Muhammad Ali

Dave Hannigan

Description

Between defeat by Trevor Berbick in December 1981 and lighting the Olympic flame in Atlanta in July 1996, Muhammad Ali spent the 15 most turbulent years of his life traversing the globe, seeking a higher purpose. Depending on the day, the retired champion could be a diplomat trying to liberate hostages in the Middle East, a salesman flogging cookies and cologne across America, or an amateur magician performing sleights of hand everywhere from prison yards to school halls to Valentino fashion shows. Sometimes hilarious, often terribly poignant, this kaleidoscopic account of the most bizarre episodes in his epic life chronicles Ali preaching Islam, causing havoc and touching lives from Beijing to Birmingham, Detroit to Damascus, Khartoum to the Khyber Pass. One minute hanging with Donald Trump, the next with Nelson Mandela, even as his own body and mind battled the onset of Parkinson's Syndrome, here are so many previously untold stories about 'The Greatest' treating statesmen and strangers, popes and paupers just the same.

Sujets

• History of sport
• Boxing
• Xian de Boxing

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 20 juin 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781801502818
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2022
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Dave Hannigan, 2022
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright.
Any oversight will be rectified in future editions at the earliest opportunity by the publisher.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781801501224
eBook ISBN 9781801502818
---
eBook Conversion by www.eBookPartnership.com
CONTENTS
Prologue
Round One: 1982
Round Two: 1983
Round Three: 1984
Round Four: 1985
Round Five: 1986
Round Six: 1987
Round Seven: 1988
Round Eight: 1989
Round Nine: 1990
Round Ten: 1991
Round Eleven: 1992
Round Twelve: 1993
Round Thirteen: 1994
Round Fourteen: 1995
Round Fifteen: 1996
Epilogue
Select Bibliography
Photos
This book is dedicated to George and Clare Frost
PROLOGUE
IN A makeshift ring erected on the baseball diamond of a community sports field in Nassau on 11 December 1981, after a contest in which the rounds were marked by the tolling of a cowbell borrowed from a nearby farm, Matt Helreich took centre stage. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a unanimous decision, he announced. Judge Alonzo Butler votes it 97-94, judge Clyde Gray votes 99-94, judge Jay Edson, 99-94, a unanimous decision for Trevor Berbick.
As Berbick celebrated, Muhammad Ali looked sombre and confused when a microphone was thrust under his chin and a question asked about whether he should retire now. I m sure that this is enough to convince me, said the 39-year-old. I didn t get hurt. I saw the shots but couldn t take them. Father Time just caught me. In my young days, I wouldn t have had much trouble, but I think time caught me. This is it. I m sure I ll wake up next week saying I m coming back but as of now I m retiring. I don t think I ll change my mind.
And he didn t. This time, finally, belatedly, he retired. For good. What followed was 15 of the strangest years in his life, an interlude where Ali embarked on something of an odyssey, one minute brilliant, the next bizarre, often appearing to be a man traversing the globe in search of a higher purpose.
Sometimes, he found one. Other times, he didn t. No matter. With Ali, always, the journey was as important as the destination.
ROUND ONE
1982
Take it slow, Muhammad Ali. Read a book now and then. Go to the supermarket once in a while. That s right, you just put the food in the basket as you wheel the thing around the aisles. Cut the lawn. Take out the trash. Ride a bus. There isn t a lot of stuff out here that you ve been doing in the last 20 years but that s all right. You ll survive. We all do. Just don t watch a lot of television. That ll rot your mind faster than any combination Trevor Berbick ever imagined
Leigh Montville, The Boston Globe , 1 January 1982
ON NEW Year s Day, Body and Soul opened in select movie theatres across America. A blaxploitation flick crossed with a Rocky film, it starred Leon Isaac Kennedy as Leon Johnson, a wannabe doctor forced into the boxing ring to pay the medical bills of his ailing sister. Playing himself, Muhammad Ali is on screen for less than five minutes and one snarky review said of his performance, Laurence Olivier need not worry.
Still, Ali s presence in the cast was enough to warrant a With Muhammad Ali sticker on the posters advertising Body and Soul . His most notable scene is in a gym where he briefly pummels the speed bag before Johnson begs him to become his trainer.
Look, my friend, people come to me all the time for help, business deals, says Ali. Buy this, invest in this, invest in that, train this man, train that man. Everybody knows I m the greatest, right? But I m not obligated and I don t have time to make you the greatest.
***
An invited guest at the inauguration of Harvey Sloane for his second term as Mayor of Louisville on 4 January, Muhammad Ali wrote a poem for the occasion, poking fun at his long-time friend, a politician he affectionately used to call a hippie .
You re the finest of men, we all agree
But why don t you ever call Muhammad Ali?
Two times mayor makes you rate
Three times champion make me great!
During the official ceremony at the Macauley Theatre, Ali sat just behind the city s first family on stage, causing a bit of a stir when he got up in the middle of proceedings and walked out. Later, he explained he had left to go perform Salat, one of the five times per day when every Muslim must kneel and pray towards Mecca.
***
On 13 January, a federal grand jury found Harold Smith, founder and CEO of Muhammad Ali Sports Promotions, guilty on 29 out of 31 charges related to embezzling more than $21m from the Beverley Hills branch of the Wells Fargo Bank. In 1977, Ali had granted Smith permission to use his name in return for a fee, but was not involved in the day-to-day operations of the company. I m shocked, said Ali. I m just now hearing it. I m surprised he was found guilty. I still don t believe it. I just don t think one man can embezzle a bank [out] of so much money and not be caught while committing the crime.
***
A former Hudson County investigator and Verona police offer named Ron Lipton was on trial in the Superior Court of Newton, New Jersey. Following an incident in which he hit Alex Klein, 20, with a baseball bat, he faced a litany of charges. His defence was that he used the bat to disarm Klein, who was wielding a knife in a dispute outside Lipton s home. The victim had been one of several men who had, for some time, been terrorising the family and menacing the neighbourhood.
A one-time amateur middleweight prospect in the 1960s, Lipton spent more than a decade as a sparring partner of Muhammad Ali s. It was Lipton who first told Ali the story of the injustice done to the incarcerated boxer Rubin Hurricane Carter and the pair travelled to Rahway State Prison together to visit him. Their relationship remained so strong that Ali flew 3,000 miles to testify to Lipton s good character in his hour of need. That he would do so seemed such a long shot when first mooted that one prosecutor had a bet with a journalist covering the trial that the celebrity witness would surely never show up.
Arriving at the Sussex County Courthouse in a chauffeur-driven yellow Cadillac on 21 January, Ali wore a brown pinstriped suit and caused an inevitable stir in the building even before he was brought to testify in front of Judge Frederic G. Weber. Asked by first assistant-prosecutor Vincent J. Connor Jr if he knew what Lipton was charged with, Ali said not exactly , then offered a resounding character reference. I love Ron and we have been through everything together, said Ali. I am here today because there is no one I would do this for, not for $100,000, except for Ron. I will always be there for him. I wouldn t be here all the way from California for nobody if I didn t believe he was honest. I m here because he s a good man and I wouldn t come up here and risk my reputation for somebody that I didn t know that well. He s a good man, a God-fearing man. He did all he could for Rubin even though he was white and Rubin was black. He put himself on the line, his family, his job. It s people like this man that s going to change the world and make it better for all races.
When Connor questioned him about dates and times of events involving Lipton, Ali responded, If I knew I were going to be in court, I would have kept a diary.
Not the last laugh he got from the gallery. People said I was hit on the head too many times, said Ali. Who had the nerve to tell you that? asked Connor.
After pausing a moment, Ali answered, My mother.
And the whole court guffawed.
At the conclusion of his evidence, Ali left the witness box and shook hands with every member of the jury. An unorthodox move, the prosecutor told reporters afterwards he didn t think Ali s magnanimous gesture/breach of legal etiquette would affect the outcome of the case. If anything, he said, it was proof the defence had very little else to offer.
The jury acquitted Lipton of all charges except possession of a weapon. At a second trial, he was acquitted of that too.
***
Two weeks later, Muhammad Ali was at the New Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada for a magic convention and an audience with the celebrated Siegfried and Roy duo. While a photograph of the double act with Ali and a plethora of white rabbits made newspapers all over the country, he immersed himself in the event. At one point, he came across a blind man wearing a fedora and sunglasses, tapping his way down the corridor with a white cane. Are you a magician? asked Ali. I am the amazing Haundini! replied Gary Haun. He improvised the name on the spot but, after being rendered blind by an accident while serving in the US Marines, he had taught himself to do magic. With Ali rapt, he did a card trick and followed that up by making a coin disappear. Wow! said Ali, You really are amazing!
Everybody at the convention knew Ali had a voracious appetite for seeing magic up close. Bill Gardner, a young up-and-comer from Wichita, Kansas, was one of many invited to visit the only hotel room with a security guard standing sentry outside. For half an hour, even as Ali wolfed down some matzo ball soup, Gardner ran through a panoply of his go-to tricks, including the classic multiplying rabbits routine. When he pressed one o