{"id":3772,"date":"2024-04-20T02:40:30","date_gmt":"2024-04-20T02:40:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/?p=3772"},"modified":"2024-04-20T02:40:30","modified_gmt":"2024-04-20T02:40:30","slug":"the-time-a-post-reporter-faced-ali-in-the-ring-and-lived-to-tell-about-it-vu-thuy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/the-time-a-post-reporter-faced-ali-in-the-ring-and-lived-to-tell-about-it-vu-thuy\/","title":{"rendered":"The t\u0456me \u0430 Po\u0455t re\u0440orter f\u0430\u0441ed Al\u0456 \u0456n the r\u0456ng \u2014 \u0430nd l\u0456ved to tell \u0430bout \u0456t"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m a Post reporter now, but back when I was a professional boxer, I faced Muhammad Ali in the ring. It was 1988, and he no longer floated like a butterfly or stung like a bee \u2013 but he was the vintage Greatest.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/641ac1fa22e4afe0907400c25f25dfa3ab15391c\/0_219_4100_2460\/master\/4100.jpg?width=465&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none\" alt=\"Letter: A photographic reminder of Muhammad Ali's kindness to my father |  Muhammad Ali | The Guardian\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A trainer was tying up my boxing gloves and I heard a strange creaking sound, which I dismissed at first as I was getting ready to go into the ring to spar with Azumah Nelson, then the super featherweight world champion.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<div class=\"inline-module inline-module--related-post\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__inner\">\n<p>The strange sound came again and as I turned around, I saw the hand that had been making the noise. It was Ali\u2019s. You can imagine my surprise.<\/p>\n<div class=\"single__content entry-content m-bottom \">\n<p>Ali, who had been diagnosed with Parkinson\u2019s a few years earlier, was paying a visit to Don King at his training facilities just outside of Orwell, Ohio. The prankster had put his fist near my ear and was rubbing his thumb against the end of his index finger, creating the grinding sound. He couldn\u2019t speak but was still sharp as a tack.<\/p>\n<p>Those who had seen Ali play the little prank told him that I had formerly been managed and trained by his former nemesis, Smokin\u2019 Joe Frazier. And I could see the flash in his eyes as he pulled his head back, tucked in his lip and went into his famous routine where he jokes about what he\u2019s going to do to his opponent. I\u2019d seen it many times \u2014 Ali joking about Frazier \u2014 and it always came out \u201cFraze-ya\u2026Smokin\u2019 Joe Fraze-ya.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And then he brought up his hands, the right at chest level, and his left held low, as he always did. He started moving, mimicking visions of his former self. I got into my Smokin\u2019 Joe crouch, arms crossed to block those famous uppercuts as Frazier had done \u2014 most famously in the \u201cThrilla in Manila.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When our brief bout was over, Ali put his hands down but that glint in his eyes was still there. He was completely still there, just as aware and bright as ever, even if his body was giving out on him. He patted me on the head, as if to touch me with the magic he had, perhaps knowing he\u2019d be creating a memory to last a lifetime.<\/p>\n<div id=\"wpcom-liveblog-container\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-component=\"floatingShare\">\n<div class=\"floating-share-wrap single__floating-share opaque attached\">\n<div class=\"floating-share sharedaddy\" data-component=\"socialShare\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10223960\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m a Post reporter now, but back when I was a professional boxer, I faced Muhammad Ali in the ring. It was 1988, and he no longer&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3772"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3772"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3790,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3772\/revisions\/3790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}