A hard, brave, determined, popular and very skillful fighter.
I first became aware of Ali when he came to Hartlepool and gave my chum Francis Jones (who was at the time unbeaten) a very hard time over 6 rounds, winning on points...........in hindsight it was probably a good result for Franny going the 6.
I was very confident that Ali would beat David Barnes on the back of that single viewing........in the end he got a draw.......I thought he'd won.
Regretably the Jones fight was never captured on film. I remember all these people descending on the Borough Hall with Ali tee-shirts on........there were loads of 'em and in all my visits to that venue it's the most prominent showing of support by "away" fans. I spoke with a couple of them, who looked and spoke nowt like him, and yet they seemed to love him. Considering the hall has staged a number of Brit title and since then an IBF world title fight, when Ali was involved in a none title 6 rounder, that's an achievement in itself.
Whilst it is without doubt Ali could still make progress in the sport, it could probably be said that from where he started off he actually OVERachieved.
Boxing in this country will be poorer as a result of this.
Cheers for the great fights Ali......so long, good luck
