Muhammad Ali On Vietnam

Black Athletes Were Expected To Be Dutiful, Modest and Respectful

While it was Jack Johnson it was the first African American heavyweight boxing champion, who introduced boasting and the taunting of one's opponent,  brought into the culture of boxing, It was Muhammad Ali who elevated the language of ridicule into an art form. Master of rhyming insult and a seminal contributor to the African American tradition of signifying' or playing the dozens, Muhammad Ali transformed the pre-fights weigh-in from a procedural formality into the occasion for a display of creative verbal warfare. In the days leading up to his championship match against George Foreman in 1974, Muhammad Ali regaled the international press corps on hand in Zaire with this exercise in matching couplets: "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." His hands 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. In the fight itself, Muhammad Ali flustered the physically imposing, harder punching Foreman with a stealthy defensive manoeuvre he dubbed the "rope-a-dope." Ali's flamboyance and self-promotion challenged a traditional unwritten code under which black athletes were expected to be dutiful, modest, and be respectful of the white authority.

The Youthful Ali Was Virtually Impenetrable

Since retiring from the ring, much of the attention focused on Muhammad Ali has centred on his physical condition. Muhammad Ali suffers from the Parkinson's syndrome, a neurological affliction that causes tremors, loss of balance, memory lapses, and confusion. Medical institutions have asserted that Ali's symptoms were brought on by the repeated blows to the head he endured in the latter part of his boxing career, a diagnosis that has impelled the medical union and other municipal groups to lobby for the elimination of boxing or for the use of head gear. The youthful Ali was virtually impenetrable, no one could lay a hand on him and if they managed to land a blow on Ali during a boxing match the opponents would be lucky if they landed forty or fifty punches during the whole boxing contest: Sonny Liston could land only two punches in their 1965 world title rematch. But in Ali latter fights coming out of forced retirement by government institutions and returning to fight game against the hard-hitting Joe Frazier, Leon Spinks, and Larry Holmes, Ali took several hundred punches in every match; especially, in the punishing 1980 loss to Holmes.

There Were People Who Thought the War in Vietnam Was Right!

Ali took 125 punches in the ninth and tenth rounds alone mostly to the head, but he was already in poor health before he took the fight with Larry Holmes. Muhammad Ali's own thoughts conveyed to the world as he said: I never thought of myself as great when I refused to go into the Army. All I did was stand up for what I believed. There were people who thought the war in Vietnam was right, and those people, if they went to war, acted just as brave as I did. There were people who tried to put me in jail. Some of them were hypocrites, but others did what they thought was proper and I cant condemn them for following their conscience either. People say I made a sacrifice, risking jail and my whole career. But God told Abraham to kill his son and Abraham was willing to do it, so why shouldn't I follow what I believed? Standing up for my religion made me happy; it wasn't a sacrifice. When people got drafted and sent to Vietnam and didn't understand what all the killing was about. Some of the men came home with one leg and couldn't get jobs, that was a sacrifice.

Freedom Means Being Able To Follow Your Personal Convictions.

But I believed in what I was doing, so no matter what the government did to me, it wasn't a loss. Some people thought I was a hero. Some people said that what I did was wrong. But everything I did was according to my conscience. I wasn't trying to be a leader. I just wanted to be free. And I made a stand for all people, not just black people, because it wasn't just black people being drafted. Governments runs systems where the rich man's son goes to college, and the poor man's son goes to war. Then, after the rich man's son gets out of college, he did other things to keep him out of the Army until he becomes too old to be drafted. So what I did was for me, but it was the kind of decision everyone has to make. Freedom means being able to follow your personal convictions. Freedom also means carrying the responsibility to choose between right and wrong. So when the time came for me to make up my mind about going into the Army, I knew that people were dying in

Ali Was Convicted By An All White Jury

Vietnam for nothing and I should live by what I thought was right. I wanted America to be America. And now the whole world knows that, so far as my own beliefs are concerned, I did what was right for me. Ali was 29-years-old and at the time he was the reigning world heavyweight boxing champion when he refused to take the traditional step forward at draft induction ceremonies on the 28th April1967. About a month later Muhammad Ali was convicted by an all white jury of six men and six women. A fine of $10,000 was imposed upon Ali and his bail was set at $5,000 pending his appeal. Muhammad Ali's attorney said that the federal government was so hostile toward the sect that it tapped the telephone of Mohammad Ali in Phoenix and Chicago, regarding him as a threat to national security.

Muhammad Ali On Vietnam