Muhammad Ali: A Tribute to the Greatest

by Thomas Hauser

Overview

Few global personalities have commanded an all-encompassing sporting and cultural audience like Muhammad Ali. Many have tried to interpret his impact and legacy into words. Now, Muhammad Ali: A Tribute to the Greatest allows us to more fully appreciate the truth—and understand both the man and the ways in which he helped recalibrate how the world perceives its transcendent figures. In this celebratory volume, New York Times bestselling author Thomas Hauser provides a compelling retrospective of Ali’s life. relying on personal insights, interviews with close associates and other contemporaries, and memories gathered over the course of decades on the cutting edge of boxing journalism, Hauser explores Ali in colorful detail inside and outside the ring. Muhammad Ali has attained mythical status. But in recent years, he has been subjected to an image makeover by corporate America as it seeks to homogenize the electrifying nature of his persona. Hauser argues that there has been a deliberate distortion of what Ali believed, said, and stood for, and that making Ali more presentable for advertising purposes by sanitizing his legacy is a disservice to history as well as to Ali himself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681771762
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	06/04/2016
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	760 KB

About the Author

Pulitzer Prize nominee Thomas Hauser is the author of fifty books, on subjects ranging from professional boxing to Beethoven. He is widely recognized as the world’s pre-eminent writer on “the sweet science” and, in particular, Muhammad Ali. Hauser has won the prestigious Prix Lafayette, the Nat Fleischer Award for Career Excellence in Boxing Journalism, and the Haviva Reik Award. He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Essays 1

The Importance of Muhammad Ali 3

Muhammad Ali and Boxing 13

Muhammad Ali and Congress Remembered 24

The Athlete of the Century 29

Why Muhammad Ali Went to Iraq 33

The Olympic Flame 36

Ali As Diplomat: "No! No! No! Don't!" 38

Ghosts of Manila 41

Rediscovering Joe Frazier through Dave Wolf's Eyes 47

A Holiday Season Fantasy 62

Muhammad Ali: A Classic Hero 65

Elvis and Ali 69

Personal Memories 89

The Day I Met Muhammad Ah 91

Transcript of March 1967 Radio Interview 95

I Was At Ali-Frazier I 100

Reflections on Time Spent with Muhammad Ali 103

"I'm Coming Back to Whup Mike Tysons Butt" 114

Muhammad Ali at Notre Dame: A Night to Remember 118

Muhammad Ali: Thanksgiving 1996 121

Pensacola, Florida 125

A Day of Remembrance 128

Remembering Joe Frazier 131

"Did Barbra Streisand Whup Sonny Liston?" 136

A Life in Quotes 141

Legacy 199

The Lost Legacy of Muhammad Ali 201

The Long Sad Goodbye 219

Muhammad Ali's Ring Record 231

About the Author 235

Editorial Reviews

"Thomas Hauser’s achievement in chronicling the life of Muhammad Ali is monumental."

The Guardian

"Thomas Hauser gives us the truth."

Newark Star-Ledger

"Of all the thinkers who have accepted the challenge of explaining Muhammad Ali as man, fighter, and inspiration, Thomas Hauser has seen him most clearly."

The Sporting News

"Hauser follows up his celebrated biography of Muhammad Ali with a reminder of just how remarkable Ali is, warts and twinkles and all."

Larry Merchant