Muhammad Ali is dead.
This is the news I received, approximately 3 weeks after joining the Eerste River Boxing Club (ERBC). I wouldn’t call myself a fan of the sport; I do however, have a healthy respect for Boxers and out of all the Martial Arts or hand to hand combat disciplines, I still firmly believe that training to be a Boxer, produces the best results for building stamina. Whether you get in the ring or not, that’s a whole other matter and entirely up to you.
The passing of “The Louisville Lip” and my taking up the art of Boxing, further sparked my curiosity, and since I possess an innate desire to learn more about things and people that fascinate me, I started immersing myself in this new world. A biopic titled Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight inspired me greatly. It showed me a man; nay, a Titan, who stood firmly rooted in his beliefs; risking his life, imprisonment and scorn. Continually moving in the direction he believed was right. Years later, time would prove him to be, but the journey up until that point was incredibly taxing. The biopic tells us how they could only strip him of his title by some underhanded legal maneuvering, but as soon as he was allowed to get back into the ring, well… he illustrated his famous quote; “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,” and did what he did best.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not looking to become the next Muhammad Ali, not in the world of Boxing anyway and only joined for the fitness aspect. I had many projects on my plate and needed to break away from the continuous meetings I had going on and being hunched over my laptop all day. Meeting Coach Mpofu; a former champion Boxer, and seeing the passion he had for the art, kids and community inspired me. So since they encountered difficulties, I decided to take a more active role and since becoming Vice President of the ERBC I have assisted Coach and the club in getting back into the local Multi-Purpose Centre (a temporary venue to be sure), secured 2 newspaper interviews, 2 radio interviews, a sponsored website, some sponsored items to raise some cash for the club, got #EersteRiverBoxingClub trending on Twitter and this has all happened in the last 6 months.
ERBC is the first and only Boxing club, in the community of Eerste River; home to 8000+ households, with 40,000+ residents. Our little town has many social ills plaguing our young people; teenage pregnancy, gang violence, drugs, etc. and it has become our mission, our goal to offer an alternative. We have an end of year fundraiser coming up in November and hope to secure much needed gear and our own place to train and grow our Brothers and Sisters. It wasn’t an easy journey up until here, but then again, neither was his.
Muhammad Ali is dead. Long live Muhammad Ali.
David-John Bailey | davbai24@hotmail.com | https://twitter.com/davbai83
(Originally published on WhitFieldPatel 11 September 2016)
