I remember being very amazed by Muhammed Ali’s boxing ability early in his career, but as I got older, I began to dislike his trash talking. I have since come to view his conduct as the precursor to the public trash talking we see now. (As long as there have been sports, there has been trash talking, just not public and accepted.
Later in life, I looked at those fights in retrospect and had far more respect for guys like Joe Frazier, who appeared to want to do his talking with his fists.
I hate this aspect of sports. I love it when I see an athlete act like they have been successful before when they make a play.
Thank you, I’ve been telling people for years that I despised Ali because he was the Father of this “look at me” disease we see in sports.
“It ain’t bragging if you can do it.” - Dizzy Dean
I thought Ali’s braggadocio was kinda fun. He never really talked bad about others, unless my memory is faulty... He just told everybody what HE could do. And he usually did. And I don’t recall when he lost, that he said he was cheated, or some such.
He did make fun of Howard Cosell, but they were buddies.
As for his conversion to avoid the draft - I didn’t like that.
In this particular case - neither of my sons (nor I) would have taunted him.