street ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/34 "2016-06-04T23:50:00Z")
This year is a bloodbath. Nobody’s safe. This quote, from [Muhammed Ali’s 1975 Playboy Interview](https://www.playboy.com/articles/muhammad-ali-playboy-interview-1975) > [@](#): > > **Do you think you’ll be remembered that way?** > > I don’t know, but I’ll tell you how I’d like to be remembered: as a black man who won the heavyweight title and who was humorous and who treated everyone right. As a man who never looked down on those who looked up to him and who helped as many of his people as he could–financially and also in their fight for freedom, justice and equality. As a man who wouldn’t hurt his people’s dignity by doing anything that would embarrass them. As a man who tried to unite his people through the faith of Islam that he found when he listened to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And if all that’s asking too much, then I guess I’d settle for being remembered only as a great boxing champion who became a preacher and a champion of his people. And I wouldn’t even mind if folks forgot how pretty I was. You’re still the prettiest, man. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2016, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/35 "2016-06-05T02:37:02Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Did he knock her out? She went on strike in round 3. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2016, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/36 "2016-06-05T17:29:20Z")
> [@Merneith](#): > > This year is a bloodbath. Nobody’s safe. > > This quote, from [Muhammed Ali’s 1975 Playboy Interview](https://www.playboy.com/articles/muhammad-ali-playboy-interview-1975) > > You’re still the prettiest, man. I posted a followup in the split-off pit thread [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=19382019&postcount=60](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=19382019&postcount=60) ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2016, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/37 "2016-06-06T16:59:46Z")
> [@Merneith](#): > > I posted a followup in the split-off pit thread > [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=19382019&postcount=60](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=19382019&postcount=60) That was well put. Ali was a bad person who turned into a good person but people are still celebrating the bad person. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_from\_CB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/278dde/32.png) [@Alex\_from\_CB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_from_CB)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438/38 "2016-06-07T03:47:51Z")
I met Cassius Clay back in February of '64. I was 14. Lived in Miami. My Dad took me to see him spar as a birthday present right before the first Listen fight which was in Miami. Sparing match was held in The Miami Beach Auditorium which is right next to The Miami Beach Convention Center where the fight was held. I was a fan. My Dad… he thought Clay was a showman. Said he reminded him of a 1940’s era pro wrestler, Gorgeous George. George, apparently drummed up interest for his matches by clowning around and saying how pretty he was. We arrived at the auditorium and just as we walked in the door, Clay and 2 or 3 other guys walked in. We stepped back to let them pass. They were all dressed in denim jeans and denim coats. On the back in red script it said, "Bear Huntin.’ " Recall he had a nickname for each of his opponents. Listen was, The Bear. Floyd Patterson… The Rabbit. Clay sparred with 3 guys 3 rounds apiece. The last opponent was his younger brother, Rudy. He let Rudy hit him quite a bit. The other opponents never laid a glove on him. The other thing I remember from that night is Clay never sat down between rounds. When the match ended I think some interviews took place with some TV or radio guys. As everyone left I turned around and a few people were standing around the ring get to get an autograph. Asked my Dad if we could go back. There were very people around getting autographs. Maybe 5 or 10. Clay’s Mom and Dads were seated in the first row of seats. They were dressed very nicely. Dad in a suit and Mom in a fancy dress like one would wear going out on Miami Beach. Clay stood in the ring until the last autograph was signed. He signed for me on the back of my Dad’s business card. Handed it too me and I said, “thank you, sir.” I know Ali signed autographs tirelessly all his life. Of course, Mine is different from almost all the rest. **Mine is signed… Cassius Clay**. About 2 weeks after that day in Feb of 1964, 52 years ago, Clay became Ali and he never signed the name, Clay again. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muhammed-ali-hospitalized-in-grave-condition-update-rip/756438.md?page=1)