January 2002 - March 2004 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

have walked away from Ali. But, no of course not, Ali was a cash cow for
Herbert son of Elijah. And as long as Herbert could make money off of Ali, he
would. If anyone doubts my remarks read Ali's autobiography writen by Tom
Hauser. One more point about 10 years ago Ali sued Herbert Muhammad for back
money owed to Ali from his boxing purses when he was managed by Herbert. Ali in
1967 was not the wise statesman people now make him out to be.There are
many peculiar aspects to the career of Muhammad Ali. He claimed to be a staunch
supporter for Blacks back in the 60's. But it's remarkable that he had 2 white
guys in his corner. You mean to tell me out of all the black trainers in boxing
at the time Ali could not find to capable ones to replace Angelo Dundee and
Ferdie Pacheo, "Uncle Tom" Joe Frazier fought his whole caree with all black
cornermen.And finally regarding Ali's love for his black brothers. If
my memory serves me correctly; when Ali fought white fighters in the 60's he
went pretty easy on them. He would defeat them, and thats that. But, sometimes
when he fought black fighters he was meaner than a Klansmen. Are we forgetting
how he tortured and humilated Floyd Patterson, and Ernie Terrell? The Ali of
the 60's was nothing like the Ali of later decades who became a kind and
generous man. And to pretend otherwise, is myth making|
|12/21/03 03:00:21 AM|Paul|Sydney, Australia||PlMls4@aol.com||||10|Forest - You
summed that up very fairly and accurately, and I especially agree with your
comment about the war. I also read the book by Thomas Hauser and I recently lent
it to a friend. It is the finest book about Ali. The spite he showed against
Patterson was surprising, but I can't recall the reason for it. Regarding the
men he had in his corner, I recall reading somewhere that Dundee felt a bit
uncomfortable with the religious side of things. There were many hangers-on and
all of them got a big piece of Ali. When the Vietnam war was on I was in high
school over here and I was approaching draft age. I was such a dope I wanted to
be drafted. There was a change of government here in 1972 and they pulled our
troops out before I got to the right age. Anyway, that was a very good post.
There were many things about Ali's personal life and beliefs that I didn't like.
In fact, ironically, I'm more in tune with Joe Frazier's outlook on life than
Ali's. |
|12/21/03 05:14:32 AM|Massimo|Rome||4||||10|Paul-Ali' s spite against
Patterson was caused by the fact that Patterson said that it was not right that
a Muslim was champion and that he wanted to fight for Christianity against the
Muslim wordl. Cheers ( you taught me this word, thanks ).|
|12/21/03 07:10:23 AM|Paul|Sydney, Australia||PlMls4@aol.com||||10|Massimo -
where have you been ? Eating spaghetti ? I had roasted koala for dinner. Thanks
for the information on Patterson. I'd forgotten what it was all about. That's
probably the first time anyone got angry at Patterson, because he seemed like a
real upstanding, nice sort of guy. From memory, Ali was upset at Tyrell due to
him not calling him by his new name. RS got something very right before. While I
disagree with most on here by saying that Frazier is overrated, I wholeheartedly
agree that he was one of the bravest warriors ever. He proved that in the third
Ali fight. Frazier also proved it by agreeing to the second Foreman fight after
what happened in the first one. The absolute bravery of Frazier was never an
issue with me. Appraisal of his ability - rightly or wrongly - was the only
issue I had. I consider him way above average, but not one of the greats. By the
way, Forest summed up several issues regarding Ali very well. I hadn't thought
about those things for a long time. Forest didn't make the point I am about to
make, but I hope he considers it. Imagine being in your early 20s, sudden fame
and wealth, heavyweight champion of the world, you're good looking and have
woman falling at your feet, you are of a colour that is not everyones'
favourite, and you got rich, manipulative, influential people pulling in
different directions wanting a piece of you. On top of that you have radical
religious zealots with an agenda as managers. And then on top of that again you
delve into politics, war issues, and questions of race etc. All these things