What made Muhammed Ali The Greatest?

Great Debates
21

As stated elsewhere with one add.

  1. Great Athlete

  2. Showmanship

But the extra thing that made him the GREATEST, was HIS ability to manipulate the media to HIS advantage.

He not only understood the media, but how to get it to work FOR him.

Sure Hank Aaron could make knews but when ALI was around he WAS the news.

Was Marilyn Monroe the greatest actress? No. The prettiest? No but she became an ICON.

Same for him. He understood how to be an ICON. For instance I don’t like boxing. But I ALWAYS watched Ali. So did everyone else I knew. It was more than a boxing match when he was fighting it was an EVENT.

Kind of akin to when they said the OSCARS were so boring and people were watching for Billy Crystal not the awards themselves.

And like I said. Ali could manipulate the press, ESPECIALLY the TELEVISION part to his advantage. He was very charismatic. And TV played this up beautifully. And if there is a slow news day what better way to get ratings then interviewing a charasmatic guy about not only boxing but well about nothing.

22

True enough that MalcolM X supported Ali, just that he wasn’t there when Ali made his decision to refuse the draft.
Ali took a lot of heat, and was prepared to do so, before others backed him.