Jim Ross posted a special new blog remembering Muhammad Ali
Here are some highlights
The passing last week of Muhammad Ali at the age of 74 took me back to 1985 when I had a some personal and memorable experiences with “The Greatest.” Bill Watts booked Ali to be in JYD replacement The Sandman’s corner in a NOLA Super Dome Mid South Wrestling bout vs Jake Roberts who had John Nord in his corner. To build up this attraction, we went to Los Angeles to tape a series of vignettes with the Champ at his home there. After finishing our work Muhammad took us on a quick tour of his home specifically his ‘attic’ which was where much of Ali’s memorabilia was randomly stored. I wandered around talking to Ali and admiring all the title belts plus gifts from an amazing array of world leaders and religious figures. Many of these priceless items were in cardboard boxes and stored, to put it mildly, very causally in these containers. I saw one box that had a piece of gold cloth hanging from it and I reached down to see what it was and I discovered that it was a gold jumpsuit.
Muhammad asked if my Mama was a fan of Elvis Presley and I told him, “Absolutely!” He said “Why don’t you take that and give it to your Mama because I’m sure that she would love it.” “What is it?” I asked. “That’s a jumpsuit that Elvis gave me after one of his Las Vegas Hilton shows. He took it off and presented it to me. It’s never even been cleaned and still has Elvis’s sweat on it,” I was told much to my surprise. “It”s all yours.”
I said, “Champ, I can’t take this. It just wouldn’t be right.”
He added
We had hours of chats about women, lots of women, racism, our country’s future, Frazier, Foremen, promoters, how he and his camp made extra money in an era when boxing stars, especially black, boxing stars, still did not make what they deserved or earned. We talked extensively about food and the wonderful meals that his mom and my mom prepared for us growing up, Ali in Louisville and me in Oklahoma. We loved going to Dookie Chase’s restaurant in Nola and went there multiple times during the week.
