Mr Editor Sir, please allow us space to pay tribute to Muhammad Ali, who passed away recently in the United States.
It is with greatest poorness at heart that we are observing the death of the only boxer to have deserved entitlement to being called the greatest boxer and sporting personality to the millennium.
In our humble opinion, Ali was also one of the sportsmen to champion the cause of the down-trodden and victims of the social injustices that surrounded him in his homeland.
His refusal to fight in Vietnamese War, and the changing of his name from Cassius Clay (which he regarded as a slave name) to Muhammad Ali, bears testimony of his claim.
In the ring, winning or losing did not exist, so did victorious opponents. What existed was Ali.
Losing simply served to promote his next fight.
Because of his rare way of words, he was able to turn adversity into prosperity for himself and sports reporters, who could sell any paper that carried a story about him.
That is the sort of magic touch that Ali had on people.
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| Muhammad Ali |
With regard to Zimbabwe boxing, Ali shall always have a special place in our hearts for one thing he did in the 33+ years Mudede and Hondo were in the forefront of the sport as office-bearers in the Zimbabwe National Boxing and Wrestling Control Board.
With the help of Arnold Taylor, a long time doyen of Zimbabwe boxing, we arranged for the late “Kilimanjaro” Chinembiri, our hottest prospect at the time, to visit and train at the KRONK GYM in the USA, courtesy of this great man.
This was made because Arnold was very close to Ali.
It was at a time when we were angling Proud to challenge the then reigning World Champion, Leon Spinks, who had beaten Ali to retain the title.
After training at the KRONK, Proud was required to have one more fight, against a ranked opponent, to cement his right to meet Spinks for the title.
We managed to set up such a contest for Proud, against Britain’s Hughroy Currie, in London, which Hondo personally attended.
Unfortunately for us, Proud lost the contest on points, after coming very close to stopping Currie in the 9th round.
This was the closest ever a Zimbabwe boxer had come to earn the right to challenge for the World Heavyweight title, thanks to Ali.
Ali’s exploits in the ring are a public knowledge we need not repeat them here, save to say that it will take the world a long, long time to produce another Muhammad Ali in boxing, if ever.
He was simply a unique personality, especially as he arrived on the boxing scene in the late fifties, when America was still riddled with deep grained racial prejudices and intolerant to outspoken black men with the courage to question the glaring social imbalances. He just was like no other, from the very first black man to win the world heavyweight title in 1929 and dominate it, Jack Johnson, to the present crop of heavyweights.
May the Lord grant him everlasting rest, amen.
