(Also, boxing fans who had SEEN and grown up with the likes of Dempsey and Joe Louis knew that "Ali" was a creature of media, of hype, and could have been literally killed by a real fighter. Ali's hype made him "the greatest." Liston threw the fight, hitting the floor after the phantom punch. Otherwise someone like Liston would have beaten Clay to a bloody pulp. Then in the years that followed, against very weak opponents, the "rope-a-dope" was a joke and an insult to boxing fans. Sportswriters---and this has been discussed a lot here on FR---are a liberal bunch nowadays, so Ali's PC draft dodging and renounciation of America and of Christianity endeared him to them, and they, of course, patronized him, as liberals patronize blacks, and they certainly would never have criticized him for fear of being thought of as racist.)
To think of how he dodge the draft, and the way he did it, the things he said, and to NOW be considered some sort of hero---it is an incredible slap in the face of boys who DIDN'T run like cowards when THEY were drafted in the 60's.
You are absolutely correct on that. And what's worse is those boys who did manage to come back from Vietnam were treated like the enemy.
Talk about turning right from wrong upside down.