I spent much of the last week watching Muhammad Ali documentaries and interviews. I wasn't born when Ali was in his prime and was a baby during the autumn of his career however I've seen much footage and heard many stories over the years. Despite this, it is all too easy to forget just how special 'The Greatest' was. The older I get, the more I appreciate him.
Incomparable outlier
We live in an age where everyone has a smartphone and capturing a few seconds of randomness can catapult anyone into an internet viral sensation.
We have turned "attention" into a borderless, zero barrier to entry economy. So it is easy to forget that there was a time that in order to garner Worldwide attention you had to be truly remarkable.
Well, in an era of exceptional people, Muhammad Ali was an outlier. In many ways he was incomparable. His personality. His charisma. His courage. His principle. His eloquence. His wit.
Against the backdrop of racial segregation and extreme bigotry against black people, he transcended to become the most well-known human being on the planet. Not just known but loved by all races despite him being unapologetic. Unapologetic in his bravado. Unapologetic in his love for 'his people' and his battle against his oppressor.
Life's not fair
In many ways, it is unfair to compare anyone in the modern day to Ali. The environment simply doesn't exist to allow someone to compete. You cannot climb Everest when you only have hills and valleys in front of you.
Yet parking to one side all of Muhammad Ali's extraordinary extracurricular activity; one area you'd think we can compare apples with apples when it comes to Ali is in his vocation as a boxer.
Modern day showman
Last week, I watched Tyson Fury dismantle Tom Schwarz in two rounds in Las Vegas.
Like Ali, Fury is a showman.
For his ring walk, Fury dressed like a white Apollo Creed (minus the physique, of course).
During the fight, Fury showboated and toyed with Schwarz for two rounds, evading punches with his hands down before dispatching Schwarz with a flurry of punches. In isolation, his performance could not be faulted.
Yet we live in an era where we can just see things for what they are. This fight was a 'lay-up' for Fury. A way to test his drawing power in the US against an over-matched opponent with an inflated record.
It's part of the prizefighting game. An opportunity to milk the cash cow.
No Ali
Then it happened.
I heard someone compare Fury's performance to Muhammad Ali.
What the fu...?
Yes, Fury put on a flashy performance, yes. But an Ali-esque performance?
Given the caliber of opponent, Fury's performance was closer to a Josh Kelly performance than a Muhammad Ali one.
At 30, Fury is putting these 'virtuoso' performance against barely known fighters.
At 22, Ali was dancing rings around one of the most feared men in the history of boxing history, Sonny Liston.
Ali really used the ring, swayed elegantly away from murderous punches and planted his feet unleashing devastating combinations of his own. Fury barely had to get into second gear to evade Schwarz and knock him out.
From amateurs to the pros; Ali was a prodigious boxing talent responsible for giving us some of the most iconic sporting moments in the ring.
Fury is a good fighter. World class as far as the current crop of fighters are concerned. However, he is no Ali.
Good company
Neither should we expect Fury to be as good as Ali.
Wladimir Klitschko dominated the heavyweight division for a decade, yet we can't compare him to Ali.
Lennox Lewis was a phenomenal fighter; possibly the best of his generation; yet it's hard to put him in the same bracket as Ali.
I'd struggle to put even prime Mike Tyson on a par with Ali.
Fury has a long list of contemporaries to overcome (Wilder, Joshua, Ruiz, Whyte, Parker, Usyk, et al) before we can start putting him in the conversation of a top ten all great heavyweight; let alone make a case for him to be compared to the man that is (for many) on top of the tree.
There is only one Muhammad Ali, we should be slow before comparing any boxer to the greatest of all time.
