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Before Muhammad Ali spectators would watch prize fighting for 2 main reasons: Entertainment and to support their man in victory. When Ali came along all of that changed..
With Ali the entertainment did not begin when the bell rang it started as soon as the camera was pointed in his direction. His charisma, exciting style and sense of humour made him rise to fame and popularity. However, for the first time in boxing history people were watching to see a man lose! In the first 5 pages of his autobiography he describes strangers delight in his losses, many racial slurs but others just wanted to see a cocky, loud mouth winner finally ‘get what’s coming to him’. This did, however, see him break a lot of records, let us compare them to today’s fighters.
Sonny Liston is often a man overlooked. Before he fought Ali he defeated then champion Floyd Patterson via first round KO twice, Floyd defended the world heavyweight title 7 times. A healthy Sonny Liston only ever lost to 2 men in 54 fights, including Ali.
Liston vs Clay was labelled as a mis match, a thin division with a teenager whose large mouth needed to be closed by Liston. The odds for Ali to win that night went as high as 16/1, to put that in perspective here are some boxing upsets.
Klitschko / Fury – 3/1
Pacquaio / Bradley – 4/1
Rahman / Lewis – 7/1
Foreman / Moorer – 10/1
Tyson / Douglas – 42/1
Before the fight so-called ‘experts’ are filmed one after another quoting “List will kill him, kill him in the first round”, “Liston 2nd round”, “2nd round Liston” and “Liston in 4”. Ironically 4 experts did not give Ali the chance of escaping the 4th round let alone becoming the youngest champion of his time. It is hard to imagine a match up where the sky team of Carl Froch, Jonny Nelson and David Haye would all agree a bout doesn’t pass 4 rounds.
Floyd Mayweather has the biggest PPV’s in boxing at 4.4million, not because he entertains in the ring (many casual fans see his defensive genius boring) it is because people want to be there if he finally loses his 0. Conor Mcgregor PPV record in MMA is 1.5 million, his popularity became this high firstly because of the tension he would build with his opponent and secondly delivering exciting fights. Muhammad Ali mastered all 3 parts of the game by the ripe age of 22. At the age of 22 Mayweather was yet to headline a PPV card and McGregor was still yet to debut in the UFC paying bills by fighting in regional shows. If you have you ever wondered which was the first bout to be sold as a PPV, Muhammad Ali vs Joe Frazier is your answer.
Muhammad Ali is the 15th most successful Heavyweight in terms of title defences and duration of holding the belt standing at 10 defences, this stands only 8 behind the most dominant champion of our generation Wladimir Klitschko, quoting Ali’s coach Angelo Dundee “One thing must be taken into account when talking about Ali: He was robbed of his best years, his prime years.
You will hear time and time again, you cannot compare past greats with today’s stars as it is incomparable. The training, the equipment, the nutrition it creates a large barrier between generations; despite this who would bet against Muhammad Ali in his prime against today's undisputed champion Tyson Fury?
Muhammad Ali was paid 6 million dollars to fight Joe Frazier, 40 years on it is estimated that Tyson Fury made 5 million pounds becoming the new Heavyweight Champion of the world.
These are just numbers and speculation; The majority of the population would agree the greatest significance would be having a people's champion. Children having a positive role model when they seem to be so few: Life is not just about money, the larger man doesn’t always win and stand up for what you believe in.
