FROM MARK KRAM in his book on Ali and Frazier called "Ghosts Of Manila," a book in which Kram spends a great deal of space trying to discredit (slamming!) Ali.
"There was nobody like him in a ring so in that sense he stands apart," he said. "As a social force though, as a personality, I guess on stage you would call him one of the great entertainers, He certainly made a lot of people laugh. But as a social force he was a zero. And now a lot of people write books and make films about and cash in on his fame. Why do we keep writing about him? Well, a lot of people are hangers on and sycophants who think they have something to say but Ali is part of history."
I wonder if he includes himself as one of the hangers on and sycophants that write books about Ali to cash in on his fame?!? I mean, isn't he (Kram) one of the guys who "thought he had something to say." It's funny to me that a guy that writes a critical book about another guy twenty five years after the guys last fight is doing so as a way of trying to convince the readers that the guy in question isn't worthy of all the praise he receives. If Ali wasn't as big as he is, and ten times bigger than Kram would have you believe, then that book wouldn't have sold ten copies or even been written in the first place.
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