Here's what you don't understand about the whole ali thing, he was unqualified to serve. The government gave him a test and he failed it thus making him unsuitable for combat. Once the war picked up the government went against their previously set up protocols and made ali eligible to be drafted. If ali was originally eligible to serve this wouldn't of been the big deal that it is but because the government basically changed their own rules just to try and get ali to serve and then hand out punishment for something he shouldn't of been able to do in the first place makes it a crime.

I'm not standing here calling ali a saint, the man was probably the biggest shit talker in the history of the sport but atleast he backed it up. Of course boxing is a violent sport but there's more of a competition factor to it than there is in war. "War doesn't determine who's right, it determines who's left"-patton (maybe?). Martin Luther King wanted nothing to do with ali because he considered ali a violent man and that was against everything king believed in. I'm not saying ali stood as a symbol of something richeous but he stood his ground for HIS beliefs despite the unjust punishment they threatened and carried out against him and that deserves some recognition.