Muhammad Ali Dead at 74

As much as he is loved now, he was downright hated in America, and a lot of it was because of his NoI affiliation and his refusal to go into the Army. His 1971 bought with Frazier at Madison Square Garden was the biggest fight the planet has ever seen (save perhaps the 2nd fight between Louis and Schmeling), and Frazier was the favorite of the American people as he was seen as the good guy.

Ali was HATED. Now, whether he cared about that or not, I don't know, but it surely didn't make life easy for him.

 

I understand that, but that doesn't speak to my point

 

He, essentially, could have lost everything he had, literally, fought for. His title, livelihood, freedom, money, best years of his profession, etc. There were zero guarantees that he could fight again when he refused induction and was sentenced to five years in prison. I think he was risking quite a bit.

 

I guarantee you his handlers were telling him the us govt was sending him to Vietnam to kill him. So if the alternative is death, I don't really see it as giving up anything. He had to give up his livelihood, money, and best years of his profession by going into the army too

 

Guarantee? How so?

 

You seriously think they were telling him they were going to parade him around like Elvis and he'd never see combat?

 

So did Ted Williams, DiMaggio, Bob Feller, etc.

 

Different war.

 

Irrelevant.

 

More along the lines of different people. Three of which weren't utter pieces of shit that went out of their way to dodge.

 

Support of the Vietnam was was actually pretty high when Ali made his stance

 

Also didn't have a retard level iq

 

World War II was a much different war than Vietnam and Ali didn't go out of his way to avoid service (And there were plenty of ways). He just said it was an immoral war and he wasn't going to go and kill people 10,000 miles away for no reason.

 

I don't remember hearing he had a moral argument when he got a deferment based on his iq being too low

 

Because it was in 1962 and we weren't fighting in Vietnam, nor had he converted to Islam.

 

So killing wasn't against his religion then too?

 

I had a great uncle who got his head blown off in Vietnam who didn't agree with why we were there either. Don't expect me to celebrate a ***** who used a faux excuse and his fame to get out of it. I didn't celebrate him when he was alive and won't celebrate his death. He was a helluva boxer. The greatest, in fact. Doesn't change the fact he was an utter piece of shit.

 

Vietnam killed my grandfather and I still think Ali was right for refusing to enlist. Ali didn't use his fame to get out of service, either. He was going to jail if the Supreme Court decision didn't go his way and they weren't going his way, originally.

 

He hadn't had his religious conversion, yet.

 

Amazing transformation in 3 years