Muhammad Ali vs George Foreman "Legendary Night" Highlights HD ElTerribleProduction Those who know me are aware that among my countless flaws, self-esteem and ambition are certainly not among them.
So, if I don't go into the details and context of what has been the greatest match in history - and not just in the Noble Art of Boxing - and I limit myself to recounting it as I experienced it back then on live television, please don’t accuse me of Mac-centrism.
A valve television, in Super Black and White, that took three-quarters of an hour to "warm up."
For months, everyone I knew was talking about this match: even "Famiglia Cristiana" had mentioned it, due to the conversion to Islam of one of the two boxers, who were both black, but not of the same shade.
Muhammad Alì was beautiful, cheeky, and to my young self, he seemed like a negro angel: I adored him, in short.
But I understood that the other one was REALLY wicked, and that he might actually kill him. For real.
What does Alì do? Does he dance like a butterfly and sting like a bee as he had boasted?
No.
Because he is afraid. Of dying. For real.
So he lowers his guard and looks into Foreman's fearless eyes, saying: "Come on! Hit me, you black son of a bitch!"
He takes a lot of hits, Cassius, so many that he will carry them with him for his entire life; but those missed punches exhaust the opponent, who ultimately - as seen in this highlight - takes a devastating one-two and, as he falls to the ground like a sack of potatoes, Muhammad raises his fist: he could deliver another punch, but he doesn’t.
Because that's what a champion does.
Ps. I know all of this has been told before, here. I also know there are many boxing enthusiasts far more knowledgeable than I am—meaning me.
To them, still with humility, I say that there have been matches, especially among middleweights, of a different technical caliber altogether.
The Haglers, the Mugabis, the Hearns, the Durans, the same idiot Sugar Ray Leonard (not to be confused with Robinson) were technically superior.
Although, for me, the greatest Middleweight of all time was Carlos Monzón.
Ask poor Nino Benvenuti.
Uff! Sorry for the lengthy discourse. Yuk!
