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06/09/2006 Archived Entry: "His Influence Today"
His Influence Today
An Excerpt from 'The Iceman Diaries'
By John "Iceman" Scully
I think it is very fair and realistic to say Muhammad Ali is by far the most imitated boxer in history. Everyone from movie boxers like Apollo Creed to real life boxers like Riddick Bowe, Nino LaRocca, Greg Page, Roy Jones, Larry Holmes, Tyrell Biggs, James "Quick" Tillis and Mike "The Bounty" Hunter have copied, imitated or been heavily influenced by Ali. More people have become boxers because of him than because of any other boxer and more people have taken his trash talking, his style, the tassles, white shoes, the flowing robes, his cockiness and tried to make it their own. No boxer had the poems until Ali came a long.
Roy Jones, Jr. has talked about seeing an Ali-Frazier fight and being influenced (along with his Dad's boxing career) to try the sport and I even have a homemade videotape from the early 90's down in Pensacola with Roy looking at the camera and saying "If you wanna' lose your money then be a fool and bet on James Toney. Cuz' on whatever day that we do meet, his head I'm gonna' beat."
I have also seen the tape from between rounds of his fight with Mike McCallum when he turns to the cameraman standing on the ring apron next to him and he opens his mouth real wide and says directly into the camera "I'm a baaaaaad man!!"
Hmmm... Wonder where he got those two gems from?
It can even be said that many singers, actors and certainly rappers have been influenced by Ali. Will Smith and L.L. Cool J, among others, have mentioned Ali in their songs and even former NBA star Darryl Dawkins was heavily influenced by the Greatest. Remember his catchy Ali-like poems he recited for the press that described his dunks? I wonder where he got that idea?
And the crazy thing about all of that is that not one single person, and not for a lack of trying, has ever captured the essence of Muhammad Ali.
I mean, you even have his own daughter Laila who claims she doesn't want to be compared to her father, "wants to do it on her own," etc., yet out of all the nicknames on the planet earth she could have chosen she picked "She BEE Stingin." She BEE stingin?!?!? Come on, now. Let's keep it real. I mean, if she really, really wanted to be recognized on her own merits I think she would be called Laila McLain by now, wouldn't she? You know, since she was married to a guy with that last name? Anyone who doesn't believe she is cashing in on her father connection more than she wants you to believe is just not awake yet. Not that there is anything wrong with that, either. It is just kind of crazy to me when she seems to want us to believe otherwise.
I think the biggest mistake this girl makes is when she tries to talk trash. Why does everyone think talking trash somehow equates to "marketability?" They think "talking trash" spells charisma. They think people want to see that on a regular basis. Even with her male counterparts it is a case where only a few guys can even pull it off. I wonder if she realizes that the average boxing fan watching the nonsense is laughing out loud or under their breath. She uses terms like "beat downs" and that is odd because it is going to be a good while before any female boxers give another girl a real and systematic "beat down." When Julio Caesar Chavez rakes your body for seven or eight rounds before stopping you? That is a beat down. When Bernard Hopkins counter punches you round after round and drills you with sharp shots to the head, as he did to Tito Trinidad, and debilitates your body and or James Toney counterpunches you with laser guided missiles for ten rounds until you are weakened and sore and gasping for air? Those are beat downs. I have yet to see any female boxer with the overall offensive skills (well placed shots, precision counterpunching, sharp laser jab, etc) to give anyone a legitimate "beat down."
Maybe the most ridiculous and uncalled for nonsense I have heard from Laila's mouth is when she actually said that Christy Martin was "nothing but a white hope." Here we go. See, back when her father was a legitimate world champion there was actually such a thing as a "great white hope" because the fact was that Rocky Marciano and Ingemar Johannsen were the only white heavyweight champions in the previous twenty years or so before Ali came along. Ali made many enemies within the U.S. for his anti-war stance and there were a great many white Americans who wanted to see him lose at that time and seeing him lose to a white guy would have been all the better. But come on now, this is 2004. Christy is a white hope?? There is no such thing as a white hope in female boxing. Laila Ali is ignorant to boxing history and to facts. Let's be honest. She is trying so hard to be flashy trash talker like her dad that the spotlight -and what she perceives boxing hype to be- has all but blinded this girl. She has NONE of her dad's personality and certainly has no clue whatsoever how to "work the media." She's just talking with no direction and she has absolutely none of her dad's "tongue in cheek" type of humor. There are no winks and smiles in her game. Even when Ali, in the late 1960's, was at his lowest point in terms of public perception, his attitude at the time was generated in large part to his devotion to the Nation of Islam (a group who he eventually separated himself from a long time ago) and their teachings along with his situation where he was banned from boxing and was the victim of hate mail from people around the world for his anti-war stance. Being bitter could be understandable at the time. Laila, however, has no such drama in her life. Nothing like her father withstood. Her impact is strictly within, and because of, woman's boxing. Period. She is far from the stereotypical struggling boxer. She is making very good amounts of money to fight opposition that is largely far from world class. She gets more money to fight very average or below average boxing competition than most highly skilled former amateur national champions (males) get for fights on their way up the ladder. If she or anyone on this earth thinks she is getting that type of money because of anything other than the name ALI then they are totally out in left field. However, she comes off like she is "shaking up the world," and like she really means the trash talk she says but if she was being real she wouldn't use the same old lines and wouldn't try to act like it is something she is only doing under the guise of pre-fight build up.
"Sometimes in boxing,” said Laila Ali, “you gotta' get in people’s faces, otherwise you don’t get heard. Trust me, I ought to know.” This was a quote from early in 2003 attributed to her. So she thinks she has to get in peoples faces to get heard?? She ought to know? How would she know this? Because of her fathers name she doesn't have to do anything but sign her name on the contract and the money is hers. She isn't exactly getting it on with any Joe Frazier's or George Foreman's here, you know? She is trying to talk trash to woman that don't need to be goaded into fighting her. They want that money, too. If talking it up big was a way to get heard then Laila wouldn't be so quiet about fighting the girl named Ann Wolfe. I don't think her people are in any hurry to fight that girl and Laila certainly never seems to go out of her way to mention the girls name, either. I want to know who told her this, that talking it up in that manner was the way to market herself and get heard? Her husband? He talks a lot, too, and all that it has done for him is to get people to say "Laila's husband, the guy with the hat, has a bad attitude, too." Laila Ali has been heard since she began boxing based on the name of her father. She got in her opponents faces to get heard? Why is it then that I can guarantee you that the average boxing fan cannot name, right now, more than two or three opponents that Laila has faced in her entire career. Ask yourself. Can I name three of her past opponents? I doubt it. So, talking trash to them and showing that side of her personality has done nothing to elevate the woman's game. It's participants are still unknowns. She hasn't transcended sports or even boxing and I think it is clear that her big mouth, tough girl approach is an overall failure. She is an Ali, of course. But she is no Muhammad Ali.
I guess I call her out on these things because it kind of disappoints me to see and realize that there are a million trash talking, bragging athletes out there, influenced by Ali, that just don't get it. They watch and listen to what Muhammad Ali said and did but don't truly SEE and HEAR what he was really all about. Laila appears to me to say the same things she would say to a girl if she was on the street and nobody was around. Great white hope? Christy Martin was a pioneer in the woman's game. She was the one that got the PPV exposure, the Sports Illustrated exposure. Christy crossed over into the mainstream and ,when you come to think of it, without Christy paving the way there would have never been a Lali Ali in the boxing game. Without Christy Martin there wouldn't have been any interest in women's boxing and, very likely, Laila never would have even began boxing in the first place. As a matter of fact, Laila admittedly didn't begin boxing because of her father. She began boxing because Christy Martin was able to bring female boxing out of the shadows and into the light. She even said in an interview I read that seeing Christy on a PPV show one night was what got her wheels turning towards this game. As a matter of fact this is from a "Showtime" network Bio on her that is on their website: "After watching a Christy Martin fight on television, Ali decide to sell the nail salon business, forgo an education at the University of Southern California business school, and commit to a pro boxing career."
So, just like a million kids got into boxing as a direct or indirect result of the career of Muhammad Ali, it can be easily and convincingly argued (pointed out) that Laila Ali got her start because of Christy Martin. If anything it is LAILA that was HOPING to reach the levels in this game that Christy Martin had reached. She wanted to be where Christy had already been. She admittedly got her start in the game after watching Christy. So all the HOPE was on the part of Laila, not Christy. Christy did it with a blood and guts style and not because she had that handy last name and model like looks. (On that note, let's be real. Laila is a pretty girl. But she is not a supermodel type beauty. Any outer beauty she has is severely diminished severely every time she opens her mouth about it. Her father called himself "the prettiest" and he had a smile to go along with it. He was the master showman. Laila says it and you get the feel of a girl that's been told too many times that she is pretty and now it is something to be expected from people. At her last fight they interviewed her in the ring and she said something, in all seriousness, like "I don't need boxing. Come on, look at this face. Do you think I need boxing." It was an ugly statement by her. One of the ugliest things is when a person thinks they are so pretty and assumes that everybody else thinks so, too. Muhammad Ali said "I am the Prettiest" but it was done in a way that was funny and lighthearted and charming. Laila says it like she is some stuck up clown. The more she speaks about herself and her looks the uglier she becomes. It is like when you tell a little kid he is real smart because he did good on a five question basic math quiz and the next thing you know he is trying to comment on every subject out there with authority like he is Einstein or something. It's like "OK, kid. Relax. You're a smart kid but NASA will have to wait a little bit longer before you start running the place. So, chill out junior."
Also, If Christy was to say that Laila was a "Great Black Hope" it would cause a huge uproar, wouldn't it? If Christy was the one that brought race into the picture for that fight she would have been raked over the media fueled coals and guys like Al Sharpton would have been outside her dressing room holding press conferences labeling her as a racist. To her credit, though, Christy didn't get into all that unnecessary nonsense when Laila did it. There was absolutely no reason for whatsoever to bring race into it and, as it appears, the fight between Laila and Christy had absolutely nothing to do with race other than in the misguided mind of Laila Ali.
Something that kind of amuses me today is when people still get so mad at Muhammad Ali for what they believe is his influence of the multitude of trash talking, bragging, egomaniacal athletes that have saturated the sports world over the last twenty years or so. I would have to agree that Ali's influence is still felt and, really, it's a shame that the high majority of these guys that feel they are "marketing themselves" with their own brand of braggadocio have really, honestly and truly, not been able to capture the context that Ali worked his magic in. That's another story, though. My thing now is that I seem to notice that the high majority of those people that blame Ali for the guys now are white people that aren't really feeling the trash talking culture and that's understandable when you take into account the deep down differences between the races. White people didn't exactly invent "The Dozens," you know? With that said, though, I kind of have to laugh to myself when I see some guy from three generations ago complaining about Ali's (perceived) negative influence on the black athlete from today because they obviously do not know who influenced Ali. Some of them even speak in very bitter tones as they bash him for his "big mouth" (like the fact that he talked a lot in some way lowered his level of greatness as a boxer) and you definitely get the impression that is more than personal when they speak of his arrogance and they don't just dislike the fact that he talked a lot but they hate the fact that he is black and talks a lot. They blame the current state of trash talking in professional sports as a whole on him and while I agree to a certain degree that he was directly or indirectly a huge influence on athletes and that influence has trickled down to some of the more ignorant athletes of today who have totally taken Ali's showmanship out of context but, in any event, I have some serious, eye opening news for most of those people that do in fact blame the Louisville Lip for his brashness and the resulting mess of today. Ready?? OK. Chew on this one, boys: It was a white man that originally (in a face to face meeting) gave Ali the advice and idea to promote himself in the manner that he eventually did. Back in 1962 the young Cassius Clay met the famous blonde haired wrestler named Gorgeous George when they both appeared on a Las Vegas radio show promoting upcoming matches that each of them had and Clay was amazed at the brashness of the wrestler as he said of his upcoming opponent "If this bum beats me, I’ll crawl down Las Vegas Boulevard on my hands and knees. But it won’t happen. I’ll tear his arm off. For I am the greatest wrestler in the world!”
I suppose this is where Ali got the idea to yell into the microphones at the first Frazier weigh-in before their 1971 fight "If Joe Frazier whups me I'll get down on my hands and knees, crawl across the ring, look up to him and say 'You're the greatest, Joe."
Seeing Clay was interested in his act George apparently spoke with Cassius after the show was over and gave the kid the advice that would set the wheels in motion for the most interesting, exciting, quotable boxer in history to be born, telling him something to the effect of "When I talk as much as I do it makes it so that even the people that hate me as a result want to watch me and that's what I want because, see, it doesn't matter if they come to see me win or to see me get crushed. As long as they pay for their ticket to get in then I have succeeded."
And from that the boxing braggart that also eventually made people either love him or hate him was born and, if anything, Gorgeous George was right on because even the people that hated Ali and called him every negative name they could think of still paid good money to watch the Ali-Frazier fight back in 1971 (hoping he would lose, of course).
So remember something the next time you complain about Ali and his influence on "all these loud mouth athletes today." The trail leads back further than Ali right to the mouth of the "big mouth white boy," Gorgeous George.
I actually met Laila once, back sometime in 2002, at the Top Rank Gym in Las Vegas. She was friendly enough, pleasant enough. I talked to her for a few minutes and, surprisingly because I like him so much, her father never came up in conversation. I, of course, had questions in my mind but I respected her enough as a boxer that I didn't want to lump myself together with the other tons of people that must bombard her with endless questions about her dad. We just talked about an injury she had suffered that was similar to one I had earlier in my career. Other than actually talking on her cell phone while hitting the speed bag (never seen that one before. Imagine if Teddy Atlas was training her and she tried that?) I thought she was diligent in her training that day and worked pretty hard in the gym. She didn't strike me as someone who half steps it or dogs it in the gym so that's a plus on her side. But part of being successful in this game is your image and how the public perceives you outside the ring. If I had advice for her it would amount to two basic things: 1- Don't say you do not want your father and his legacy to be an influence on your career and then turn around and have "She Bee Stingin" as your nickname and talk trash bout "white hopes" in the game. And the other thing would be to stop referring to how pretty you are. Stop reminding everyone that you have a pretty face because there are surely those that do NOT think you are all that pretty and many more who think you are very pretty but not THAT pretty. Either way, the worst thing is when a female (or a man even) is good looking but tells all of us just how much so. I mean, Muhammad Ali did it and he was very funny about it. He has that great sense of humor. Laila says it in such a matter of fact tone, like it is a given that we all think so. Every word takes some of that beauty away. This is not Muhammad Ali we are talking about here.
The only guy I ever saw that seemed to have any of the Ali-like flair at all was Riddick Bowe. I really think Bowe, when trying to do Ali-type things, had some idea of what the man really was. I remember back when we were amateurs, at the 1988 U.S. Championships in Colorado, Bowe would come into the room at night that I shared with welterweight Kenny Gould and he would do pretty good Ali impersonations. He was also a playful, mischievous type of kid and in a certain way he reminded me of a younger Ali. I think he eventually came closer than most at times to reaching the essence of Muhammad Ali. Certainly much closer than his daughter has.
