A seemingly eternal symbol of youth and an inspiration tocountless millions, Muhammad Ali turned 71 on January 17. One of the greatestpugilists of all time, Ali transformed the sport of boxing both in his style ofcombat and the crazy theater he produced to build up interest in his fights.
In a world of grunt and truculent glare, he was and remainsa comedic trickster. Ali’s late trainer, Angelo Dundee, once confided to me,''Being with Ali was like riding a comet. We had so much fun. I was soblessed.''
When the Adonis-like Ali was coming up through the ranks,fighting with his hands at his waist, almost all the cigar-chewing boxingscribes predicted, ''Just wait until he gets hit. He won’t be able to takeit.''
The truth, which was both good and bad for the supersonicheavyweight, was that Ali could absorb a blow as well as any fighter inhistory. He had endless resolve and his ability to see shots developing allowedhim to roll with punches that would have turned the black lights out on others.
But the hurricane blows that Ali weathered eventuallyexacted their price. For decades he has been suffering from a neurodegenerativedisorder, now identified as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a disease in thesame family as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
In the saddest of ironies, the man who enjoyed and excelledat banter as no other athlete in history has been largely silenced by the sportthat made him so beloved and popular.
Ali, of course, was far from the first fighter to sufferlifelong damage from his life in the ring. It would be easy to list scores ofboxers who after long “ or sometimes short “ careers have become a pocket fullof mumbles.
In 2011, Dr. Charles Bernick of the Cleveland Clinic’s LouRuvo Center began the Professional Fighters Brain Health Study. Dr. Bernick,who is based in Las Vegas, the fight capital of the world, has enrolled scoresof professional boxers and mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters for a study thathe hopes will be completed in four years.
Of course, the Professional Boxers Brain Health Study cametoo late for ''The Greatest.'' Ferdie Pacheco, Ali’s doctor of many years,wrote, ''After the ruthless destruction of the 'Thrilla in Manila’ '' “ Ali’sepic third fight with Joe Frazier, in 1975 “ ''I began to see obvious signs ofdeterioration in Ali’s physical condition. His kidneys were beginning to fallapart. ...Then I saw a marked diminution of his reflexes in the gym. No one inhis camp...wanted to acknowledge the change.'' Pacheco warned Ali that it wastime to put his boxing career to bed, and, to the doctor’s credit, he soonthereafter walked out of the warmth of the Ali circle rather than participatein what he was sure would be the champ’s demise.
It is hard to say, but perhaps if Ali could have been shownsome of the objective evidence of the havoc going on behind his eyes, he mighthave been convinced to put his gloves on a nail. But then again, maybe not.Even toward the final bell, there was still so much money to be made, and mostgreat artists would rather die than give up their canvas.
