Ep. 127: Muhammad Ali – Top 5 Fights
Intro
Hello and Welcome to this episode of the podcast, "The Mnemonic Tree", where we add a single mnemonic leaf to our Tree of Knowledge.
I’m Jans your Mnemonic Man and today's episode will be on a man who called himself “The Greatest”, Muhammad Ali formerly known as Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.
So, was he the greatest? Well, that’s a topic that is still hotly debated which generally comes down to Ali and Mike Tyson. For me Mike Tyson because of his incredible power, accuracy, speed and perpetual combinations exploding out of his “Peekaboo” style. Along with a rock-solid defence and his uncanny ability to avoid punches. If you ever want to see a great example of this, just google Mike Tyson V Reggie Gross, where Mike Tyson slipped at least 12 punches before knocking Reggie Gross out with a left hook.
But when we debate these issues what is often forgotten, is that while it is a fun debate, we will never know who was better in different eras and should just remember that they were both incredibly, talented and amazing athletes and legends of their sport.
Getting back to Muhammad Ali. He was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky where he picked up boxing at a young age and rose through the ranks swiftly to then win a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the Rome Olympics. He then turned pro in October, 1960 at the age of just 18. From there he also turned pro at trash talking which would serve two purposes, firstly to unnerve and intimidate his opponents and secondly to promote and sell the fight, making him (what I think) one of the biggest entertainers of the 20th century.
Today’s mnemonic will be on Muhammad Ali’s top five fights.
So, with that being said, we will begin with a summary from Wikipedia.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Muhammad_Ali_NYWTS.jpg
Wikipedia Summary
Muhammad Ali (/ɑːˈliː/;[2] born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "the Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century and is often regarded as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. He held the Ring magazine heavyweight title from 1964 to 1970. He was the undisputed champion from 1974 to 1978 and the WBA and Ring heavyweight champion from 1978 to 1979. In 1999, he was named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated and the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC.
Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, he began training as an amateur boxer at age 12. At 18, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics and turned professional later that year. He converted to Islam after 1961. He won the world heavyweight championship, defeating Sonny Liston in a major upset on February 25, 1964, at age 22. During that year, he denounced his birth name as a "slave name" and formally changed his name to Muhammad Ali. In 1966, Ali refused to be drafted into the military, owing to his religious beliefs and ethical opposition to the Vietnam War, and was found guilty of draft evasion and stripped of his boxing titles. He stayed out of prison while appealing the decision to the Supreme Court, where his conviction was overturned in 1971. He did not fight for nearly four years and lost a period of peak performance as an athlete. Ali's actions as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War made him an icon for the larger counterculture of the 1960s generation, and he was a very high-profile figure of racial pride for African Americans during the civil rights movement and throughout his career. As a Muslim, Ali was initially affiliated with Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam (NOI). He later disavowed the NOI, adhering to Sunni Islam.
He fought in several historic boxing matches, including his highly publicized fights with Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier (including the Fight of the Century, the biggest boxing event up until then), the Thrilla in Manila, and his fight with George Foreman in The Rumble in the Jungle. Ali thrived in the spotlight at a time when many boxers let their managers do the talking, and he became renowned for his provocative and outlandish persona. He was famous for trash-talking, often free-styled with rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry, and has been recognized as a pioneer in hip hop. He often predicted in which round he would knock out his opponent.
Outside boxing, Ali attained success as a spoken word artist, releasing two studio albums: I Am the Greatest! (1963) and The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay (1976). Both albums received Grammy Award nominations. He also featured as an actor and writer, releasing two autobiographies. Ali retired from boxing in 1981 and focused on religion, philanthropy, and activism. In 1984, he made public his diagnosis of Parkinson's syndrome, which some reports attributed to boxing-related injuries, though he and his specialist physicians disputed this. He remained an active public figure globally, but in his later years made fewer public appearances as his condition worsened, and he was cared for by his family.
Extracted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_Hepburn]
Mnemonic
Muhammad Ali – Top 5 Fights Mnemonic – FRiGHT
(Picture Muhammad Ali’s opponents frightened by his hand and leg speed and sharp tongue!)
1. Fight of the Century Against Joe Frazier
2. Rumble in the Jungle Against George Foreman
3. Gold Medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics
4. He beat Sonny Liston to Win the Heavyweight World Championship
5. Thriller In Manilla Against Joe Frazier
Five Fun Facts
1. The fight of the century against Joe Frazier came after Ali’s refusal to be inducted into the armed forces. As a result, Ali was not allowed to fight from March 1967 to October 1970. During this time Joe Frazier had won two championship belts through knockouts. This resulted in the unusual situation where two undefeated fighters would fight for the title. This made it one of the most anticipated events in boxing history and was held at Madison Square Garden in 1971. It went the full distance of 15 rounds and in the end, Joe Frazier retained his title with a unanimous decision.
2. The Rumble in the Jungle came as a result of the defeat of Joe Frazier by George Foreman to win the title, then Ali’s defeat of Joe Frazier in a rematch dubbed Super Fight II in 1974. The fight was held in Kinshasa, Zaire in 1974 and George Foreman came in as a heavy favourite at 4-1. George Foreman lived up to this backing for nearly eight rounds landing unrelenting, thunderous blows to Ali. Ali took most of these blows on the ropes (hence the term rope-a-dope) and just before the end of the eighth round turned the tables and knocked out an exhausted George Foreman to win the heavyweight title for a second time.
3. Ali started boxing at the age of 12 and by 18 he had won six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles and two Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) national titles. He won selection for the 1960 Summer Olympics held in Rome where he won his first three fights with two unanimous decisions and a second-round knockout. The gold medal fight was a lot tougher where he was dominated for two rounds by three-time European champion Zbigniew Pietrzykowski of Poland. Ali came home strong in the third round nearly knocking securing a knock-out and winning a unanimous decision for the light heavyweight Olympic champion.
4. Ali’s first title in 1964 seemed an impossibility against the battle-hardened, and intimidating Sonny Liston who had won his last three fights by knockout all in the first round. Liston had a criminal record and ties to the mob and came into the fight an overwhelming favourite with odds of 7 – 1. The fight was evenly matched until the 6th round where Ali or Clay at that stage of his life dominated, resulting in Liston being unable to continue in the 7th round. Sports Illustrated magazine ranked Clay’s victory as the fourth greatest sports moment of the 20th century.
5. The Thriller in Manilla got its name when Ali nicknamed Frazier “The Gorilla”. He incorporated this into a rhyme which read “it will be a killa and a thrilla and a chilla when I get the gorilla in Manilla”. The fight took place in 1975 and was watched by over a billion viewers. Ali started the fight strong then faded in the 12th before he closed Frazier’s left eye and opened up a cut over his right eye. With Frazier’s lack of vision Ali then dominated the 13th and 14th rounds before Frazier’s trainer Eddie Futch through in the towel before the 15th.
Ali later said that the fight “was the closest thing to dying that I know”.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ali_vs_frazier_elgrafico.jpg
Three Question Quiz
Q.1. Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. on January 17, 1942, in which U.S. city and state?
Q.2. How many times did Muhammad Ali win the heavyweight title?
Q.3. What did the crowd chant during the fight between Ali and Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle?
Bonus Q. At the age of 11 Clay joined a boxing club run by a police officer. Why did he join this boxing club? Options are because he was being bullied at school, his dad beat him, or someone stole his bike
Bonus Q. Who was Muhamad Ali’s best-known and main trainer?
Mnemonic Recap
Muhammad Ali – Top 5 Fights Mnemonic – FRiGHT
(Picture Muhammad Ali’s opponents frightened by his hand and leg speed and sharp tongue!)
1. Fight of the Century Against Joe Frazier
2. Rumble in the Jungle Against George Foreman
3. Gold Medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics
4. He beat Sonny Liston to Win the Heavyweight World Championship
5. Thriller In Manilla Against Joe Frazier
Three Question Quiz Answers
Q.1. Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. on January 17, 1942, in which U.S. city and state?
A. Louisville, Kentucky
Now just speaking of names Muhammad Ali who was once Cassius Clay finally got around to having his own kids and being the joker, he was he wanted to give his firstborn an ironic name. So, he named his firstborn who just happened to be a boy Ali’son! The secondborn didn’t fare much better being called Brock Ali!!
Q.2. How many times did Muhammad Ali win the heavyweight title?
A. Three times (Sonny Liston, George Foreman and Leon Spinks). The only person to do so
Q.3. What did the crowd chant during the fight between Ali and Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle?
A. “Ali booma ye” (Ali kill him)
Bonus Q. At the age of 11 Clay joined a boxing club run by a police officer. Why did he join this boxing club? Options are because he was being bullied at school, his dad beat him, or someone stole his bike
A. Someone stole his bike. When he complained to the police officer about the stolen bike, Ali said he wanted to find the thief and whip him. To which the police officer replied you better learn how to fight first.
Bonus Q. Who was Muhamad Ali’s best-known and main trainer?
A. Angelo Dundee
Word of the Week
taradiddle
[ tar-uh-did-l ]
noun
a small lie; fib.
Example
More of a boast rather than a taradiddle Muhammad Ali once stated before his 1965 defence against Floyd Patterson “I’ll beat him so bad he’ll need a shoehorn to put his hat on!”
Extracted from: [https://www.dictionary.com/]
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References
https://learnodo-newtonic.com/muhammad-ali-accomplishments