Sucker Punch: The Hard Left Hook That Dazed Ali and Killed King's Dream

I have always been irritated by those who would rate Muhammad Ali as the greatest of American athletes because it has long been patently obvious that the reason for this elevation has little to do with his undisputed boxing skills (which I would never attempt to denigrate) and everything to do with Ali's status as an icon for the radical Left of American thought. To these people who have manufactured the Ali myth, it is only because Ali championed the same dishonorable perspectives of late 1960s radicalism that he becomes in later years this sacred cow untouchable when it comes to looking back at his life. Enter this much needed book by Jack Cashill that sets the record straight and gets to the blunt truth of what Muhammad Ali really stood for during those days of protest. Cashill forces a blunt re-examination of what kind of movement the black Muslims under Elijah Muhammad (Ali's puppetmaster of this period) were like, and it isn't a pretty picture. Nor is it a pretty picture of Ali's hedonistic lifestyle that makes a mockery of how his stance against Vietnam was just that of a humble Muslim following the tenets of his religion. Nor is it a pretty picture of the cruelty Ali doled out to fellow black boxers like Joe Frazier. But it is a necessary thing for us to read and realize that Muhammad Ali the man, at least of that period, is not someone who should be lionized as a symbol of American greatness. Muhammad Ali could have saved himself the trauma of three years away from the ring in his prime if he'd only possessed the grace and decency to follow the example of Joe Louis in World War II. Alas, Ali, under the spell of the bigoted hate of the Black Muslim movement and its anti-American founder (Cashill's story of Elijah Muhammad's conduct during World War II reveals why this is an accurate description) chose a dishonorable course, and the reason why he angered many Americans had less to do with supposed racism in white America and more to do with the obnoxious and hateful radical movement Ali belonged to in that period. Bravo, Mr. Cashill, for puncturing the hot air myths about Ali the man and setting the record straight. UPDATE (9/23/06) -The only thing I need note about "Desert Wanderer's" review to demonstrate how lacking in credibility it is, is to note his strange assertion that Ali boxed in the Phillipines because of the ban against him because of his political stances. He needs to get his chronology straight since the Thrilla in Manilla took place years after Ali was able to start boxing in America again. UPDATE (12/07/06) -Four more spam reviews from diehard radical leftists who in typical spam review tradition use platitudes and demonization rather than facts to advance their points of view. The keepers of the Ali myth have too much a vested interest in the false premise of the purity of 1960s radicalism to ever confront the blunt truth about what kind of sick movement it really was.

It is very common nowadays to hear Muhammad Ali spoken of not just as a great boxer but as a cultural hero. Yet I always seem to experience some dissonance when I compare the praise he receives with the man I remember watching when he was in his prime. This book explains that dissonance by exploring the conditions that made Muhammad Ali what he was. As it turns out, there is good reason to feel uneasy - not just with Ali, but with the culture that made it possible to see him as more than a sports hero. As Mr. Cashill says early in the book: "Today, those who shape our culture -- writers, critics, publishers, broadcasters, movie and TV producers -- routinely calculate the essence of individuals, especially racial minorities, not as the sum of their blessings but rather as the sum of their grievances. In the traditional hero saga, the individual is expected to overcome hardship and injustice. In the grievance narrative, he nurses them like grudges. If they seem inadequate to evoke guilt or anger -- the two desired responses from the audience -- the narrator reserves the right to embellish or even invent additional offenses..." (pp. 3-4) "Many of Ali's contemporaries wrote or cowrote autobiographies, among them Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, Floyd Patterson, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, George Foreman, and Larry Holmes. Each of these is a tribute to the American dream. Each author describes the virtues necessary to succeed in America and the opportunity available to those who practice such virtue. Only Ali writes a grievance narrative..." (p. 45) This book is about a lot more than boxing. It's about the 60's and 70's, race relations, Vietnam, the Nation of Islam, and the changing meaning of the word "hero". It's about the ability of large numbers of people to ignor the underlying complexities of one particular hero who, when seen in the light, doesn't really look that heroic at all. And it's long overdue.

Cassius Clay (AKA Cassius X, Muhammad X, Muhammad Ali)was born into a thoroughly middle-class family: his father always had a job; his mother was always there for him; he had more in the way of creature comforts and accessories than most black and white kids did during his youth. Still, he chose to turn his back on America,joined a racist cult (the black Muslims who believed white people were made in a test tube by an evil doctor named Yacub who successfully bred light skinned blacks together until he created a mutant race of blonde-haired, blue-eyed beings), refused to defend his country during the Vietnam War, called for death (by lynching) of all inter-racial couples, cheated on every one of his wives, betrayed old friends and even deserted his patrimony by accepting the name Ali in replacing his father's proud name all the while claiming any white blood he had in him was the result of "raping." Jack Cashill, relying upon primary sources, proves that Clay/Ali lied about most of the things he claimed to believe in; for example, his great grandparents were a white man married to his black grandmother well after slave holding days and his father's people have always proudly claimed Henry Clay as an ancestor. Cashill has written a stunningly provocative work surely to be the definitive work analyzing both Clay and that awful decade of the sixties. If anything, the author is to be faulted for liking his subject a bit too much. Cassius Clay was a nasty piece of work and Muhammid Ali was even worse. Kudos to Cashill,though, for having the temerity to confront the lies and subterfuges of the this false hero who has tried vainly in his last few years to evolve himself beyond what he made himself into.

This book is so insightful.. A MUST READ!!! If you want the real story of Muhammad Ali and the driving force behind him, this is the book for you. Not just for boxing fans readers, the story & facts will amaze you. Just in time for Valentines Day, a great gift for the avid reader. You will NOT be disappointed.

It is illuminating to look back at the career of Ali, its contradictions and its façades. Even those who have no interest in boxing will find this book hard to put down. Parallel themes of radical Islam and the illusions of liberalism coincide, sometimes with devastating results, making this a powerfully timely story. Ali's dependence on Elijah Muhammed, then on Herbert, his heir, led to heartbreaking denials of Ali's real supporters and of himself. Those who championed these betrayals were willing dupes and pawns. Their attacks on Joe Louis, Joe Frazier, and other true patriots and champions of the game showed a thirst for the triumph of style over substance, a harbinger of years of confused allegiances. Through it all we can see glimpses of the sweetness which is the hallmark of the true Ali. We also experience the famous bouts in a gripping immediacy that is vivid enough to seem painful. There is much to learn about ourselves, our culture, in this visceral work.