BoxRec

http://www.statesman.com/search/content ... d_Ali.html

ali visting the town from where his irish roots came.

He also did a nice little piece on Ireland before the Al Lewis fight.

Those of us with Irish roots make for great fighters.

Ali the Irish, & Dempsey the Native-American.

^^^They must be very embarressed.

Have you tried fighting drunk? Nobody does it better than the Irish

Yeah. Funny thing, that, it ain't pleasant D

Still, maybe you're not drunk enough. If you're suitably pissed, you shouldn't feel enough pain to stop you coming (stumbling?) forward?

Of course, the trade-off is your reflexes, sense of timing, clarity of thought, etc...but which Irish fighter ever had those qualities, anyway? D

In the late 60's when a more radical Nation of Islam Ali was giving interviews calling white people blue eyed devils he must not have been talking about his Irish heritage. (But then again I have been in a few Irish pubs and have seen them there)

Ali was a great, great fighter, there is no doubt about that! Its very sad to see him the way he is now. His deterioration in health is very alarming & concerning!

However, good as he was, I do not feel he was the greatest fighter of them all. I'm afraid that accolade belongs to a certain Mr Robinson, followed closely by a Mr Armstrong!

Well Armstrong and Robinson weren't Irish, I don't think, rocky. But I agree, I don't think that Ali is even top six pound for pound, though I do think he is top ten. It is no shame to be ranked behind fighters like Robinson and Armstrong and Greb.

I Feel Fine wrote:Well Armstrong and Robinson weren't Irish, I don't think, rocky. But I agree, I don't think that Ali is even top six pound for pound, though I do think he is top ten. It is no shame to be ranked behind fighters like Robinson and Armstrong and Greb.

- This notion that somehow Ali is suddenly Irish thanks to a great grandfather is just the epitome of modern fuzzy fiction.

Few would begrudge him exploring his Irish heritage in his twilight years, and the Irish and British were always huge fans of Ali, but culturally Ali was of the prototypical Southern negro middle class growing up in a Jim Crow era. As he matured into a young man, his adopted identity was strictly black Muslim or African oriented where white baggage such as name and heritage were cast into the bin.

It's not even clear he knew about his Irish heritage until much later. He made many trips across the pond, but I doubt he connected directly with his Irish roots until now. Since the blockbuster Roots mid 70s TV series there has been a steady movement of tracing peoples' ancestry which doubtless his handlers have signed up for as they try to leverage his market branding before he passes away.

Many have forgotten that Ali closed a deal a couple years back selling the marketing rights to his name for hundreds of millions. The more he is remembered and marketed in the future the more his many heirs stand to make. Given that Ali was always a self promoter coming up through the ranks, I doubt this marketing campaign is out of charactor for him, but it's not even clear how much of him is left to explore his Irish roots. The message is this is his farewell tour due to declining health.

There have been at least a couple dozen Ali bios, but the definitive bio has yet to be written. Thus far precious little has been written about his Irish roots. I'd be interested if his mom ever passed on any knowledge of her Irish grandfather to Ali. I suspect any interest came decades later.

As to his p4p rating, Ibro has him tied with Louis at #4. Personally I'd restrict all heavies from p4p ratings, but with Ali it's just silly since he was bigger than 95% of his opponents by significant margins. At any rate, Louis and Dempsey are the giant killers in the p4p rankings, not Ali.

According to Hauser's biography (forgive me, granberry) Ali told the crowd in Ireland before the Lewis fight that he had some Irish ancestry, which led to great cheering and so forth. I do not find Ali's heritage to be a particularly significant question, I was simply pointing out to rocky that this was the point of the thread, not his ranking pound for pound. That said, there is no reason why Heavyweights should not be ranked pound for pound. If you want to get technical about it, pound for pound does not depend on height, otherwise Ray Robinson would be no where on the list given his height advantages in most of his big fights. Ali was out-weighed by a few opponents, including Liston and Foreman, who I would rank leaps and bounds ahead of Jess Willard or Max Baer.

I think on the mini doco before the Lewis fight, Ali mentions his Irish
heritage. His kinfolk in Ireland. I shall re watch it to confirm. But I
am sure of it.

Liston and Foreman's feet had more talent in them than Willard's
entire farm hand body.

I Feel Fine wrote:Ali told the crowd in Ireland before the Lewis fight that he had some Irish ancestry, which led to great cheering and so forth. I do not find Ali's heritage to be a particularly significant question, I was simply pointing out to rocky that this was the point of the thread, not his ranking pound for pound. That said, there is no reason why Heavyweights should not be ranked pound for pound. If you want to get technical about it, pound for pound does not depend on height, otherwise Ray Robinson would be no where on the list given his height advantages in most of his big fights. Ali was out-weighed by a few opponents, including Liston and Foreman, who I would rank leaps and bounds ahead of Jess Willard or Max Baer.

- The heritage of Ali was enough for someone to create a thread that you responded to to further point out Ali's Irishness.

If you want to get technical about it, pound for pound does not depend on height

What part of D_U_H don't you understand? Facts are Ali outweighed most of his opposition when he wasn't also carrying height and reach over them. That Ali was outweighed by a few opponents was never in doubt, but apparently you've got a secret code program you run basic English through that causes you to broach the issue.

OK, you want a guy bigger than most all his opponents to be ranked high in the p4p rankings. Then I take it you wouldn't object to Wlad being ranked between Manny and Dawson in the current boxrec ratings, and Vitali over Williams, Donaire, and Bute for example. Whatever..

I will refer you to my prior comments.