A Birthday Wish To Ali In Heaven

By Kunle Awosiyan

Muhammad Ali would have clocked 81 today. The greatest of all boxers was born January 17, 1942 in Louisville, USA.

Born black and named Cassius Clay, Ali changed his name to Muhammad to remove the slavery identity and become a free man who would later dominate the ring and politics at the time racism was a culture.

Writing about Ali’s boxing career is just a chapter in the life of a man who himself is greater than the sport that made him. He came into boxing, changed the game and made himself synonymous with jabs.

Today I remember Ali for his elasticity, durability and long-suffering. For me, he remains the most punished boxer of all time for refusing to quit when the ovation was the loudest.

I remember “The last Hurrah” in 1980 when Ali was punished by his former sparing partner, Larry Holmes. The 38-year-old Ali could not fly again. His hands were weak but his chin was still strong and solid.

It was a day Ali was drenched by rains of punches, yet he refused to fall until the referee stopped the fight in round 10. The highlight of the fight was that Holmes who beat Ali wept uncontrollably. He just beat his Idol.

Despite the telling and visible Parkinson signs written all over Ali, this great man stepped into the ring again in 1981 to fight Trevor Berbick in a battle tagged, “Drama in Bahama” to end decades of boxing career.

In his poor form, Ali was elastic. He was not made to break, he was slow, weak, yet the younger boxers could not knock him out in a 10-round-match.

Of course Holmes and Berbick won, these were fights that shouldn’t have happened at all.

Because the boxing world wanted to see Ali in the ring even when it was obvious that boxing had left him, more dollars were put on the table to lure him into the slaughter arena.

Ali gave boxing his life to grow taller than the sport and he earned it. If today boxing is renamed “Ali” people won’t stop throwing punches.

Happy birthday to Ali in heaven.