Word: aly
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...trying to tell him how much time has gone by, Joe's old trainer, Eddie Futch, is no longer his trainer. Futch-not Frazier, not the referee, not Muhammad Ali-stopped the "Thrilla in Manila" in 1975 with a round to go. "Sit down, son; it's all over," Eddie said softly after the devastating 14th round, and put his hand on Joe's shoulder. "No one will ever forget what you did here today...
...think I'm fighting?" says Ali, looking up from a dressing-room cot after working out in the Bahamas for his own comeback this week against Trevor Berbick. (If it comes off, that is; even Ali has trouble believing it.) For the spotlight, comes the reply. He is fighting again because he needs to be a star, needs to shine...
...voice there is a scratch that shows clearly. "Speech is the most recognizable sign," says Dr. Ferdie Pacheco, once Muhammad's personal physician, no longer in his corner. "Does Muhammad Ali speak today as he spoke in 1971 [the year of the first of the three Ali-Frazier wars]? Listen to Ali yourself and hear the dramatic and sad slowing of Ali's speech, slurring of his words, slowing of his mental processes...
...Ali curls up on the cot, closes his eyes and, in that husky rasp of a voice, whispers, "The secret to my continuing the way I do is my consciousness of a continuing assault upon my own greatness and ability. Read that back to me." Twice it is read back to him. "There. That just came to me," he says. "Do I sound like I have brain damage...
...Muhammad Ali's reaction to losing the first "Fight of the Century" to Frazier in 1971 was to stitch PEOPLE'S CHAMPION on his robe and go about maligning Joe in the black community. That hurt Frazier more than any punch. Ali called Joe "Uncle Tom" for visiting the White House, though that was his own first stop after he retrieved the title from George Foreman in 1974. Whether punishing Floyd Patterson or taunting Ernie Terrell, Ali was never so cruel to anyone as he was to Frazier, whom he termed "ignorant." Frazier simply offended him aesthetically...