Quote Originally Posted by Master View Post
Ali could have done a Joe Louis
We don't know that that was an option, and it doesn't seem plausible that it was an option, given Ali's "I don't have no quarrel with no Viet Cong" speeches where he slammed the government for trying to force him go over and kill another brown-skinned person.

It seems doubtful that simply shaking hands with troops and putting on boxing exhibitions would have been against his "religious freedoms". They were probably going to make him fight, he knew they were probably going to make him fight, and he was determined not to go.

If he was a true hero he would have spoken about it before he was drafted. He would have refused to even take the draft screen process. Instead, he only spoke out about the war when he had to. It was never a "this war is wrong" stance, it was a "you can't send ME over there because it's a violation of MY religious freedom" stance, which is a selfish and garbage stance. People talk about what he lost, but at the end of the day a few years and maybe a few million were nothing compared to the chance of dying and losing everything over in Vietnam.