How Things Have Changed Since Then
This day, October 29, marks the 52nd anniversary of Muhammad Ali’s pro debut. He scored a unanimous decision over Tunney Hunsaker, the first of 31 consecutive victories. He wouldn’t experience defeat until his epic fight against Joe Frazier 11 years later.
Ali is still with us today all these years later, morphed into one of the most recognizable names and faces in human history. However, 52 years later, many of the men he shared the ring with are not.
I spend a fair amount of time thinking about Ali, one of the all-time great heavyweight champions. He suffers from Parkinsonism, as did my late father. I have first-hand knowledge of its devastating effects, of which I was poignantly reminded by a recent article by Dick Cavett, where he relates what it was like meeting his old friend at the Norman Mailer Center’s annual banquet a few weeks ago:
“Ali sat looking straight ahead and didn’t speak. While waiting for the line to clear, I asked Lonnie [Ali’s wife] if there was any chance he’d remember me. She said there was a good chance, ‘but the problem is he can’t speak to you. He can’t answer you.’ I sat beside him and began a one-sided chat. It was a bit like talking to a statue, his features drawn downward by the illness and seemingly frozen. I’m not sure I would have recognized him.”
[Also See: Muhammad Ali Career Record & Timeline]
Maybe I needed a distraction. Or, hell, maybe I’m just morbid. Or, most likely, I was feeling my own age and sensing my own mortality. Whatever the reason, I couldn’t stop thinking about the incontrovertible fact that Ali’s first professional bout took place more than half a century ago…and of how the mighty fall. I began to wonder what happened to the men he fought. To my dismay, I discovered that a significant number of them — 23, to the best of my research — are dead.
Here’s a list of the men who had the privilege of entering the squared circle with one of the best there ever was, but who have since gone to their reward.
- Alejandro Lavorante (1964)
- Sonny Banks (1965)
- Sonny Liston (1970)
- Zora Folley (1972)
- Oscar Bonavena (1976)
- Buster Mathis (1995)
- Archie Moore (1998)
- Jerry Quarry (1999)
- Cleveland Williams (1999)
- Herb Siler (2001)
- Tony Esperti (2002)
- Jimmy Young (2005)
- Tunney Hunsaker (2005)
- Floyd Patterson (2006)
- Trevor Berbick (2006)
- LaMar Clark (2006)
- Duke Sabedong (2008)
- Mac Foster (2010)
- Willi Besmanoff (2010)
- Henry Cooper (2011)
- Joe Frazier (2011)
- Ron Lyle (2011)
- Donnie Fleeman (2012)
Of course, you can add to that list the recent departure of his legendary long-time trainer, Angelo Dundee. With boxing also suffering the loss of Emanuel Steward, and other grand figures of the sport’s better times, such as Bert Sugar, one must be grateful that the champ himself is still with us. He can no longer speak…but we can remember.
