Sonic Editions

“I’ve wrestled with alligators, I’ve tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning and thrown thunder in jail.  You know I’m bad. Just last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick. I’m so mean, I make medicine sick!”

Muhammad Ali was a 6'3' heavyweight who lost just five fights in a 61-bout career; 37 of his wins were by knockout. When he said, "If you even dream of beating me, you'd better wake up and apologise", he meant it. A boxer through and through, but with more than a hint of flamboyant showmanship, his sport was the only kind of fighting he was interested in. He was banned from the ring for three-and-a-half years after refusing to serve in Vietnam, and his outspoken views on race and equality made him a civil rights icon. He was back in the ring in 1970. Four years later, he defeated George Foreman. A year after that, Joe Frazier.

As the Seventies drew to a close he went into decline, and in 1981, after one defeat too many, he retired. Three years later, the champion was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Ali devoted the rest of his life to religious and charitable work until his death in 2016.