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Muhammad Ali
He first rise to fame in the 1960 Olympics where he won the gold medal for boxing.
This was a start of a very successful boxing career where he defeated many great opponents like Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier and George Foreman.
But winning fights wasn't what made Muhammad Ali a cultural icon. What made him a cultural icon was his reaction to a changing society.
Whereas once athletes were just content to soak in the glory, riches and fame, Muhammad Ali understood that in that era, he would have to make choices that might upset some people.
For one, the Civil Rights Movement was in full bloom. No longer were African-Americans willing to sugar-coat how society has treated them. Protests, boycotts, sit-ins were all going on. Muhammad Ali questioned why should be so loyal to a country that enslaved his ancestors and forced his generation to a sub-standard life. He was angry that even though he won a gold medal for his country, many restaurants would not serve him because of his race! He threw his gold medal into the river, with the thoughts of "if this is how you treat me after all the glory I have given you, screw you!"
Muhammad Ali also joined the Nation of Islam, which was an African-American Muslim group that felt that Christianity was a religion forced on them by European slave owners. The fact that Muslims were trading African slaves didn't concern them at all! Historians estimated about 15-30% of African slaves taken to the Americas were Muslim.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_the_United_States#cite_note-hill394-40
It was also during that time that he became known as Muhammad Ali, instead of his previous name Cassius Clay. It took a while for the general public to accept the name change, but eventually they did!
The 1960's was also rebellious time for another reason -- the Vietnam War. This was a time when people started to question foreign policy. Whereas the 1930s/early 1940's, people questioned whether the US should get involved in European conflicts, once the Pearl Harbor attacks happened, the whole US united for the war effort. Even marginalized groups like African-Americans and Japanese Americans were willing to put their lives on the line for a country that officially stigmatized them.
The Korean war lasted a few years into a stalemate. Being that the war itself wasn't long, whatever anti-war sentiments existed didn't last long.
But Vietnam? By the 1960s, a whole new generation has come up with no living memory of WW2 unity! by the 1960's, a whole bunch of Asian & African nations became independent! By the 1960's, many started to question, why blindly follow what the US government want us to do?" By the 1960's, many started to question authority in general.
By the 1960's, many started to question "why fight for a country that segregated us?" and even "why fight for a country that allowed for a lynching of my father/uncle/grandfather even though he put his life in the life for WW2!"
Or as Muhammad Ali would famously say "no Vietnamese ever called me a n----r"
That many people refused to support the US war effort in Vietnam surprised many in the older generation who were nostalgic for the national unity displayed in WW2!
Muhammad Ali's refusal to be drafted during the Vietnam War made him a pariah for a while! But in the long run, it earned him major respect!
Muhammad Ali was the symbol of the emerging Black Power movement. He encouraged many young African-Americans that they don't have to be scared of white society, that they don't have to sacrifice their dignity for riches.
That being said, Muhammad Ali's penchant for trash talking, did contradict his Black Power image when he taunted his opponent Joe Frazier as "dark and ugly" and a "gorilla". This deeply hurt Joe Frazier as he wondered why a fellow African-American (especially one who is a Black Power icon) would racially taunt that way.
Learn more at
http://www.edgeofsports.com/2011-11-10-662/
As time went on, Jim Crow has ended, and African-Americans eventually gained political power as legislators, mayors, governors and even a president. This development made Muhammad Ali less militant as he grown older.
However, as Muhammad Ali got older, his fighting speed & strength declined, causing him to lose fights towards the end of his career. It has long been assumed that those punches to the head that Ali received towards the end of his career caused his mobility problems as he got older. His movements slowed drastically and he could no longer talk.
However, as the 60 Minutes profile in 1996 showed, he still had a quick mind and haven't lost his penchant for pranks.
http://www.cbsnews.com/live/video/60-minutes-remembers-muhammad-ali/
That same year, he had the honor to light the Olympic Flame! That was probably the most legendary Olympic torch lighting of all time.
However, as time passed by, Muhammad Ali faded from making public appearances as his condition worsened!
But even as his health declined and life ended, his legend lives on!
Future of boxing
Muhammad Ali was a major star when boxing was one of the sporting world's main attractions! This was especially true for the heavyweight fighters.However, in the 1990's, Mixed Martial Arts (aka MMA aka Ultimate Fighting) went from being a fringe activity to a main event!
After the rise of MMA in the last 2 decades, boxing has been on the decline! I mean why watch people who can only punch when you can watch people punch, kick, block, throw and wrestle each other?
Nowadays, people only watch boxing if there are larger-than-life personalities (ie. Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquaio). Also now different from Ali's time, the heavyweight fighters no longer are the main attractions. By the time Mike Tyson reached his 40's, none of they newer heavyweight boxers had a larger-than-life personality, putting an end to a tradition that Muhammad Ali perfected!
There's also the concern of head injuries that comes with boxing, especially being that Muhammad Ali took serious blows to his head late in his career, and that he suffered mobile disabilities after he retired!
MMA so far hasn't had the same level of head injuries as boxing. Boxing only allows punching, which usually targets the head, whereas MMA allows for kicking and grappling, which tends to aim at the other body parts. So in MMA, the injuries are more evenly distributed throughout the body, whereas in boxing, the head take nearly all the hits!
Olympic boxers wear helmets to protect the heads. However, the professional fighters don't wear helmets, as if they think helmets are for wusses!
I think, being that there are already massive concerns about concussions in tackle football, that in professional fighting (boxing, MMA, etc), there might soon be rules to have them wear helmets.
There's always going to be people who like to fight. There's always going to be fighters who are better at punching than kicking or grappling. But we also have to be concerned for their safety, so I believe sooner or later, professional fighters will have to wear helmets too!
The fights will still be crazy, the fans will still jump in excitement, but it will also be better if the fighters are protected so that less of them will have to suffer the after-effects as they enter middle adulthood!
