I never liked boxing; hated it in fact. I thought it
was a throwback to Rome, to pure Barbarism, and didn’t care much for the
pseudo-gladiator “blood-and-guts” show it purveyed. Moreover, I found the
people (not the boxers themselves) who made money from “professional” fighting
to be something too repugnant to stand for long. Was always repelled by people who
made money from any blood borne business. But all my “scruples” never kept me
away from a Muhammad Ali bout for a single minute. Of course, that was a long,
long time ago, when TV was free and you could actually see boxing on “the Box.”
Now that Mohammad Ali has gone on to fight in a greater ring… I’m
wont to remember how Ali made every bout seem like it really mattered, as if
life and death hung on the balance (which it always did in such a dangerous
activity). But it was more than that, when Ali fought, it was as if he were
fighting for every person of color and every poor man, woman, and child in
America (and perhaps in the world!). In the ring, he was an artist. His
technique was poetry in motion to an exquisite degree. When he upset Liston in
1964 it was breath-taking…
Folks may not remember those times, but the ‘60s of
the 20th Century in America was the height of Apartheid, and
Mohammad Ali, while he was still Cassius Clay, and in the ring, he scared white
people half to death. Then, when he opened his mouth, and spoke the Truth –
they couldn’t take it. They had to shut him up… Here was a strong, smart, cocky
Black man with moral principles – their worst nightmare! They say that Ali was outlandish
and provocative (they said worse, of course), at a time when stating the
obvious, for speaking truth to power, would either get you killed or land you
in prison forever.
I can praise Ali for his fighting prowess all day, for
his many great victories in the ring, but none of them compared to what he
accomplished outside the ring. Who has a thousandth of his guts today?
Certainly no boxer does, but neither does any other professional athlete or
performer – they’re all bought and their souls have been sold to the lowest
bidder… Craven doesn’t even come close to the midgets who crawl all over
themselves for a buck in the ring, in the football pitch, in the baseball diamond,
in the basketball courts, or any other “performing animal” in any circus arena in the
world. And, you know what? These exemplars that are half the athlete he was,
are all multi-millionaires thanks to Mohammad Ali.
But I’m not going to add anything new about Ali’s
career as “The Greatest” boxer who ever lived – he had innumerable fights that
were each more memorable than the one that went before. His fights versus
Frazier and the “Rumble in the Jungle” against Foreman will never be surpassed.
Man… no one who saw these things could be immune to them – and there was
something beyond a bet and a payoff riding on the outcome. There was Mohammad
Ali – human being – a heart on fire. That’s what was riding on every fight in
the ring! With every court appearance even! As if Christ himself had stepped
into the ring… (and I mean that literally!).
Pure, raw valor. I never saw it except in him (and I
was nowhere near the guy, thousands of miles away at the end of an electronic
transmission!). I know that millions of people every day have to climb that
steep hill, face the odds, take the lumps. But somehow, Ali epitomized that in
a sublime way. I can’t explain it. The Lion of Zion is the only thing that
comes to mind... the courage of the sacred heart.
The Thrill Is Gone
Thrilling is a word I seldom use… and never in the
context of Sports. But when Ali stepped on the mat, when he ducked under the
ropes, when he bobbed into the ring, your heart started pounding – in your
temples!! It was exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. I consider
myself lucky to have been a television witness to these marvels!
Who today would ever believe that a world heavyweight
title bout could be fought in Africa? When will that ever happen again? Impossible.
Simply not enough money to be made there… Might as well try and send a man to
the moon! And it’s not only because boxing is simply finished as a “sport,” it’s
also finished as a spectacle – just like bullfighting (even in its heyday, boxing
was never an art form like bullfighting was, but you get the idea). There’s not
enough blood there to hold interest, if you see what I mean.
Why is this the case? Nothing in the world of sports
is “thrilling” anymore – not even the crash and burn of 20 Formula 1 or NASCAR racers
when they go spinning off into the grandstands killing people in the audience.
Not the crunching of bones when one of these young knuckleheads crave their 15
minutes of fame, flying off the rails and off the cliff on their bikes or their skateboards.
All of these Corporate concocted “X-sport” TV events, with their phony copycat “lethal”
activities, they breed like reality TV programs, but have nothing whatsoever at
stake.
To me, and to anyone who loves sports, they’re as thrilling
as canned beans! What’s pushed as “thrilling” on the Internet or TV couldn’t
give a jolt to a lab rat wired to a car battery. Sports has no meaning beyond
the millions that pass hands behind the scenes. Titles, championships, they’re
nothing, and they’re forgotten before the year is out. Does anyone remember
today who won the 60th Champion’s League? Does anyone care who the 49th
Super Bowl champion was? Or who the 110th World Series champion was?
(I remember, because it was recently, and it was won by my hometown team…). But
seriously, these are all ephemeral “victories” that are of no account or
consequence in the bigger scheme of life. It’s the “Hunger Games” without the “hunger”
I guess… the poor stay poor, the hungry stay hungry… nothing changes.
Not so with Mohammad Ali… When Ali was champion
everyone knew THEY were champions right along with him – somehow Truth had won,
Light shone a little brighter, the bad guys were not going to win forever... Who
needed phony superheroes when the Butterfly floated – the Bee stung?
“He Who Is Not Courageous...”
In this Islamophobic age, when demagogues get selected
to the position of “chief executive officer” of the most powerful military
machine on the planet by virtue of their hate for Islam, it’s something to
ponder… You can’t have any clue as to how revolutionary Ali’s conversion to
Islam was back in the ‘60s. And when he was sent to jail as a conscientious
objector for not going to Vietnam “to shoot brown people,” everyone saw it as
the crucifixion that it was…
The Pharisees were going to get their pound of
flesh from the insubordinate slave who refused to cow down to the murderers and
war criminals… Ali may be dead, but the evil ones are still out there... the
fight has only just begun…
When he converted to Islam it set off a firestorm (at
least, in the hermetic bubble of racism and xenophobia that was the U.S. in the
1960s). No one who lived through it can deny it. Literally, it was a public
crucifixion… I can’t imagine what Ali went through, it must have been
horrendous. And, it’s that “passage through the fire,” that “baptism” that
makes Mohammad Ali the last of our prophets, for there are no more coming…
We can’t depend on the prophets to save our asses
every time. From now on we’re on our own… We’re in the depths of the Dark Ages
and if we don’t carry the light ourselves, it’s going to be exceedingly dark from
here on in. Ali was the last of the giants (there’s still one more with us, but
no new prophets are due). I know that people today are jaded (but in the wrong
way), and that they saw Ali’s words as posturing, as “showmanship.” But that
would be simply dismissing what was really going on. Ali was the last of those
luminous beings who could speak into a microphone and change the world –
literally! His charisma was such that when he spoke, he took you, like a real
prophet preaching, into his heart and you were the heart of the world right
along with him…
If we think about it, History in nothing but a record
of the killing or incarceration of our prophets... We’ve had prophets in
abundance in the 20th Century, from Gandhi to Lennon, from Che to
Marley, from Mandela to MLK, from Malcom X to Ali, and the many Bikos and Rosa
Parks whose names we’ll never know. Thousands of them! Those who spoke truth to
power, who gave their lives for real Freedom, who will remain anonymous and
unknown because the assassins, and the cowards who hire them, have dealt with
them in the dark, and in the back, when no one was looking… All of the victims
prophets. All of them showed the rest of us the Way… like Buddha and Jesus
Christ incarnates. They didn’t preach – they led by their example.
Wasted lives? Perhaps… But in the great economy of the
universe, nothing ever really goes to waste. One word of truth, one deed, one
action, goes a long way, perduring long after it has been done. Any number of
bullets may be fired to kill the prophets, any number of bombs set off to
silence the Truth, but all the destruction will be for naught because it can’t
accomplish anything that lasts. In our slow climb back out of the morass and to
the Light, on our eternal journey to Paradise, we’ll find Ali’s soul resides there
right now.
I can only say, although I never met Ali personally, that
a real human being died today… a great loss to all us human beings. His courage
(his heart of the Lion) in the face of real life – the worst the devil could dish
out – will always be a beacon to me. Ali was great; God bless him, but, Allahu Akbar…
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