Been watching ESPN Classic in the background, as its showing one of the best fights ever: The Thrilla in Manila, the 3rd and last Ali/George Frazier fight. Truly a battle of kings, ending when Frazier did not come out for the 15th round.
But what strikes me is that Ali, a man who is now one of the most famous people in the world, took on the establishment at a very young age back in the mid-60's over an unpopular war, when he famously stated "No Viet Cong ever called me nigger!" and went to prison rather than to Viet Nam.
To me that defines bravery, in the truest sense. He lost some of the best years of his athletic career to fight for a principle. A principle that has come around again with this morass in Iraq. The only differences I can see are that Iraq actually has a resource we want, that the body counts we hear about are mostly of civilians killed by the insurgency (rather than by our actions), and that it is a desert rather than a jungle. Other than that, I get the greatest sense of deja vu I've ever had, as in "What The Fuck Are We Doing There, In Someone Else's Land, Someone Who Doesn't Want Us There?"
I just hope and pray that it we don't spend as many years, and as many of our and their lives, to get out of this morass.
PS The second best of fight I've ever seen is Ali-Foreman in Zaire. Back in my bike racing days, I used to regularly watch videos of some of Ali's greatest fights to try to instill in myself some of the pure bravery and fortitude that Ali glowed with.