Boxing great Muhammad Ali died tonight at a Phoenix, Arizona hospital. Ali was 74. He was taken to the hospital on Thursday with a respiratory problem. The conditioned worsened overnight. By Friday, Ali’s conditioned led to him being put on life support. Ali had been battling Parkinson’s disease for over 30 years.
Bob Arum, one of the promoters for Ali, had this to say on Twitter: “A true great has left us. Muhammad Ali transformed this country and impacted the world with his spirit. His legacy will be part of our history for all time.”
Ali was known for his fights against Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, George Foreman and Sonny Liston.
Ali was known for getting to his opponents mentally with his taunting and nonstop trash talking. This kind of stuff had been done by other fighters in the past, but Ali took it to another level by making fun of his opponents, creating rhymes and predicting which round he would knock them out. All of this was done by Ali to help promoter his fights. His opponents might not have realized it at the time, but Ali was helping them by creating interest in the fights with his taunting. Without Ali’s trash talking, his fights against Joe Frazier, Sonny Liston and George Foreman likely wouldn’t have been nearly as big as they turned out to be.
Ali’s fighting style was completely different the fighters of his day. When Ali turned pro in 1960, most fighters tended to stand directly in front of each other and slug. Ali’s boxing style was highly mobile with him moving constantly, jabbing, throwing quick right hands, left hooks and combinations. He would then move away quickly before his opponents could land their big shots. Ali also was clever with the way he would lean away from punches, and this helped keep from getting hit as much. However, Ali did get hit a lot during his career by putting himself in harm’s way, especially during the later period of his career when he lost his mobility. Ali took on a lot of big punchers in the tail end of his career in fights against George Foreman, Earnie Shavers, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton and Larry Holmes. Ali was unafraid. He was willing to fight the best despite the fact that he was aging and it meant that he would get hit a lot. When you compare Ali’s willingness to fight the best to that of many of the reluctant fighters of today, it’s like night and day. Today’s fighters typically shy away from fighting the best in their divisions. Ali was different. He wanted to fight the best at all times.