Muhammad Ali, ‘The Greatest of All Time’, Dead at 74.

“I’ve wrestled with alligators,

I’ve tussled with a whale.

I done handcuffed lightning

And throw thunder in jail.

You know I’m bad.

just last week, I murdered a rock,

Injured a stone, Hospitalized a brick.

I’m so mean, I make medicine sick.”

Good bye, farewell to you: and to the great life of this great, noble, wild, charismatic, talented human being.

~

1. This is the best career highlights that I have seen for Muhammad Ali.

3. thecheddarman:

   If you have never seen it, watch Rumble in the Jungle on Youtube. George Foreman was known as the baddest dude on Earth at the time knocking almost everyone out in the first or second round. Ali’s friends and family didn’t want him to step in the ring with Foreman because they literally feared for his life, but Ali didn’t give a fuck about Foreman’s power because he knew that he could crack the code to beat him. True legend.

4. “In case people haven’t seen this here is a video of Sonny Liston pulling a gun out on Ali. Ali is the trash talking GOAT 🐐”
   
5. “I’m so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark.”

6. “I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick; I’m so mean I make medicine sick.”

    

7. qwerty622:
   

   Not only that, he had a huge impact on American culture and boxing in general. In fact, he was probably the most significant athlete in American history.

   This is really why he is idolized. Obviously, if he hadn’t been so great at boxing (a constant contender in GOAT talks… hell he invented the term GOAT) or as charismatic, it wouldn’t have mattered as much, but the fact that he was willing to give up the prime years of his athletic career because he had such strong principles really resounded a lot with people.

   Just look at other contender for GOAT athlete as comparison:

   michael jordan is almost universally heralded as a shit, entitled, human being who treated people with either disregard or contempt.

   publicly, jordan never took a political stance his entire career so as to protect his endorsements and the Nike money train.

   When he was questioned about the Rodney King riots, for instance, one of the greatest American societal happenings of the 90s, Jordan just said: “I need to know more about it.”

   In contrast, when asked about his refusal of his mandatory service to fight in Vietnam, Ali said:

   “Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?”

   And later in that same conversation: “I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.”

   This was in the midst of America’s race wars. Can you imagine any other athlete on his level today saying that?

   They say great power and great money can corrupt a person, but Ali stood as a counterpoint and gave a lot of people a goal to aspire to, not in terms of greatness, but in terms of how a human being should act, even when it seems like the world is against him.

    

“I hated every minute of training.

But I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'”

~ Muhammad Ali

And:

“I don’t count my sit ups—I only start counting when it starts hurting because they’re the only ones that count.”

And: the most motivational video ever, you know, pretty much.

On the other hand, the difference between success and failure is something spiritual, it comes from something on the inside.

 

Source: 30.media.tumblr.com via The Portugal on Pinterest

The kind of man he was:

“I ain’t draft dodging. I ain’t burning no flag. I ain’t running to Canada. I’m staying right here. You want to send me to jail? Fine, you go right ahead. I’ve been in jail for 400 years. I could be there for 4 or 5 more, but I ain’t going no 10,000 miles to help murder and kill other poor people. If I want to die, I’ll die right here, right now, fightin’ you, if I want to die. You my enemy, not no Chinese, no Vietcong, no Japanese. You my opposer when I want freedom. You my opposer when I want justice. You my opposer when I want equality. Want me to go somewhere and fight for you? You won’t even stand up for me right here in America, for my rights and my religious beliefs. You won’t even stand up for my right here at home.”

This seems like a good time to rewatch the Rumble:

Never forgotten, and never behind –
Always remembered, and always in mind.
Man, he was something amazing to see.

Floats like a butterfly. Stings like a bee.

Muhammad Ali when they told him to participate on the Vietnam War (youtu.be)