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In Reply to: RE: "Game"? posted by Waxxy on June 28, 2012 at 06:53:10
If you are old enough, you may recall that Ali had a habit of carrying on a smear campaign against his upcoming opponents, well in advance of the fight. (This was mostly to make the opponent so angry that he couldn't see straight and to conjure publicity for the fight.) Most famously he actually made some ill-considered remarks about Joe Frazier that Frazier never got over, despite Ali's attempts to make amends. My thought is that that sign may relate to one of those pre-fight "insult" campaigns. Maybe Sonny Liston.
Edits: 06/28/12Follow Ups:
as Liston's nick-name was "Big Bear".
At first I thought it might be a Civil Rights protest sign, but I'm pretty sure you got the Liston connection right.
P
for sure. Ali made him out to be a big bad bully, but in truth I think Ali was at least taller than Sonny, although not as heavy, in those early days. We swallowed it, hook, line, and sinker. Then Ali, who might have still been Cassius in those days, went out and destroyed Liston.
Edits: 06/28/12
...Quote ("Sonny’s physical presence would quiet a room. He said very little amongst strangers but the most intimidating thing about him was the fixed, unsmiling stare that won him the nickname Old Stoneface. This was the man Ali decided to challenge, verbally, in a Las Vegas casino before the fight.
Sonny liked to gamble. He was throwing dice, and losing, when Ali started taunting him. “Look at that big ugly bear,” he said. “He can’t even throw dice properly.” Ali even knocked the dice out of his hand.
Most of all, Sonny was surprised. Nobody behaved like that around him. It fixed his opinion of Ali. Sonny just thought he was crazy. He got up, grabbed Ali by the throat and pushed him against a wall. “If you don’t get out of here in 10 seconds I’m going to whip you right here.” Ali left, at speed.
Afterwards he admitted Liston had scared him. He remembered all the times he’d been told about Liston fighting with cops, beating people up. Looking at him, in the casino, he knew all the bad stories were true.
Later that night on another floor Liston saw Ali again. He went up to him and slapped him across the face, almost like a child. It was the ultimate put-down, the Lip had nothing to say.
Naturally the story got around and a journalist asked Sonny why he had done it. “He was running his mouth. “ )Of course, come night of the fight it was a different story, but Sonny was a hard character.
Edits: 06/28/12
And that is the way I like to remember Clay/Ali....I hate to see him these days. All I can say, is boxing has never been as good as it was back then with Ali, Frazier and the rest of the boys back then.
Thx.
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