An Ode to The Greatest
Louisville, Kentucky’s Muhammad Ali Center serves up the perfect mix of Ali the boxer and Ali the humanitarian. An amazing individual, Ali accomplished everything he dreamed of and now keeps giving even though his boxing has taken a backseat to age and Parkinson’s disease. The Ali Center serves as an ode to Ali’s shaking up of the boxing world and to his desire to do good in this world we live in.
Ali has a capturing personality and the Ali Center is peppered with his wit, or “his kind of poetry,” as it was often described.
“I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was.”
“Superman don’t need no seatbelt.”
“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”
“When you can whip any man in the world, you never know peace.”
“A rooster crows only when it sees the light. Put him in the dark and he’ll never crow. I have seen the light and I’m crowing.”
“Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face to the US Bureau of Wildlife.”
“I shook up the world! I shook up the world!”
“If you even dream of beating me you’d better wake up and apologize.”
“I’m so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark.”
“I wish people would love everybody else the way they love me. It would be a better world.”
“Cassius Clay is a slave name. I didn’t choose it and I don’t want it. I am Muhammad Ali, a free name – it means beloved of God – and I insist people use it when people speak to me and of me.”
“Champions aren’t made in gyms, champions are made from something they have deep inside them – a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.”
As controversial as he was, Ali is an American hero, and the Muhammad Ali Center is a sight to see.
Mamo + Parker 