The complete Muhammad Ali

446 Pages·2015·5.81 MB·English

by  Ali

“Great,” James Baldwin The Complete
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“Great,” Sam Tanenhaus, The New York Times h
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“Great,” Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic Wire a M U H A M M A D A L I
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A “modern-day Molière,” Backstage l
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More than a biography and ‘bigger than boxing,’ The Complete Muhammad Ali is a d
fascinating portrait of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first.
Ishmael Reed calls it The Complete Muhammad Ali because most of the hundred
Ishmael Reed
odd books about the champion are “either too adoring or make excessively negative
assertions.” One biography blames Ali, along with Gerald Ford, for losing Vietnam,

another calls him a “malicious buffoon,” while others—The Ali Scribes—make him
into a Saint.
Charting Ali’s evolution from Black Nationalism to a universalism, Reed gives due
credit to the Nation of Islam’s and Black Nationalism’s important influence on Ali’s
intellectual development. Instead of being dismissed as “lunatics” and “thugs,” Black T
h
Nationalists and Nation of Islam members are given a chance to speak up. Sam X, who e
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introduced Ali to the Nation of Islam, said that without his mentor Elijah Muhammad, o
m
nobody would ever have heard of Ali. That remark cannot be ignored.
p
The Ali phenomenon is also situated in the history of boxing and boxers from le
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before the times of Jack Johnson, through Joe Louis and Archie Moore to Floyd e
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Mayweather. Reed includes Canadian fighters like Tommy Burns, George Chuvalo
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and Yvon Durelle. H
People interviewed include Marvin X, Harry Belafonte, Hugh Masakela, Jack A
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Newfield, Ed Hughes, Emmanuel Steward, Amiri Baraka, Emil Guillermo, Khalilah
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Ali, Quincy Troupe, Rahaman Ali, Agieb Bilal, Melvin Van Peebles, Ray Robinson,
A
Jr., Ed Hughes, Jesse Jackson, Martin Wyatt, Bennett Johnson, Stanley Crouch, Bobby D
Seale, and many more. A
L
I
ISHMAEL REED
is a prize-winning essayist, novelist, poet and playwright.
He taught at the University of California-Berkeley for thirty-five
years, as well as at Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth. Author of more
“Mr. Reed’s prose style
than twenty-five books, he is a member of Harvard’s Signet Society
and Yale’s Calhoun Society. He lives in Oakland, California. resembles the youthful Ali’s
ring style. He is unorthodox,
$29.95
brash, yet controlled.”
New York Times, March 12,1978
isbn 978-1-77186-040-6
www.barakabooks.com
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The Complete
MUHAMMAD ALI
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“You Have No Partners
in Pain.”
Willie Pep
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The Complete
MUHAMMAD ALI
Ishmael Reed
Montréal
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The cover photo was taken by the late photographer, Jose Fuentes, who often traveled with
the champion. Unlike photos that are used as covers for the more than one hundred books
on Muhammad Ali, some of them showing the champion in a playful pose, or brimming
with confidence, this photo is different. Here is the champion at the end of his career.
He has been humiliated by a fighter just out of the amateurs. He is about to take on his
young conquerer in a return match. The outcome is uncertain. His handlers thought that
it would be an easy fight. He has debts. And marital problems. In his next fight he meets
Larry Holmes and receives one of the most brutal defeats in boxing history. He fights this
and his last fight, while a debilitating brain disease is beginning to form. Here Ali is shown
facing tragedy, majestically.
© Ishmael Reed 2015
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
ISBN 978-1-77186-040-6 pbk; 978-1-77186-047-5 epub; 978-1-77186-048-2 pdf;
978-1-77186-049-9 mobi/kindle
Cover photo by Jose Fuentes
Cover by Folio infographie
Book design by Folio infographie
Legal Deposit, 3rd quarter 2015
Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
Library and Archives Canada
Published by Baraka Books of Montreal
6977, rue Lacroix
Montréal, Québec H4E 2V4
Telephone: [phone]
[email protected]
www.barakabooks.com
Printed and bound in Quebec
Trade Distribution & Returns
Canada and the United States
Independent Publishers Group
1-800-888-4741 (IPG1);
[email protected]
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DEDICATION
T

his book is dedicated to: the great photographer, Jose Fuentes;
Barbara Lowenstein, my agent; Shaye Arehart, and to Sam Greenlee
Billy Bang, Jack Newfield, Reginald Major, Ed Hughes, Fred Ho,
Clayton Riley, Emanuel Steward, Amiri Baraka, Oscar Hijuelos, Sam
Greenlee, and photographer Charles Robinson whom I interviewed,
but who didn’t live to see the publication of this book.
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INTRODUCTION
The Curious History of an Icon
I call this book The Complete Muhammad Ali because most of the
one hundred books about the champion, the majority of which are
worshipful, are either too adoring or make excessively negative asser-
tions, like Jack Cashill’s blaming Ali and Gerald Ford for the loss of
Vietnam. For Mark Kram, Ali is a malicious buffoon. For Thomas
Hauser, he’s a saint, though Hauser’s opinion has changed. White
sports writers have been generally hostile to black athletes, yet they
monopolize the coverage of athletes and always seem to be searching
for a white hope who would best the reigning black champion.
In contrast to some of their copy, Jack London, who allegedly
created the term “white hope,” was very respectful of heavyweight
champion Jack Johnson. Authors of the two bestsellers, one of which
was overseen by Yolanda Ali, and the other written by an Ali fan,
disregard any information that would interfere with their reference
for “The King of the World.” Others are those whom I call The
Ali Scribes, liberal writers located in the Northeast, who base their
admiration of Ali upon his refusal to fight in an unpopular war with-
out noting that he was following the example of his mentor, Elijah
Muhammad, who refused to fight in a “popular war.” World War II
was seen as a war of “The Greatest Generation,” against the forces of
fascism, while this coveted generation practiced their fascism against
black soldiers, who had to fight both the “enemy” and white officers
and GIs. Just as George Washington treated English mercenaries
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10 THE COMPLETE MUHAMMAD ALI
better than his slaves, “enemy” prisoners were treated better in the
south than black soldiers.
When speaking of the white volunteers who came south to assist
in registering of black voters, while in the media version blacks stood
by passively like the characters in the film “Django Unchained,” Askia
Touré could have been speaking of The Ali Scribes. Ali made the
sacrifice, while they held meetings in a downtown pub deliberating
about his choices.
Askia Touré was one of those responsible for purging north-
ern liberals from SNCC (The Student Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee). He said it was done because while blacks were taking
the risks, the liberals were calling their friends located in cities all
over the North and giving the blacks directions from their tables in
coffee shops, or in the immortal words of David Hilliard, a member
of the Black Panther Party and one of the guardians of its legacy:
“They needed a nigger to pull the trigger.” This could be true of The
Ali Scribes; they celebrated Ali’s defiance of the draft, a sacrifice that
they would not make themselves.
The Ali Scribes’ genuflection before the champion was a factor in
Ali believing in his invincibility—a belief that led to serious injuries
in the ring, injuries incurred as a result of his staying in the game long
after the powers that were responsible for his ascendancy had been
shot. Sports commentator Bill Clayton even provided some punch
stats to compute the number of punches Ali received with the decline
of his ring abilities. According to Clayton’s calibrations, in the first
Liston fight, Ali was hit with less than a dozen punches per round.
In Ali-Liston II, Liston landed only two. Cleveland Williams hit him
with only three punches during their bout. However, Joe Frazier hit
him with four hundred forty punches at the “Thrilla in Manila,” Leon
Spinks hit him with four hundred eighty-two punches in their first
fight, and Larry Holmes connected with three hundred and twenty
punches (Hauser, 2005).
Ali’s legend hangs upon the act of defying the Selective Service,
which still brings him either praise or condemnation from his sup-
porters and enemies. His response to the press when asked whether he
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