Via Ken Hisner: I’ve written about half a dozen of Muhammad Ali’s birthdays in the past, and the most recent was Tuesday, January 17, “The Greatest” was 81.
On June 3, 2016, at the age of 74, Ali died in Scottsdale, Arizona.
In her book ‘Stay Home WITH Muhammad Ali’, his daughter, Hana Ali, mentioned all the children her father had from three of his four marriages. “My father had Maryum (May May), Rasheda, Jamillah and Muhammad Jr. with this second wife, Belinda Boyd. He has Laila and I with his third wife, Veronica Porche, and two children, Miya and Khaliah, with women he has never married, Pat and Aaisha.
In 1989, he and his widow Lonnie adopted a son. Asaad was born long after my father made his recordings, so he is not mentioned often in this book, but Asaad is an important part of his heart and legacy.
In Hana’s book, she adds, “We were all there to say goodbye to him one last time—all his children and grandchildren. He’s been preparing me for this since I was a kid.
“One day I will die,” he said. “All of us will die. This life is so short. This life is just a test for eternal life…God doesn’t care that I beat Joe Frazier. He doesn’t care if I take out George Foreman. He only cares about how I treat people and how many people I have helped…”
In 1973, I met Ali, who was in the crowd in downtown Philadelphia after his loss to Ken Norton, for a broken jaw. An old watchman told him, “next time you fight Norton, be a man, not a boy!” Ali replies, do you call me Roy?
Two weeks later, after reading in the Philly Daily News that he no longer lives at 70th & Overbrook in West Philadelphia but now in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. I found home although not writing at the time.
His second wife, Belinda, answered, and I asked, “May I speak to the champion?” She closed the door after saying, “just a minute.” I thought she wouldn’t come back, but she turned around and asked me to come in. There hung an Islamic banner, a picture of a horse and a sign from the Cherry Hill Small League thanking him for his contributions.
As I walked into the living room, I said, “why don’t you give Doug Jones a rematch?” I know if I don’t score the first word I won’t score any other. He replied, “Come in and sit down, boy!” I was able to meet and speak with him on two other occasions at his Deer Lake, Pennsylvania camp, now known as “Fighters’ Paradise.”
Boxrec shows Ali’s amateur record of 70-6 with 21 knockdowns and two stops. One thing they missed was in the Olympic heavyweight competitions; he lost to Percy Price from New Jersey. He then entered the light heavyweight challenges and won and went to Rome in 1960, winning the Gold Medal.
As a pro, he’s 56-5 with 37 kills and one stop. He is the first heavyweight champion to win the title three times. It’s an idea IBHOF coach Cus D’Amato told me at his Catskill mansion in 1982 that he gave Ali.
He also told me how he would work with a young player if his sign was Capricorn. Other heavyweight champions under that sign are “Terrible” Tim Witherspoon on December 27 and in January Floyd Patterson on December 4, “Big” George Foreman on December 10, and “Smokin” Joe Frazier on December 12.
Ali is gone but will never be forgotten even though it was seven years ago.
