Читать книгу Sporting Blood. Tales from the Dark Side of Boxing онлайн

19 страница из 67

◆ ◆ ◆

In 2003, Bill Ayers showed up at the Film Forum in New York City for a Q&A after a screening of The Weather Underground. He was a harmless-looking man, soft spoken, wearing glasses and two earrings. Someone in the audience asked him about the sexual habits of revolutionaries on the run.

◆ ◆ ◆

What separated Ali from the contemporary fighter, an unusual species of blowhard, was his willingness to concretize his boasts where it mattered most: inside the ring. Yes, Ali was an unstoppable braggart, a man whose self-aggrandizement (which preceded his social consciousness by several years) was too often conflated with racial pride, but there was little disconnect between his proclamations and his achievements. Not only did Ali face the very best heavyweights of two eras, but he also faced a slew of tough contenders whose own legacies were stonewalled by the fierce competition of the 1970s: Ken Norton, Ron Lyle, and Earnie Shavers. When Ali returned from his exile, which lasted three and a half years, he faced the number-one-ranked heavyweight in the world: Jerry Quarry.