In our current era of technology, millions of views on random youtube videos, likes, dislikes, pokes, facebook sharing and other media frenzy, some of the glorified words reserved for certain situations and certain people have grown misused on a regular basis. Even the phrase Living Legend has been roughly misused at times with people who are great but not worthy of that qualification. But up until yesterday, if there was one person who was absolutely worthy in our planet, that person would have been humble enough to dismiss it. Yet to me, that was the only right way to describe Muhammad Ali: A Living Legend. Well that, along with his self-proclaimed way to describe himself: The Greatest.
I was named after Muhammad Ali (my middle name) and as a kid my parents always told me that they choose Ali because he is "a great man". I remember one day I asked them while we were driving home, and mom said, "he is a great man", while my dad simply said "He is The Greatest." I will never forget that particular choice of words "a great man", because as a curious kid I was, I wondered to myself: what is "a great man"? How does a man become "great"? What did Ali do to become "great"? What is so special about him that both my parents agreed to name me after him? Those were the kind of questions I asked when I found out I was named after Muhammad Ali.
So what else could I do, other than go to the sources. Days later, I asked both my parents the same question again, separately. One day to my mom, another day to my dad.
My mom answered telling me that first of all, Ali was an incredibly handsome man. A man with presence. A towering man, with a huge back, great legs and huge chest. A gifted man with a gorgeous body and a unique face. But not only was Ali physically handsome. He also had a beautiful soul and a wonderful heart. He spoke from his heart and was sincere, and had the best intentions for his people and for his kind. He had strong principles and beliefs, and he fought for them. He took a stand against the Vietnam War, and war in general. He refused to serve for his country, on the premise that he wouldn't kill people he had no quarrel against. He was a peaceful man who wanted peace for all mankind. My mom is a blonde, caucasian.
When I asked my dad, an african american, he told me: "we named you after Ali, because Ali is The Greatest". It impressed me and I was kind of left puzzled that my dad simply reiterated what he already had told me before. Plain and simple, that was his answer. I told my dad "that is not an answer, dad... that is not enough. I need a logical answer." So he gave me two Betamax video tapes: "watch them", he said.
It was 1984 and I was five years old.
The video-tapes were a two-part documentary of Ali's life. The first video covered Ali's beginnings, his victory in the Olympics, his surprise victory against Sonny Liston (when the documentary reached the beginning of the fight, I thought Ali was going to lose), and his subsequent rematch, and then moved on through his complete dominance of every single opponent in the 60s, including the dismantling of Floyd Patterson, Ernie Terrel, Folley, and... what's in my opinion the greatest display of utter heavyweight power brilliance on a ring, Ali vs Cleveland Williams. I was completely shocked the way Ali moved, hit, and overall gave a perfect performance in those three rounds.
Then, the documentary began to get interesting. It was no longer about fights anymore and about a great fighter. This guy was now refusing to serve in the US Army, a behavior that was completely unheard of coming from a celebrity. I thought to myself:
"Why is this idiot refusing to serve for our country? Who does he think he is? If the US Army tells you, you have to serve for America, then you MUST serve for America. Ted Williams did it on WW2 and Korea, and so did James Stewart, Joe Di Maggio, Elvis Presley, and many others. What's the big deal? Why is he refusing? He must be scared of going to war, that's it" - I thought to myself.
"Why is this guy refusing to serve if your country is calling you? This guy is an idiot. I am ashamed that I was named after him and I have to get my name changed as soon as I can. It's a complete disgrace that my idiot parents named me after him. I will not carry with this through my life." - I thought to myself.
I kid you not when I say all of this. I was a precocious kid. I learned how to read very early and you could say that I was a prodigy. So with five years old, I had read a lot about US history, famous US personalities, and I had seen the name Muhammad Ali here and there, but for some reason I guess I never got interested in him, because he was a boxer, up until the point I found out that I was named after him. So guys like Ted Williams "The Greatest Batter who ever lived", Jimmy Stewart "the best classic actor of Hollywood", and Elvis "The King", were my references and examples of what I should become as a grown man. I mean, Ted Williams gave up five years in baseball to serve in WW2 and in Korea. Had he played those five years, his numbers and his records would have been even more impressive than what they were. Same for Di Maggio. So to me, I saw it as a sacrifice. They sacrificed their careers for their country. And that was huge. That deserved -in my view- a lot of respect and praise. So to learn that this Muhammad Ali dude had refused to serve for his country, when several other personalities enlisted and fought to defend America so before him, was a complete degradation of his name, his career and everything he stood for.
The first part of the documentary suddenly got cut off, and I noticed I had to switch to part 2 on the other tape, which I did. The last lines of the first tape were something within the lines of "Ali was facing jail and would have been sentenced to prison". While switching the tapes I thought to myself "I hope he went to prison and he should have stayed there". I was embarrased of my parents for having such a poor choice to name me.
With five years old, those were my exact thoughts. I am dead serious.
As you can imagine, the second part immediately resumed where the first one had ended. Now, we were getting on the task of explaining and answering all my questions. "Why did Ali refuse to serve? Who does he think he is?"... as well as answer other questions that hadn't occured to me like: "What were the consequences? What happened next?"
In a matter of minutes, my mind was blown away. I quickly assimilated the reasons behind Ali's actions, and quickly bought into the fact that as painful as to refuse to serve and defend America and protect our country, Muhammad Ali actually had a point. In fact, a very, very good point.
The documentary spent over 40-45 minutes addressing the complicated issue of communism, Vietnam War, the USSR, the hippie movement, Martin Luther King, John Lennon, and similar context of the culture in the 60s. Still, every film, every piece of interview, every extract where Ali spoke, made more and more sense with every passing minute. I started to fell proud. Whereas the hippies were a bunch of... well, hippies, and other personalities like Dr King and Lennon were... well, personalities, there was something different about Ali. I remembered my mom's words. Ali spoke with sincerity, from his heart. He wasn't looking to congegrate thousands of people with peace songs like John Lennon, or was academically skillful and politically trained as Martin Luther King. Ali simply spoke from his heart what he believed was, and more importantly, IS right: War is wrong. Killing people for no reason, is wrong, and he, just like any other 25 year-old from Kentucky, or Idaho, or Oregon, or Michigan, had no reason to fight against other people and die for absolutely no cause that wasn't peace.
The film then followed of course, with the overrule of the US Supreme Court to his sentence, and his glorious comeback to recover the title that at first I believed was justifiably taken away from him, but that now I understood that taking away three years of his peak career from him, was completely unjustified.
As it got to the part in which Ali was about to face Foreman in Zaire, I thought to myself: "This is it. This is IT. He wins this fight." It's hard to put yourself in the context of 1974, but I guess I could understand why most people thought he wouldn't beat Foreman. I mean, this guy is HUGE and had knocked Frazier out like 34 times in two rounds, toying with him as if he was a piece of paper, and knocked Ken Norton out like 4 times in two rounds as well. Ali hadn't been able to even fight either of them without going the full distance of 15 rounds.
So when the documentary reached the part that where Ali knocked Foreman down, and the referee counted him out, crowning Ali as World Champion, it was at that precise point that everything came together and I had finally understood.
Ali is The Greatest.
Rest In Peace.
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