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The Mailer Review/Volume 13, 2019/When We Were Kings: Review and Commentary: Difference between revisions
The Mailer Review/Volume 13, 2019/When We Were Kings: Review and Commentary (view source)
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While Ali no longer danced as gracefully at age 32, his well of boxing resources was far from dry. For one thing, he could take a punch. Following his fight with Joe Frazier in Madison Square Garden on March 8, 1971, referee Arthur Mercante commented on the fourteenth-round knockdown: “Frazier hit him as hard as a man can be hit . . . Ali was exhausted. He went down, and anyone else would have stayed on the canvas, but he was up in three seconds . . . I motioned Frazier to a neutral corner and when I turned around to face Ali, he was on his feet.”{{sfn|Hauser|1991|p=229}} Besides his physical resilience, Ali could think under pressure and was a master of improvisation, both in and out of the ring. | While Ali no longer danced as gracefully at age 32, his well of boxing resources was far from dry. For one thing, he could take a punch. Following his fight with Joe Frazier in Madison Square Garden on March 8, 1971, referee Arthur Mercante commented on the fourteenth-round knockdown: “Frazier hit him as hard as a man can be hit . . . Ali was exhausted. He went down, and anyone else would have stayed on the canvas, but he was up in three seconds . . . I motioned Frazier to a neutral corner and when I turned around to face Ali, he was on his feet.”{{sfn|Hauser|1991|p=229}} Besides his physical resilience, Ali could think under pressure and was a master of improvisation, both in and out of the ring. | ||
In re-watching Foreman dismantle Norton and Frazier, I see exactly why Foreman felt the way he did. I’ve watched hundreds, perhaps over a thousand fights over the years and have never seen anyone punch harder than Foreman. In winning the championship against Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica, on January 22, 1973 (after Frazier had defeated Ali) one of George’s uppercuts in the second round lifted Smokin’ Joe entirely off the canvas. Incredibly, Frazier got up, only to be knocked down again, for the sixth and final time, before the fight was stopped.{{sfn|Cosell| | In re-watching Foreman dismantle Norton and Frazier, I see exactly why Foreman felt the way he did. I’ve watched hundreds, perhaps over a thousand fights over the years and have never seen anyone punch harder than Foreman. In winning the championship against Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica, on January 22, 1973 (after Frazier had defeated Ali) one of George’s uppercuts in the second round lifted Smokin’ Joe entirely off the canvas. Incredibly, Frazier got up, only to be knocked down again, for the sixth and final time, before the fight was stopped.{{sfn|Cosell|2011}} Coincidentally, the match was refereed by Arthur Mercante, who afterward may have revised his opinion about the hardest a man can be hit. | ||
During the run-up to the fight in Zaire, while Foreman healed, brooded, and trained without gusto, Ali threw his one-man public relations machine into high gear. During a reception given in his honor at the presidential palace, Ali said, “Mr. President, I’ve been a citizen of the United States for 33 years and was never invited to the White House. It sure gives me pleasure to be invited to the Black House.”{{sfn|Goldstein|2000|p=110}} Meanwhile, he privately confessed to Howard Bingham, his personal photographer, “I’d give anything to be training in the United States. They got ice cream there, and pretty girls and miniskirts.”{{sfn|Hauser|1991|p=270}} | During the run-up to the fight in Zaire, while Foreman healed, brooded, and trained without gusto, Ali threw his one-man public relations machine into high gear. During a reception given in his honor at the presidential palace, Ali said, “Mr. President, I’ve been a citizen of the United States for 33 years and was never invited to the White House. It sure gives me pleasure to be invited to the Black House.”{{sfn|Goldstein|2000|p=110}} Meanwhile, he privately confessed to Howard Bingham, his personal photographer, “I’d give anything to be training in the United States. They got ice cream there, and pretty girls and miniskirts.”{{sfn|Hauser|1991|p=270}} | ||
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Two other individuals featured in the film—promoter Don King and President Sese Seke Mobutu—are essential to understanding the context of the fight. Like Ali and Foreman and Mailer and Plimpton, they each possessed a huge ego and led complex and controversial lives. | Two other individuals featured in the film—promoter Don King and President Sese Seke Mobutu—are essential to understanding the context of the fight. Like Ali and Foreman and Mailer and Plimpton, they each possessed a huge ego and led complex and controversial lives. | ||
Mailer comments in the film, “This fight came into existence because of Don King’s desire to be famous . . . if it failed, he was destined to go back into obscurity.”{{sfn|Gast|2019}} Consider the fact that just three and a half years earlier, King had listened to reports of the Ali-Frazier fight in his prison cell in Marion, Ohio, where he was serving time for a manslaughter conviction.{{sfn|Hauser|1991|p=261}} He had been convicted in 1967 for stomping Sam Garrett, an ex-employee in his numbers racket, to death on the street in Cleveland. It was the second time he had killed a man. In 1954, he shot Hillary Brown in the back and the killing was ruled justifiable homicide. Paroled in 1971, King was eventually granted a full pardon by Ohio Governor James Rhodes in 1983. Rhodes justified the pardon by saying he relied heavily on letters of support submitted by Reverend Jesse Jackson, Coretta Scott King, Steve Davis, executive director of the National Publishers Association, Cleveland Mayor George Voinovich, Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell, and Cleveland Indians president Gabe Paul, among others.{{sfn| | Mailer comments in the film, “This fight came into existence because of Don King’s desire to be famous . . . if it failed, he was destined to go back into obscurity.”{{sfn|Gast|2019}} Consider the fact that just three and a half years earlier, King had listened to reports of the Ali-Frazier fight in his prison cell in Marion, Ohio, where he was serving time for a manslaughter conviction.{{sfn|Hauser|1991|p=261}} He had been convicted in 1967 for stomping Sam Garrett, an ex-employee in his numbers racket, to death on the street in Cleveland. It was the second time he had killed a man. In 1954, he shot Hillary Brown in the back and the killing was ruled justifiable homicide. Paroled in 1971, King was eventually granted a full pardon by Ohio Governor James Rhodes in 1983. Rhodes justified the pardon by saying he relied heavily on letters of support submitted by Reverend Jesse Jackson, Coretta Scott King, Steve Davis, executive director of the National Publishers Association, Cleveland Mayor George Voinovich, Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell, and Cleveland Indians president Gabe Paul, among others.{{sfn|King|2019}} | ||
Thomas Hauser, Ali’s biographer, said, “Don King is one of the brightest, most charismatic, hardest working people in the world . . . he’s also totally amoral and I can’t think of a man who has done more to demoralize fighters, take from fighters, and exploit fighters and ruin their careers. But you have to give him his due for what he did to make Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Zaire.”{{sfn|Gast|2019}} Since 1975, [[w:Don King|King]] has been sued by Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes, Tim Witherspoon, Mike Tyson, Terry Norris, Lennox Lewis, and ESPN, to name but a few. | Thomas Hauser, Ali’s biographer, said, “Don King is one of the brightest, most charismatic, hardest working people in the world . . . he’s also totally amoral and I can’t think of a man who has done more to demoralize fighters, take from fighters, and exploit fighters and ruin their careers. But you have to give him his due for what he did to make Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Zaire.”{{sfn|Gast|2019}} Since 1975, [[w:Don King|King]] has been sued by Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes, Tim Witherspoon, Mike Tyson, Terry Norris, Lennox Lewis, and ESPN, to name but a few. | ||
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===References=== | ===References=== | ||
{{Reflist| | {{Reflist|20em}} | ||
===Works Cited=== | ===Works Cited=== | ||
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* {{cite book |last1=Dundee |first1=Angelo |last2=Sugar |first2=Bert R. |date=2008 |title=My View From The Corner: A Life In Boxing |url= |location=New York |publisher=McGraw Hill |ref=harv }} | * {{cite book |last1=Dundee |first1=Angelo |last2=Sugar |first2=Bert R. |date=2008 |title=My View From The Corner: A Life In Boxing |url= |location=New York |publisher=McGraw Hill |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite news |last=French |first=Howard W. |date=May 17, 1997 |title=Anatomy of an Autocracy: Mobutu’s 32 Year Reign |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/world/africa/051797zaire-mobutu.html?scp=21&sq=32&st=cse |work=The New York Times |edition=International |page= |access-date=2021-02-28 |ref=harv }} | * {{cite news |last=French |first=Howard W. |date=May 17, 1997 |title=Anatomy of an Autocracy: Mobutu’s 32 Year Reign |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/world/africa/051797zaire-mobutu.html?scp=21&sq=32&st=cse |work=The New York Times |edition=International |page= |access-date=2021-02-28 |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite AV media |people=Gast, Leon (director); Grant, Leon (producer) |date=2019 |title=When We Were Kings |trans-title= |medium=Blu-Ray |publisher=Criterion |ref= | * {{cite AV media |people=Gast, Leon (director); Grant, Leon (producer) |date=2019 |title=When We Were Kings |trans-title= |medium=Blu-Ray |publisher=Criterion |ref={{SfnRef|Gast|2019}} }} | ||
* {{cite magazine |last=Gehr |first=Richard |date=June 6, 2016 |title=Zaire ’74: How a Pan-Continental Funk Fest Soundtracked Muhammad Ali |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/zaire-74-how-a-pan-continental-funk-fest-soundtracked-muhammad-ali-59935/ |magazine=Rolling Stone |pages= |access-date=2021-02-28 |ref=harv }} | * {{cite magazine |last=Gehr |first=Richard |date=June 6, 2016 |title=Zaire ’74: How a Pan-Continental Funk Fest Soundtracked Muhammad Ali |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/zaire-74-how-a-pan-continental-funk-fest-soundtracked-muhammad-ali-59935/ |magazine=Rolling Stone |pages= |access-date=2021-02-28 |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite AV media |people= |date=May 11, 1994 |title=George Foreman vs Michael Moorer |trans-title= |medium=video |language= |url=http://youtu.be/2VQmYUg2Pp8 |access-date=2021-02-28 |archive-url= |archive-date= |format= |time= |location= |publisher=Classic Boxing Matches |ref={{Sfnref|Foreman|1994}} }} | * {{cite AV media |people= |date=May 11, 1994 |title=George Foreman vs Michael Moorer |trans-title= |medium=video |language= |url=http://youtu.be/2VQmYUg2Pp8 |access-date=2021-02-28 |archive-url= |archive-date= |format= |time= |location= |publisher=Classic Boxing Matches |ref={{Sfnref|Foreman|1994}} }} | ||
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* {{cite book |last=Hauser |first=Thomas |title=Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times |publisher=Simon & Schuster |date=1991 |ref=harv }} | * {{cite book |last=Hauser |first=Thomas |title=Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times |publisher=Simon & Schuster |date=1991 |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{citation |last=Leifer |first=Neil |title=Telephone Interview |date=November 13, 2019 |ref=harv }} | * {{citation |last=Leifer |first=Neil |title=Telephone Interview |date=November 13, 2019 |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite AV media |people=McKormack, Pete (director); Murray, Derik (producer) |date=2010 |title=Facing Ali |trans-title= |medium=video |publisher=Network Entertainment |ref= | * {{cite AV media |people=McKormack, Pete (director); Murray, Derik (producer) |date=2010 |title=Facing Ali |trans-title= |medium=video |publisher=Network Entertainment |ref={{SfnRef|McKormack|2010}} }} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Oates |first=Joyce Carol |title=On Boxing |edition=1 |location=Garden City |publisher=Dolphin/Doubleday |date=1987|ref=harv }} | * {{cite book |last=Oates |first=Joyce Carol |title=On Boxing |edition=1 |location=Garden City |publisher=Dolphin/Doubleday |date=1987|ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite web |url=http://www.cnbc.com/id/38657945 |title=Foreman’s Grill Deal: Best in Sports Marketing History? |last=Rovell |first=Darren |date=August 11, 2010 |website=CNBC |publisher= |access-date=2021-02-28 |quote= |ref=harv }} | * {{cite web |url=http://www.cnbc.com/id/38657945 |title=Foreman’s Grill Deal: Best in Sports Marketing History? |last=Rovell |first=Darren |date=August 11, 2010 |website=CNBC |publisher= |access-date=2021-02-28 |quote= |ref=harv }} | ||