Quote Originally Posted by Beanflicker
Why is he suddenly a hero for dodging a draft? Look at the heros of our history. They saw something wrong in the world, an injustice, and they fought selflessly against it for the good of others. Thats FAR from what Ali did. He took the intelligence test and failed (more than likely on purpose, as Ali was a far smarter man than most of us), and that got him out of the war. At that point, when he didn't think he would have to fight in the war, he didn't give a fuck. The fact that people were getting drafted and being forced to fight against their religious beliefs didn't mean shit to him, because he didn't have to fight. Suddenly they change the classification and he gets drafted. Now that its HIS ass on the line, suddenly he cares. Now he wants to stand up for this grave injustice.

I always have to laugh at how people romanticize Ali's actions. "Oh he refused to kill another human being so he selflessly sacraficed the prime of his career." Bullshit. He just didn't want to run through a jungle getting shot at by Viet Cong. He was trying to save his own ass. People romanticize it as "Ali's stand against the injustice of the cruel American Government", but in reality he was just another guy dodging the war, the only difference was he had a lot more status and popularity than the average draft dodger.
No the average draft dodger moved to another country or found other "acceptable" ways to be inelgible for the draft (atleast he confronted the issue instead of running to canada or w/e else people did to dodge the draft like cowards). Ali is one of the few who just straight up said no (and don't try calling him a coward because of it because he had the courage to fight in the ring for many years.). I'm not saying he's a hero because i know the man was only motivated to better himself. People often confuse the post boxing ali as the same guy that said no to the draft. After boxing, he was a great selfless human being but during he was arrogant, selfish, and only looking out for his best interest. Ali was only 25 in '67 give the man a break.

I just wanna know how great you have to be for people to bring up things to try and bring your status as a boxing legend down when its been over 20 years since you retired (floyd, this is something you'll have to deal with too).