George Orr wrote:

"I ain’t draft dodging. I ain’t burning no flag. I ain’t running to Canada. I’m staying right here. You want to send me to jail? Fine, you go right ahead. I’ve been in jail for 400 years. I could be there for 4 or 5 more, but I ain’t going no 10,000 miles to help murder and kill other poor people. If I want to die, I’ll die right here, right now, fightin’ you, if I want to die. You my enemy, not no Chinese, no Vietcong, no Japanese. You my opposer when I want freedom. You my opposer when I want justice. You my opposer when I want equality. Want me to go somewhere and fight for you? You won’t even stand up for me right here in America, for my rights and my religious beliefs. You won’t even stand up for my rights here at home."

Muhammad Ali, 1942 - 2016

I saw the "Thrilla in Manila" in a downtown Cleveland theater in 1975 with a 50/50 mixed white and black audience.  Everybody was screamling like crazy and nobody could believe when they ended the fight between the 14th and 15th round.  A bunch of us piled into the bar across the street and continued to discuss the fight.  Such was the power of Ali.  Nobody had a skin color worth mentioning that night.

Kinda like Elvis...he outlived his legend. He started the whole thing where boxing changed from the Friday Night Fights to major international  sports events. Ali /  Frazier...never anything like that, before or since.

Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, Roberto Duran... rode the coattails of Ali / Frazier to their own glory.

I no longer know who the boxing champs are, and am not interested. But, for a while there,  boxing was a big deal.

Ali. He changed the whole world, all by his lonesome.

RIP.