Boxing great Muhammad Ali died on June 3 at age 74 after battling respiratory illness complicated by his 32-year Parkinson’s disease.
The heavyweight champion is celebrated not just for boxing skills but also his wit and wisdom, which endeared him to sports fans and the whole world.
Time remembered some of Ali’s memorable words:
• “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Rumble, young man, rumble,” which he uttered in 1964 prior to his fight against Sonny Liston.
• “The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life,” Ali said in a 1975 Playboy issue.
• “Don’t count the days. Make the days count,” ESPN quoted the late champ.
• “What I suffered physically was worth what I’ve accomplished in life,” Ali said at a 1984 press conference in Houston. “A man who is not courageous enough to take risks will never accomplish anything in life.”
Ali is even called the Lousville Lip, which refers to his way with words that very few other sports figures come close to beating. According to the Guardian, journalists over decades faced “an uphill battle” attempting to outword the boxer, who usually described his opponents or himself far more brilliantly than anyone.
He even wrote a poem before taking on Liston in 1964, which partly read: “Now Liston disappears from view, the crowd is getting frantic / But our radar stations have picked him up somewhere over the Atlantic / Who would have thought when they came to the fight / That they’d witness the launching of a human satellite?”
There were moments of humility and pride alike, from “There are no pleasures in a fight but some of my fights have been a pleasure to win” to “I’m so mean I make medicine sick.”
Ali is made unforgettable not only by his impressive record of 61 fights and 56 wins, but also for what he stood for. In 1967, he openly opposed the U.S. war in Vietnam, refusing to be drafted in the military even at the risk of losing his world title.
After not fighting for nearly four years, he returned to the ring in 1971, when his draft refusal conviction was overturned.
He continued to maintain a strong opinion revolving around race, justice and social truths, at one time saying: “I’m gonna fight for the prestige, not for me, but to uplift my little brothers who are sleeping on concrete floors today in America. Black people who are living on welfare, black people who can’t eat, black people who don’t know no knowledge of themselves, black people who don’t have no future.”
Photo: Ian Ransley | Flickr
