Before his exile from boxing in 1967 for his refusal to be drafted into the US military during the Vietnam War, Muhammad Ali has compiled an undefeated record including nine successful title defenses. It was during this early stage in his professional career and short reign as world champion that Ali showed and exhibited his class as a fighter. One opponent after another, he outclassed them showing off his vast arsenal of unique and “never seen before” boxing skills, speed, guts and talents in and off the ring. There’s this fighting stance, “…float like a butterfly and sting like a bee...” and his “Ali Shuffle”, a fast shuffling of his feet synchronized with a rapid barrage of punches he alone can perform to perfection and with grace. And if those were not enough, he recited poems how he would fight or how it would end. He also used psychological warfare jokingly intimidating his opponents to instill hatred of him and enrage them to be ferocious and show their bests in the ring. “He is too ugly to be world champ!, I’m gonna whup ‘em!, I’m gonna annihilate ‘em!, I’m gonna humiliate ‘em!” were samples of his rants he spewed out prior to each fight only to find out, they all cower in fear.

In his third comeback fight from exile to regain his former title, Ali fought in 1971 Joe Frazier, the then newly recognized world champion. Like him, Frazier is an Afro-American 1964 Tokyo Olympics gold medalist who during his absence rose in the ranks to become champion with an undefeated record and a high percentage knockout wins. Ali lost this big fight labeled, “Fight of the Century” as both were then undefeated. This also marked as the first multi-million dollar fight ever with the protagonists getting US $5M each in prize money. Unconvinced and sour gripping for his lose to Frazier, Ali without the slightest hints of retirement continued his quest to fight more knowing well he still have “plenty” to show the world what he’s got.

Just like in his first challenge for the world title against Sonny Liston in 1964, Ali again found himself very much an underdog in facing world champion George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire in 1974. Earlier, Foreman kayoed Frazier in just two rounds to wrest the title and like him and Frazier, he is also an Afro-American and a gold medalist of the Mexico Olympics. Undefeated and considered “invincible” by many, Foreman at the time held the best knockout record in boxing credited with early KO wins. With only three of his 49 opponents having gone the distance with him, Foreman who was just 25 then and in his prime years was no ordinary opponent for Ali. Yet, despite this huge odds and the predictions of so-called “experts” that Foreman will just have a “walk over” win against him, Ali who was already 32, just laughed it off knowing they are in for a big surprise. Given up as an old “washed up” fighter, a “phony” and with numerous unsavory criticisms being thrown at him, Ali knew that he alone knows “how to fight” and beat Foreman and what he lacks in his arsenal – boxing skill and stamina.

Inviting and talking to Foreman during the fight to hit him hard with all his best punches while he rested on the ropes or in the corner covering his head with his gloves, Foreman dumbly obliged to Ali’s taunts unmindful he was just being drained of his stamina, until – he grasps for air. Ali then set him up for a decisive and conclusive finish to the fight by flooring Foreman for an 8th rd KO win and the world title. On top of the world again for the second time and just like in 1964, Ali lectured everybody “I told you …... , Never again..…”. It was in this ‘Rumble in the Jungle” fight that Ali’s long- kept secret weapon, the rope-a-dope was unveiled and the rest is history.

Just at this juncture in Ali’s career and by the merits he gave boxing to push it to its highest level of worldwide acceptance as the most popular and widely watched premier sport, there should be no doubt then that Ali “alone” deserves all the accolades being the ”greatest fighter” ever in history. With the superior boxing skills and speed he exhibited, the prophesies he called, the poems he wrote, the taunts and the many talents he showed, there’s just no way he can ever be surpassed or dislodged as the greatest. It is only by his emergence that boxing has become a multimillion dollar sport spectacle with boxers now receiving prize money in the millions when before it used only to be in the thousands. Besides, Ali as he long claimed it, is also the most recognizable and most photographed face in the world that he even once said, “I am BOXING!" Literally translated, it is Ali what boxing is all about or in short, he is the boxing messiah. But who comes in next after Ali?

Many years before the emergence of Ali, numerous fighters with the likes of heavyweights Jack Dempsey, Rocky Marciano, Joe Louis and other smaller fighters like Archie Moore and Sugar Ray Robinson were one by one considered as the greatest fighters ever. After Ali’s retirement, came Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard, “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler, Julio Ceasar Chavez, Mike Tyson, Oscar de la Hoya and others also showed up to join the list. But where does Manny Pacquiao come in?

In 2004, after Manny Pacquiao managed just a “draw” when he should have won to unseat Juan Manuel Marquez as the WBA/IBF featherweight champion, this writer wrote to the sport columnist of Sporting Chance of the newspaper The Philippine Star about his opinion of the verdict and his outlook of where Pacquiao is headed to in the world of boxing. As a “no nonsense” boxing fan, this writer predicted that Pacquiao will dominate the boxing scene for many years to come and even went on to name his “Top 5 Greatest Fighters”.

The list he wrote follows:
1. Muhammad Ali
2.
3. Sugar Ray Robinson
5. Roberto Duran
6. Sugar Ray Leonard

But why is the no. 2 spot vacant? It’s simple, the writer went on. To date, he finds no fighter, past or present who can be considered as too good to be a close second to Ali as Ali is everything what others are not. Well said. In conclusion, the writer predicted that as Pacquiao has demonstrated his fighting prowess now, it might well be that the no. 2 is already reserved for him. And that was in 2004.

(To be continued…)

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The Greatest After Ali (Part 1)
He was a "failure" in politics. He is not a big time businessman or an entrepreneur and neither is he an intellectual, a civic leader, a crusader or a rebel.