Yes, he dominated and redefined the sport in his unorthodox style. But it was often Muhammad Ali’s bravado and unapologetic self-belief that enchanted fans all around the world.
His trash-talking merged personality with sporting prowess altered what an athlete needed to possess in order to be the main draw in their respective sport.
And while Ali set microphones ablaze with his gift for rhetoric, he also made fans, industry experts, and his fellow boxers rethink what it meant to be a heavyweight boxer. Before Ali, the heavyweight division was all power and brutality.
Ali, however, brought to the division a never-before-seen athletic ability. But as Joe Rogan notes, Ali understood the importance of both: power and brutality, and how his own idiosyncratic style could make him untouchable.
“He would shuffle, and move, and bop, and weave, and there was never a heavyweight that moved like this. People have to realize that this just didn’t exist, man,” analyzed Rogan.
Rogan’s voice was childlike in awe, speaking as if this was the first time he’d seen ‘The Greatest’ in full, poetic flow.
While many boxing experts wouldn’t say Ali is the best pure boxer of all time, few can argue with his athleticism. In all sports, there are techniques to learn and tried and tested methods to improve those techniques.
But the greats of their respective sports often find new ways to shine that ruffle the feathers of the old guard – an aspect that Rogan picks up on.
“He was a heavyweight that moved around like a middleweight and on top of that, he could fight his f**king a** off,” noted Rogan, speaking over a clip of Ali in action.
The clip, taken from Ali’s iconic fight with Cleveland Williams, highlighted what made him so unique.
The best middleweights are typically better all-around athletes than heavyweights. They possess great agility and speed in both footwork and punching. Additionally, they require better stamina and durability as a middleweight fight is more likely to go the distance.
Balancing the strengths of both a middleweight and heavyweight boxer, Ali accessed a space that no fighter from either weight division had found before.
It was in the Williams bout that Ali showcased his distinct arsenal of tricks and techniques.
Rogan on Ali’s masterclass against Williams
When Ali sadly passed away in 2016, Rogan posted a lengthy tribute on Instagram. The UFC commentator noted not just his influences on sport, but his positive effect on the culture of the world.
Again, like the video clip, Rogan pointed towards the Cleveland bout as the best example of Ali’s greatest talents as a boxer.
“Every now and then as a fight fan I like to cue up his 1966 KO victory over Cleveland Big Cat Williams and become reminded of how special he truly was,” said Rogan in the social media post.
It was the fight that made the ‘Ali shuffle’ famous, bobbing and weaving, seemingly forever out of reach for Williams. So loose and relaxed, Ali would then suddenly burst into a combination that was almost impossible to deal with.
For all his dancing and posturing for the enamored audience, those moments of power and brutality reminded everyone that he was a heavyweight, and possibly the greatest one we’ll ever see.
