Dissatisfaction over and above that which inevitably attends human existence is one of the marks of the intellectual, and Mailer chose himself as the subject and object of his dilemmas and dissatisfactions.
Further proof I am not an intellectual. But I am something of a boxing fan. "... even I could see at once that the world champion was a cut above the others, for his movements had a smoothness, even a grace, that theirs lacked." Precisely. He was not just a fighter.
I was an amateur boxer during most of Ali's professional fight life, and in the boxing and gambling circles I knew, Ali was not as highly thought of as he was (and is) in media and intellectual circles.
ReplyDeleteAlthough he was a good fighter, the fighters and gamblers I knew mostly considered Ali to be a showboat, a clown, a cheat and a crook.
Although no one was arrested or convicted, it is a given in fight and gambling circles that Sonny Liston threw the fight to Ali (then known as Clay).
Liston would have knocked the young Clay right out of the ring had the mob not fixed the fight, went the conventional wisdom.
Years later, those in the fight game knew that Ali the champ threw the fight to Leon Spinks in order to get a second, even greater payday in the "revenge" rematch with Spinks. This is a scam that is still being played today.
While training and sparring in the South Philly Boys Club, in the Navy and in South Philly fight gyms, the word from trainers and fighters was that Ali was a dirty fighter.
According to old fighters and trainers, Ali, with his long left leg, would step in and stomp down on his opponent's instep. This is a trick we learned to avoid if we could.
When Ali stepped on the instep, an opponent would involuntarlly drop his guard from the pain and shock. And then Ali would deliver a combination of punches.
Another dirty trick that the old-timers said Ali used was to press his left glove on a spot that he hit repeatedly. The pressure from the glove and the friction of the leather would cause more swelling and open cuts.
The opponent would be at Ali's mercy, because to get under that long left, you might be hit with Ali's short right, which was his knock-out punch.
He would also intentially miss the left jab so the laces of his glove would scrape the cuts on an opponent's face and cause greater bleeding. Jerry Cloony lost to this dirty trick, I heard the old-timers say. (Glove laces are taped today).
People in the fight game claimed Ali was closely associated with crooked fight promoters, mob guys and a religious-radical-criminal group that used him to shake-down business people. (They also took most of Ali's money).
When I later became a crime reporter and columnist I heard this from law enforement people as well (although off-the-record, as he was never arrested or convicted).
Fight judges who took payoffs or just favored Ali also aided him, as most of those in the fight game believe Fraser beat Ali the second time they fought, and they believe that Jimmy Young also beat Ali.
I'll admit that Ali was a good fighter, but his "legend" was created largely by criminals and left-wing media and intellectuals who admired his ant-Vietnam, anti-white stance (he called Bill Buckley "a blonde-haied, blue-eyed devil on Buckley's TV Show Firing Line).
I don't admire Ali as he was disrespectful of Fraser, Foreman, Paterson and other men who were, in my view, better fighters and better men.
And this big, tough fighter was afraid to serve in the army. Hey, even Elvis served!
As for Mailer, I saw a film of him in the ring and it was a joke. He would not have lasted one minute in the gym at Passyunk and Moore in South Philly.
Mailer, like Chris Matthews today with Obama, felt a tingle up his leg when he was with Ali. That's sick.
I saw Mailer speak at Temple U in the 1960s and he was drunk and incoherent. He was a clown like his hero Ali.
Although I must admit Mailer wrote a couple of good books - I liked "The Executioner's Song" - he was a fool as a writer and a joke as a fighter.
I wonder what Mailer would have thought of Obama?
Paul Davis
daviswrite@aol.com