The Legend: Muhammad Ali

This world has seen its share of greats and legends but there are few who stand apart even in that category of greats as well and they are called the Greatest.

They come and make this world a richer place and inspire generations thereafter. They tell the world how to live a life, they tell the world what a human can do but when they go, they leave a vacuum too big to fill.

Today is one such day when the world has lost its greatest of all time, Muhammad Ali.

Muhammad Ali was an American professional boxer and three time world heavyweight champion. He was a civil right activist too. His death is not only a loss to the sports but also to the humanity.

The world has lost its greatest fighter today. A billion of people have lost their hero today. 

And I am sure there would be a billion who would learn about this man today and would think that Holy shit, did he actually took birth on this planet? I wanted my hero to be just like that. That’s the legacy Muhammad Ali has left.

Muhammad Ali started with nothing like so many legends have. Even before his first fight, he proclaimed himself the greatest.

Now the world has seen a number of big mouthed creatures but this was not among them. He proved it again and again that what he said was right. He believed that he was the greatest and while proving this he made others also accept the fact.

He was one of the very few sports personalities who never shied away from giving his opinion in public; let it be the Vietnam was where he refused to go as war did not comport with his religion or the big one, conversion of religion from Christianity to Muslim. He did what he believed in and never bothered about others, even when he had to suffer a lot being an African American black man.

Here was a person who took the control of his life in his hands at each and every step and backed it with full conviction and performance. Here was an athlete who told the world the ability of physical and mental strength.  

At one end he insulted his opponents with rhymes, including the famous lines ‘float like a butterfly, sting like a bee’; on the other side he fought against the American racism. He was unorthodox in both the places and still he won inside the ring and outside as well.

Until he was caught with Parkinson’s disease 32 years ago, he always voiced his opinion. But in his final years, he was barely able to speak due to his disease.

In 2009, he was asked to share his personal philosophy on National Public radio and he let his wife read the essay-:

“I never thought of the possibility of failing, only of the fame and glory I was going to get when I won,” Ali wrote. “I could see it. I could almost feel it. When I proclaimed I was the greatest of all time, I believed in myself and I still do.”