MUHAMMAD ALI, THE ORIGINAL TRASH TALKER
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 12 Jan 2014
Ali.
Floyd Mayweather, Jr., the number one boxer pound-for-pound in the world today is the number one trash talker in boxing, too. In the age of social media he also used the internet through his Twitter and Instagram to taunt his prospective opponents especially Manny Pacquiao. But when there were no world wide webs and when radio, TV and newspapers were the only means of correspondence, the most popular trash talker in the prize fighting business was Muhammad Ali.
Ali revolutionized the sport through arduous attraction and influence of his personality. He entertained his audience with outrageous and oftentimes ridiculous ranting at his opponents. During those times, most of the managers would do the talking for their fighters. But Ali would grab the spotlight of every interview and press conference to the extent of being vocal even on issues not related to boxing.
Calling himself the "Greatest," Ali regularly taunted his opponent with sarcasm before and even during the bout itself. He would amuse his fans with pre-fight dramatics all made to promote interest in the fight. But most often it is too degrading to his foes and aimed at affecting him psychologically to lose focus on the bout.
He called Joe Frazier "too dumb to be champion." He threatened to whip Sonny Liston "like his Daddy did." He called Ernie Terrell as "Uncle Tom" and Floyd Patterson a "rabbit." Ali was a master of insult and indignity, and when he fought Liston, he reversed his underdog tag when the champion was disturbed by his anger. Still Cassius Clay at that time, he called Liston as "the big ugly bear." "Liston even smells like a bear," Clay said. "After I beat him I'm going to donate him to the zoo."
Referring to Ali's unique but successful strategy, one sportswriter commented that "the most brilliant fight strategy in boxing history was devised by a teenager who had graduated 376 in a class of 391."
In the lead-up to the "Thrilla in Manila" and on each of their other two previous encounters, Frazier received several verbal insults from Ali but he was able to withstood them. Ali called Frazier "The Gorilla" and he always chanted it in a rhyme "It will be a Killa and a Thrilla and a Chilla when I get The Gorilla in Manila." He did this as he punched a gorilla doll who he symbolized as Frazier.
Ali explained to reporter Dick Schaap that it was part of his pre-fight technique: "I like to get a man mad, because when a man's mad, he wants ya so bad, he can't think, so I like to get a man mad." This style caused the defeat of George Foreman, who was so enraged that he lost concentration and was knocked out of exhaustion.
As usual, Ali was talkative and oozing with confidence before the fight. He told David Frost, "if you think the world was surprised when Nixon resigned, wait 'til I whup Foreman's behind!" In an interview, he told the media, "I've done something new for this fight. I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick; I'm so mean I make medicine sick."
Because of his antics, Ali was wildly popular in Zaire wherever he went, with the crowds shouting "Ali, bomaye" ("Ali, kill him").
Ali was the original boxer who called himself as the "people's champion" and he would predict the rounds in which he would stop his opponents, and often bragged of crawling across the ring if he lost the bout. Ali confessed he imitated the practice of trash talking from "Gorgeous" George Wagner, a popular professional wrestling champion in Los Angeles who attracted thousands of fans to his matches as "the man you love to hate," due to his being big-mouthed.
ESPN columnist Ralph Wiley named Ali "The King of Trash Talk." The Guardian recently declared his time as "golden age of trash talking" in boxing. The Bleacher Report called Clay's invective of Liston "smelling like a bear" and his promise to "donate him to a zoo" after he beat him the greatest trash talk line in sports history.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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