The Greatest: Muhammad Ali: Part III

“It’s like a fraternity,” Jimmy Dupree, former light heavyweight contender and trainer observed. “You get initiated in the wars you fight with somebody as good or better than you. Then you learn who you really are deep inside. After you’ve been through those wars, and you still have the heart to continue in this game, you’re in the fraternity and everybody else that knows what those wars are about owe you respect.”

Meanwhile, a number of fighters were being touted as possible contenders for the throne that Ali had vacated, virtually ignoring Frazier.

Liston was the menacing thug, the baddest man in the house, a role he relished.

Ali moved backward, fighting in flurries that made Frazier look hopelessly outclassed. But Frazier did not fall—he kept on coming. Occasionally Ali would tie him up and talk to him, as if he were utterly disdainful of Joe’s talents.

A left hook caught Ali and sent him reeling toward the ropes. He clutched and held on, smothering Frazier’s onslaught with ring savvy.

He had trained too long and worked too hard to concede even a moment of the fight.

Ali, sitting dejectedly in the locker room, his jaw swollen from the impact of Frazier’s blow, seemed suddenly mortal.

The glee that some sportswriters displayed in their dispatches following the fight served only to strengthen the resolve of Ali's fans, especially young people throughout the world, to continue supporting him.

Ali’s assertiveness, his ability to confront authority as few blacks had ever publicly done, was what young African Americans wanted to emulate.

Ali had not been a leader of the black community, but he was a strong and effervescent personality around which young people could rally.

Red Smith, one of the nation’s most respected sportswriters and a vehement Ali detractor, predicted that if Ali fought Frazier a dozen times, he would lose a dozen times.

Ali had to accept what all fighters eventually have to deal with—the idea that being beaten was possible. He realized two things in the decisive loss to Frazier: The speed he had enjoyed before his layoff had lessened; and there would always be strong young fighters, fighters with skill and courage, to challenge him.

If fighting was a matter of imposing one style over the other, could changing his style help him prevail against the young, up-and-coming fighters?

On that day the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously reversed Ali’s conviction on refusing induction.

By using the technical flaw in the draft board’s decision rather than the parameters of the status itself, the Court allowed the conviction to be overturned without allowing a blanket ruling which would have made all members of the Nation of Islam eligible for CO status.

He was also not dedicated to a training regime, which was evident in his inconsistent performances.

However, the same sportswriters who had lambasted Ali for beating Ernie Terrell without mercy in 1967, now chided him for going light on Mathis.

However, the same sportswriters who had lambasted Ali for beating Ernie Terrell without mercy in 1967, now chided him for going light on Mathis.

Ali fought Mac Foster in Tokyo in April 1972, winning by a lackluster decision in fifteen rounds.

During his usual pre-fight boasting, Ali once again denigrated Patterson, the man who once claimed he wanted to “destroy” Ali because of his ties to the Nation of Islam.

Ali’s subsequent open humiliation of Patterson was a violation of the unwritten rule of the fight game—that fighters show at least public respect for other professional fighters.

The most notable event of the fight was Ali’s new robe, a gift from Elvis Presley, upon which was emblazoned PEOPLE'S CHAMPION.

A plodding, heavily muscled man, he had the kind of defensive style that always bothered Ali.

Ali forged on with his comeback against the backdrop of three major events in 1973.

The North Vietnamese understood that America was tired of the war, that they were the ones winning the war of attrition, not the larger nation.

During 1973, White House aides resigned, the attorney general was indicted, and there was talk of impeaching President Richard Nixon.

During 1973, White House aides resigned, the attorney general was indicted, and there was talk of impeaching President Richard Nixon.

His high blood pressure stemmed not simply from the bout itself, but from the weeks and months of stress during training.

Frazier knew that another bout with Muhammad Ali would compel him to train hard enough to possibly do permanent damage to his blood vessels.

As the fight progressed there were subtle differences from the first encounter between the two men.

Riding a bicycle meant avoiding the humbling experience of having to sit in the back of buses.

The entourage the promoters took to Africa to build the television interest included the soul singer James Brown, legendary blues man B. B. King, and a host of other African-American entertainers.

In Africa, Foreman became the brooding champion who had been deprived of the benefits of the championship.

He was the articulate one, the one who would be quoted in the morning papers.

The writers worked hard to make their prose distinctive.

The Africans, in turn, were eager to please and to learn from the Americans with their high technology and glitz.

But he knew he would muster up the courage to go into the ring, and to do whatever it took to survive.

Norman Mailer, in Ali’s dressing room, took deep breaths as the charismatic young fighter, like a Greek hero on his way to preordained death, sang his final song.

Ali’s vaunted courage seemed more bravado than anything else.

He knew other opponents had tried to protect themselves against Foreman’s strength, but to no avail.