RIP Muhammed Ali

Just heard. So sad... R.I.P. Mr. Ali.

boxeo-Cassius%20Clay%20vs%20Sonny%20Liston.jpg


#WTF2016
 
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THE greatest. Period. Never before and never again. The greatest at a time when that meant something. The battles he fought will never see their like again. There can be only one, and we were privileged to have walked the earth with him and be able to say that we lived in the time of giants.
 
One of the few people that could almost stop the world with his appearance anywhere. My father worshipped him as a boxer, when he fought on the television my Dad couldn't be shifted from his seat until the fight ended. Sadly gone now is the Greatest.RIP.
 
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Its as if 2016 is some kind of temporal juncture for celebrities to be taken from us at an ever increasing rate.

That or it could just be an aweful coinsidence.

R.I.P. king of the ring. Giant among men, poet, gentleman.
 
From the President and First Lady:
Muhammad Ali was The Greatest. Period. If you just asked him, he’d tell you. He’d tell you he was the double greatest; that he’d “handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder into jail.”But what made The Champ the greatest – what truly separated him from everyone else – is that everyone else would tell you pretty much the same thing.
Like everyone else on the planet, Michelle and I mourn his passing. But we’re also grateful to God for how fortunate we are to have known him, if just for a while; for how fortunate we all are that The Greatest chose to grace our time.
In my private study, just off the Oval Office, I keep a pair of his gloves on display, just under that iconic photograph of him – the young champ, just 22 years old, roaring like a lion over a fallen Sonny Liston. I was too young when it was taken to understand who he was – still Cassius Clay, already an Olympic Gold Medal winner, yet to set out on a spiritual journey that would lead him to his Muslim faith, exile him at the peak of his power, and set the stage for his return to greatness with a name as familiar to the downtrodden in the slums of Southeast Asia and the villages of Africa as it was to cheering crowds in Madison Square Garden.
“I am America,” he once declared. “I am the part you won’t recognize. But get used to me – black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own. Get used to me.”
That’s the Ali I came to know as I came of age – not just as skilled a poet on the mic as he was a fighter in the ring, but a man who fought for what was right. A man who fought for us. He stood with King and Mandela; stood up when it was hard; spoke out when others wouldn’t. His fight outside the ring would cost him his title and his public standing. It would earn him enemies on the left and the right, make him reviled, and nearly send him to jail. But Ali stood his ground. And his victory helped us get used to the America we recognize today.
He wasn’t perfect, of course. For all his magic in the ring, he could be careless with his words, and full of contradictions as his faith evolved. But his wonderful, infectious, even innocent spirit ultimately won him more fans than foes – maybe because in him, we hoped to see something of ourselves. Later, as his physical powers ebbed, he became an even more powerful force for peace and reconciliation around the world. We saw a man who said he was so mean he’d make medicine sick reveal a soft spot, visiting children with illness and disability around the world, telling them they, too, could become the greatest. We watched a hero light a torch, and fight his greatest fight of all on the world stage once again; a battle against the disease that ravaged his body, but couldn’t take the spark from his eyes.
Muhammad Ali shook up the world. And the world is better for it. We are all better for it. Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to his family, and we pray that the greatest fighter of them all finally rests in peace.
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From his Memoir:
I would like to be remembered as a man who won the heavyweight title three times, who was humorous, and who treated everyone right. As a man who never looked down on those who looked up to him, and who helped as many people as he could. As a man who stood up for his beliefs no matter what. As a man who tried to unite all humankind through faith and love. And if all that's too much, then I guess I'd settle for being remembered only as a great boxer who became a leader and a champion of his people. And I wouldn't even mind if folks forgot how pretty I was.
Click to expand...
 
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He WAS truely a GOAT! GREATEST OF ALL TIME.

So many great quotes from him, as I sit and watch the tributes come in.

He certainly "talked the talk and walked the walk".

I know he fought untill his last breath that awful disease that took him from us.
 
He really mellowed out over the years compared to when he was younger in the 60s, not sure if it was age and wisdom taking their natural course or the disease moving him along. He had to be one of the longest suffering people when it comes to this disease, I think a documentary said it actually showed up while he was still boxing.
 
I was surprisingly touched by Obama's words there. Really quite something.

It was indeed a sad moment hearing about this. However it reminds me of one of my favourite quotes.

"If you even dream of beating me, you better wake up and apologise."

A long, impactful and interesting life. There aren't many around like that anymore.
 
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