One thing baffles me about Muhammad Ali...

[Medulla]

...I've got a lot of respect for Ali, but it puzzles me why when the England cricket team were rightly castigated for breaking the embargo on apartheid South Africa, he had no comeback for collaborating with dictators (and this applies as much to Frazier and Foreman as it does to Ali) like Mobutu and Marcos by fighting in their countries at that time.

Those fights were basically propaganda for some absolutely odious regimes with the money flowing straight to the boxers in question.

Am I wrong? Was there any significant criticism for the Rumble in the Jungle and Thriller in Manila for these reasons, at the time?

[johnna]

good in the ring, coward in life

[The Voice Of Reason]

Originally Posted by Medulla

...I've got a lot of respect for Ali, but it puzzles me why when the England cricket team were rightly castigated for breaking the embargo on apartheid South Africa, he had no comeback for collaborating with dictators (and this applies as much to Frazier and Foreman as it does to Ali) like Mobutu and Marcos by fighting in their countries at that time.

Those fights were basically propaganda for some absolutely odious regimes with the money flowing straight to the boxers in question.

Am I wrong? Was there any significant criticism for the Rumble in the Jungle and Thriller in Manila for these reasons, at the time?

That's an interesting view

[Artie Fufkin]

Originally Posted by johnna

good in the ring, coward in life

How's that then?

[Medulla]

Originally Posted by The Voice Of Reason

That's an interesting view

Just occurred to me when watching the Thriller in Manila. TBH I had my misgivings a few months back when I watched the fight with Foreman in Zaire but it's really just struck me how essentially dodgy the whole thing seems.

[Tex]

It's a fair point and I'm sure money supplied by said dictators had a LOT to do with it. Also remember that as much as I love Ali he was not formally educated and even now admits to being very naive as a younger man and taken in by the Nation of Islam etc. which teachings he now denounces but says its what put him on the path to traditional Islam. He thought it was great to visit a 'Black' country where Blacks were not a minority and there were Black politicians, dignitaries, doctors etc.who were still very thin on the ground in 1970s USA. He even joked on the plane that the Black pilots weren't real and they would sub in the White guys before take off.

I don't accept that he was a coward out of the ring. He stood up for his principles and lost his million dollar lifestyle and only means of making money as he had no education or work history to fall back on. He could easily have joined the army as an exhibition boxer like Joe Louis. Not many would have done what he did on principle. Refused the draft about five blocks away from my old gaff.