My heart is heavy tonight. The former heavyweight boxing champion of the world Muhammed Ali passed away tonight at the age of 74.
There will never be another Ali. Many have pretended to his throne but at the end of the day, he will forever be the Greatest. It was widely assumed that if he was on a fight card, he was going to win. He was the first to really put his money where his mouth was and backed up what he said.
In a way Ali brought me to the sport of boxing. Watching Wide World of Sports in the 70s his bantering with Howard Cosell was the stuff of legend during interviews and the two of them in doing so helped me understand the strategy and tactics of a boxing match, showing that it just wasn't two men batting the hell out of each other.
Now he's gone. The nearest comparison in terms of my grief would be the death nine years ago of Evel Knievel. He was a showman, like Ali, who would command time and space on Saturday afternoons for the other guys and I when he would jump bases or canyons or whatnot.
In the end, we're all mortal, and we never get out of life alive. That said, is up to us to live our lives and hope to live life with the vitality and enthusiasm that Ali did.
So it is with great respect, I say ye, Ali... Thanks for being The Greatest.
No comments:
Post a Comment