New-generation Muhammad Ali wins fans, loses bout in Rio Olympic boxing
RIO DE JANEIRO – It has been 56 years since the greatest boxer who ever lived fought at the Olympics and set in motion an extraordinary career that would change the sport and shift American society.
Yet there it was again on Monday, reverberating around RioCentro Pavilion 6, an Olympic venue that was half full but whose crowd found something to get loud about.
“Ali, Ali,” went the chant, one heard on virtually every continent and now South America, just over two months since the modern legend died.
Try as he might, the young boxer named Muhammad Ali representing Great Britain in the 52kg division couldn’t float like a butterfly or sting like a bee in his opening bout. He was frustrated by Yoel Finol of Venezuela, an awkward and technical boxer, who dipped and ducked and made himself hard to land a glove on. It earned Finol a points victory, but Ali won the crowd.
Why would you name your kid after an icon so great that they can never hope to live up to it? For Shahid Ali, who stood watching proudly and loudly in the stands, the reason was born out of love.
“It was a conscious decision to name him that,” Ali’s father told Paste BN Sports. “That was the dream, that he would become a great boxer, but of course we didn’t know if it would happen.
“You want your kid to feel greatness, to aspire to something great. You want him to understand what effort in life can achieve. I grew up watching Muhammad Ali. I was a huge fan. As a Muslim it is one of the most popular names but also a name that is revered because of the greatest. It is a blessing to my son, I believe that.”
The young Ali is just 20 and has none of the brashness and bombast of his magnificent predecessor. He is shy, soft-spoken, and likes to let his fists do the talking. He doesn’t rap, rhyme or poeticize.
But he does feel pain, the bitter sting of disappointment at failing to perform to his optimum level and of feeling his let down his father after years of support.
“I was just too anxious, trying too hard, just because I’ve been waiting around watching everybody else box,” Ali said, tears flowing down his face and his voice cracking. “I let it get the better of me. Everything I was throwing felt off.”
He will likely be back at the Games in 2020, before taking a tilt at the pros. According to senior British boxing correspondent Jeff Powell of the Daily Mail, he will need to learn to cope with the attention his name inevitably brings when coupled with this choice of sporting pursuit.
“On a night like tonight, it’s a liability for him, isn’t it?” Powell said. “Let’s face it. He’s never going to be Muhammad Ali. And I personally think he’d be better off without (the name), although it’s gotten him a lot of exposure.”
In the Ali family though, the links to the man who enchanted the sports world for decades have brought nothing but pride and pleasure.
“It is amazing,” Muhammad’s cousin Ali Khan said. “The name Ali is magic in boxing, magic everywhere. The Brazilian fans didn’t know Muhammad but they got into it.”
When Muhammad Ali died aged 74 on June 3, the Ali family in Bury, England, treated it like they had lost one of their own. Many boxing lovers and admirers of Ali’s social stance did the same.
“Everyone knew he was a great man, a legend, everyone showed their respect in our family,” Khan added. “It hurt everyone, it hurt us. We do feel a connection because of the name, and the respect, we have a Muhammad Ali in our family so we draw strength that he can go on in boxing and become a professional.”
