Happy Birthday Champ!
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, hospitalised a brick; I’m so mean I make medicine sick.
Today marks what would have been Ali’s 76thbirthday. Ali transcended boxing to become one of the most talked about and historical figures this modern day world has ever known, and will continue to be long after his death in June 2016.
Now I could tell you the story of this man’s life, but I have doubts that I could tell you, the boxing fans of the world something about this man’s life that you do not already know. Poet Maya Angelou wrote in 2001.
“Muhammad Ali was not just Muhammad Ali the greatest, the African-American pugilist; he belonged to everyone,”. “That means that his impact recognizes no continent, no language, no color, no ocean.”
I will always remember Muhammad Ali as the charismatic, articulate, confident man, who stood steadfast in the eyes of the behemoth that is/was the American government. A man who had the best years of his career taken from him for refusing to fight in a war he did not believe in. In between the ropes showing movement never before seen from a heavyweight boxer, floating like a butterfly, stinging like a bee. A polarizing figure both inside and outside of the ring, so sharp in mind he could cut himself!
“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
Happy Birthday Champ, you really were the greatest, and we all miss you terribly!
By: Aaron Cooper
