His greatness was before my time, or at least at a time when I was too young to appreciate it. But I've seen the footage, watched the interviews, read the quotes, read the articles, watched When We Were Kings, and learned his story. A true icon of the 20th century, and its so sad that we will never see the like of him again. Heavyweight boxing nowadays is such a pale, drab imitation of the huge global event it used to be, and the sporting world is so much poorer for it. Now we just have overhyped pretenders, boorish oafs like Fury, lots of noise but not an OUNCE of the class and charisma of the likes of Ali, or many of the fighters of that era who would've put him on his arse at a time of their choosing.
I hope Ali gets through this and spends a few more years amongst us, because we're fast running out of legends this year.
Without doubt the greatest living legend in sport. Has me thinking what other legends remain. The greatest I can think of are Garfield Sobers (saw him and Rohan Kanhai slaughter Sussex way back) and Rod Laver (might have won Wimbledon nine times if professionals weren't banned from the tournament). Not that cheating druggie Maradona but maybe Pele. But Muhammad Ali transcends them all.
Not only one of, if not the greatest boxer of the 20th century, but in my opinion one of the greatest men of the century. Had the pleasure to visit the Ali Center in Louisville a few years ago, there is so much more to the man than you could ever realise.
RIP Ali, there will only ever be one greatest. You fought everything in your life like a true warrior.
Nobody will ever even come close to your legendary status