Muhammad Ali, probably the most revered sports figure in the world, has recently been in and out of hospitals. Ali is old and frail, suffers from dementia pugilistica, and each time he rallied many of us breathed a sigh of relief.
At a time when boxing reigned in the sporting world, Ali ruled as King of Kings. He fought bravely (against Sonny Liston, George Foreman and especially in the Thrilla in Manila against Joe Frazier), charismatically, and uniquely. He utilized the Ali Shuffle and the rope-a-dope. He defied conventional wisdom by dropping his hands and responding to punches with slight head movements rather than ducking or deflecting blows. Writer Garry Wills (The New York Review of Books, October 1975) noted that Ali's eyes never left his opponent. The head movements kept his vision unblocked so that he did not “evade this punch by losing sight of the next one.” He not only had the fastest hands and feet but “the best eyes in boxing.”
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