Lessons Learned from Muhammad Ali

In an ESPN poll taken recently posing the question, "Who is the greatest Athelete of the 20th century?", the results stunned some sports fans - I can honestly say I wasn't surprised in the least. After suffering a near fatal car accident in 2000, I had a major challenge on my hands in terms of continuing at a high stress job and other taxing responsibilities in the community with the chronic pain that the crash left in its wake. Muhammad Ali was, at this crucial time, a momentous inspiration to me based on my experience viewing (many times)the Academy Award winning documentary film "When We Were Kings".

Several years before I had watched the documentary about the famous contest between Ali and Foreman in Zaire Africa known as "The Rumble in the Jungle". As I faced each new day after the accident, the story continued to rise up within me until I eventually bought a copy of the movie and purposefully sought out the sources of Ali's courage to face the man whom anyone with a grain of boxing acumen knew would easily defeat him. That movie "When we Were Kings" has had a more powerful effect in teaching me lessons in courage than any cinematic experience I have ever known. I have viewed it a minimum of 30 times, but probably more like 50.

It is very difficult to convey to someone unfamiliar with Foreman's early boxing matches just how awesome he was: A Mike Tyson in his prime, only about half again bigger - on steroids. The way Foreman disposed of his opponents, many legends in their own right, such as Joe Frazier and Ken Norton, in the first or second rounds made him appear invincible, especially because Ali had not done nearly as well against those two fighters in particular. In his private moments one would have to wonder if Ali was mentally putting his own hard earned money on his opponent.

Many books and writings from a variety of sources have touched on the theme of turning the impossible into the possible. I have personally read many of them - some are incredibly inspiring. But I am hard pressed to point to a more compelling example of someone who accomplished exactly that as did Ali in his match with Foreman in Zaire, Africa.

From my many hours spent trying to "mine" as many "secrets" about the make-up of this athletic genius's psyche, here is a list of what he revealed in the interviews before the fight through the time he left Africa many days after the fight was over:

1) Ali was no doubt aware of the so called "hard facts", e.g., he was not as young as Foreman, who was in his absolute prime physically; his reach, the shorter length of his arms, put him at a disadvantage; but most importantly, Foreman's punching power was far superior to Ali's. Ali would not let that objective reality determine his internal reality, meaning, his belief that his superior boxing skills and determination would more than counterbalance these deficits.

2) Ali was fighting with a "higher purpose". In other words, he made it about more than just a boxing match - he said in the interviews prior to the fight that he wanted to win the fight for all of his fans throughout the world to inspire hope in them. People on drugs, poor people and those whose luck had run out.

3) He practiced Eleanor Roosevelt's principle that you must push forward despite your fear. The best sports writers in the world, Norman Mailer, George Plimpton and others were in Zaire for the fight and they knew Ali very well. They saw fear in his eyes that they had never seen before or since. Despite this, Ali came out in the first round and went on the attack throwing over ten punches called the "right cross" which is the most dangerous punch for a right handed fighter to throw because it leaves him extremely open to a counter-punch.

4) Ali had to muster his courage. It wasn't just a passive process process of showing up well trained on fight day, one could see in those interviews that he was bringing forth the will and courage to defeat a more powerful opponent.

5) Despite all four points listed above,without wisdom (a fighter with this attribute is called "ring-wise") it is unlikely victory would have been his. His rope-a-dope strategy,
which involved Ali leaning way back on the ropes, so far some sports journalists wrote that he "looked like he might flip over backwards"; nonetheless, this strategy gained such acclaim that it permeated popular culture and was even used to describe what the American troops were doing during a portion of the first Gulf War. Reporters described the American troops as using the "rope-a-dope" strategy to describe the way they were letting the Iraqi Army expend so much energy and resource and thus exhaust their troops. That's exactly what happened to Foreman who fell prey to this superior ring strategy used by Ali.

I always try to delve into root causes of an historic event like the Rumble in the Jungle and apply some of it's lessons to my own daily dilemma. My life is unfathomably enriched and strengthened in the process.