Barack Obama’s entry to the White House is down to the likes of Muhammad Ali, according to Bob Arum, erstwhile promoter of ‘The Greatest’.
“Muhammad Ali paved the way for Barack Obama to be elected, in 2008, as the first black President of The United States.”
So says Arum, to your correspondent, from the offices of his company, Top Rank Inc., on Howard Hughes Parkway, in Las Vegas. Ali was, and remains, an icon.
“I really do think that without Ali, there wouldn’t be an Obama as President. I really believe that firmly and sincerely. The impact he had, the evolution he brought led people to accept the integration of blacks into American society. Ultimately, it induced people to vote for a black man for President of the United States,” Arum told The Daily Telegraph.
Arum, who worked as a lawyer in the Justice Department during the Kennedy administration, has seen many changes during his time. He is in his late 70s.
“I really think in the long term, seen over time, what happened with Ali in his life really is to be credited for enabling the election of Obama. That’s how I see it, as someone in their late 70s who has seen the whole evolution of racial integration happen in the US. Ali’s legacy transcends anything he did in the ring, because what he did has become a real, integral part of the nation’s development.”
“Ali will always be the greatest. He was and remains, a genius. He taught me everything I know about promoting, and then some more.”
Joe Louis, the great heavyweight world champion, and Jackie Robinson, the baseball player, broke the mould. Arum argues: “We had great black athletes like Joe Louis, who was admired. He was servile and went along and said the right things. We had Jackie Robinson, the first black player to break the colour barrier in baseball.”
Robinson’s 1947 Major League debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers ended approximately 60 years of baseball segregation. He was inducted into Baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1962.
Arum believes they “took strides, but they did not have the same impact as Ali did.”
Ali, of course, refused the Vietnam draft.
Arum insists his ‘free spirit’ knew no restraint. “He had a spirit that could not be tamed. People saw a real person, who refused to ignore matters when he saw his race was being denigrated.”
“He is a very special human being indeed.I really think that when history books are read in 50 years’ time, that there will be a significant paragraph or even chapter about Muhammad Ali in the history of the American civilisation.”
Arum now promotes Manny Pacquiao, the most popular Filipino alive. Pacquiao, also considered the best boxer on the planet today, faces British boxer Ricky Hatton at the MGM Grand Las Vegas on May 2.
Many say ‘Manny’, such is his ambition, could go on to become President of The Philippines. Arum could have another major changeling on his hands.
As a boxing writer, and a fan of free spirits, my view is that regardless of social changes, cultural revolutions, and the wider acceptance that racial segregation is both morally, and spiritually, wrong, Ali did bring about change. He did not know he was doing it, but his effect on society was wide-reaching and ever-lasting. Arum is right. Ali, in 50 years time, will be seen as the most significant athlete of all time.
