Muhammad Ali Defeats Sonny Liston on February 25, 1964
On October 30, 1974, 32-year-old Muhammad Ali became the Heavyweight Champion of the World for the second time when we knocked out 25-year-old champ George Foreman. The fight was called the "Rumble in the Jungle" and was fought in Kinshasa, Zaire. It was a highly controversial fight and many African spectators wanted Ali to fail miserably. Just days before the fight, Ali was recorded stating the following:
"I have wrestled with an alligator. That's right. I have wrestled with an alligator. I have tusseled with a whale. I've handcuffed lightning; thrown thunder in jail. That's bad. Only last week, I murdered a rock; injured a stone; hospitalized a brick; I'm so mean I make medicine sick. Bad, fast! Fast! Fast! Last night, I cut the light off in my bedroom hit the switch and was in bed before the room was dark. Fast... You George Foreman, All you chumps are gonna bow when I whoop him, all of you, I know you got him, I know you've got him picked, but the man's in trouble. I'm gonna show you how great I am!" ~ Muhammad Ali
Now, I don't know if Ali came up with these lyrics on his own or if he received help writing them, and I know some would consider Ali to be one of the "cockiest" and "arrogant" boxers/individuals of our time, but his words are clever. Although these words were taunts, what if they were used instead to build Ali up to take on the next challenge? What if his poetic thoughts were kept to himself and were used to encourage himself against his worst enemy; himself. You see, all of our worst enemies are ourselves. So what if we could take that language and speak it to ourselves, day-in and day-out? What if we spent our time building ourselves up instead of the our enemy taking us down? What would happen? Maybe we would reach those goals we've been looking at and dreaming about. Maybe we would be stronger and better for it in the end. See we gotta find messages within ourselves that keep us going. Words that move us to something greater. Words that inspire us to be more, do more, and live more.
In closing, I encourage you take another look at this picture of Muhammad Ali's fight back in February of 1964. Take note. What's going to inspire you to knock out the enemy within?
Knock out the enemy within.
