News

Happy birthday, Muhammad Ali – 65 today

Davis Miller has written this tribute in the Los Angeles Times
I first became a serious Muhammad Ali watcher in January 1964. He’d just turned 22, and was luminous as he prepared to meet Sonny Liston for what was then the biggest prize in sport – the boxing heavyweight championship of the world.

I remember sitting in front of my father’s little black-and-white television as Ali’s voice roared from the huge world outside and through the TV’s tiny, rattling speaker. “I’m young and handsome and fast and pretty and can’t possibly be beat,” the voice said, and as I listened, I felt the glory train pass through me.

Over the next four decades, many of my life-defining events were connected to Ali, who turns 65 today.

Read this article in full by clicking here.

Click here to read Robert Philip’s take on Ali in the Telegraph, including a splendid account of SJA member Reg Gutteridge’s inter-round interview with The Greatest