An insight into the life of Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali, the greatest boxer, three times heavy weight champion, is known as ‘Champ’ amongst his fans. He was a friendly personality, as appears from a book ‘Running with the Champ’ by Tim Shanahan, who was friends with Ali for almost 40 years.

Shanahan was a medical instrument salesman in Chicago, US and was associated with a charity that organised an opportunity for underprivileged children to meet athletes. Ali was also in Chicago in 1976. He had just reclaimed his title as heavyweight champion of the world.

Shanahan met him in respect to this charity organisation, which was just the beginning of their 40-year-long friendship.

While explaining their connection, Shanahan explains various angles of Ali’s personality, which otherwise may not have come to light. Ali was very generous when it came to helping the needy. These incidences of his generosity were not always publicised.

Shanahan’s friendship with Ali gave him an opportunity to meet various athletes, Hollywood and other famous personalities. Shanahan also included few rare photographs from the life of Ali in the book. One thing I particularly remembered about Ali is his love for ice cream.

Shanahan stood with Ali in his good as well as bad times and shared a special bond of friendship. However, it appears that Shanahan has made an effort to avoid talking about controversies in the life of Ali. Also at few places, I felt the connection is lost between two events. If it would have been in chronological order it would have been easy to keep track with all the events in the life of Ali.

Last but not the least, it was a coincidence that I downloaded this book to read just a day before the death of Ali, which is provoking me to read more about the ‘Champ’.

— The reader works with Emirates Airline Festival of Literature and is based in Dubai.