Tag: Muhammad Ali

With the recent passing of Muhammad Ali I figured it was as good as time as any to remember the Champ’s visit to South Korea back almost exactly 40 years after ago in 1976.  Ali visited South Korea after participating in a celebrity wrestling match with famed Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki.  Incredibly Ali threw six punches in the wrestling match and earned $6 million for it.

Pacific Stars & Stripes, June 26, 1976

Ali landed in Korea at Gimpo Airport and a motorcade took him on a tour of downtown Seoul where an incredible one million people it was estimated greeted him.  Here is what Ali had to say about the welcome he received in Seoul:

“When I go back to America and throughout my tours I will tell people of the world how nice Korea is,” Ali said.

Pacific Stars & Stripes, June 29 1976

Ali also had good things to say about US troops stationed in South Korea:

“I’ve many American brothers over here, black and white who fight for the freedom of the world and are doing a job we can’t pay them for,” he said.  “I am a fighter myself and I realize how lonely it is when you’re in combat-how lonely you are in training.”

After the motorcade tour of Seoul, Ali was next driven north to Camp Casey where he boxed and entertained 2nd Infantry Division soldiers:

Ali fought exhibitions for the U. S. 2nd Infantry Division after receiving a hero’s welcome in downtown Seoul from hundreds of thousands of Koreans.

“One million dollars a punch,” Ali said of his 15-round draw Saturday with professional Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki, who spent most of the bout on his back trying to kick Ali down.

“And you are going to see hundreds of punches for nothing,” he told more than 2,500 American soldiers at the Shoonover Bowl outdoor theater 12 miles below the demilitarized zone between South and North Korea.  [Stars & Stripes, June 29, 1976]

So for soldiers stationed on Camp Casey the next time you are at Shooner Bowl remember that decades ago Muhammad Ali once entertained US soldiers there.  Here is a cool story from the visit:

“All right, fellows. Do you have any boxers out here?” Ali asked.

Specialist Fourth Class Gerald Noble, 28, stepped out. The 202-pound soldier was a Michigan State heavyweight champion in 1967.

They agreed to a five-minute round, in which Noble tried hard but was no match for Ali. The champion danced in and away and landed scores of accurate but soft punches on the soldier-boxer.

After the fight, in which Ali patted Noble on the seat of the pants with his right fist after forcing him into a corner, the champ declared the soldier one of the best men he has fought.

The soldiers booed, and a 149-pounder volunteered to “put up a better fight, if not knock you out.”

The challenger was Private First Class Larry D. Rice, 20.

Ali faked being knocked down twice in a five-minute round with the welterweight, drawing big cheers from the crowd. In the end, however, it was Rice who became exhausted and gave up.

“Ali is a great fighter but today he turned out to be a greater entertainer, too. We love him in this remote area. He must be second to none in every sense,” an enlisted man said. “Second to None” is the slogan of the division.

What an awesome story Gerald Noble and Larry Rice were able to tell for the rest of their lives of boxing Muhammad Ali.  It is such an incredible story they probably had a hard time getting people to believe them.  I am sure the Koreans and GIs that saw Ali back in 1976 will never forget his visit much like many people in the world will not forget the legacy Muhammad Ali left before his passing.

In honor of the passing of Muhammad Ali I figured I would share this story about the trip the legendary boxer made to North Korea.  Muhammad Ali joined a group of professional wrestlers on a friendship tour to North Korea in 1995 at the invitation of famous Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki.  One thing you can always count in life is that pro-wrestlers will tell it the way it is and that is what Ric Flair does about his 1995 trip to North Korea in his book, Ric Flair: To Be the Man:

The second we arrived in Pyongyang, our passports were confiscated. Then each of us was assigned a “cultural attache” to follow us everywhere; these guys even sat in the dressing room while we went over our matches. In the dining room where the wrestlers ate, there was a camera in each corner, monitoring every movement. When Scott Norton called his wife and said, “This place sucks,” his phone line suddenly went dead.

Here is my favorite line from the book where Muhammad Ali also tell things the way it is:

Because of the ravages of Parkinson’s disease, it was difficult to understand Muhammad Ali when he spoke. But at one function, we were sitting at a big, round table with a group of North Korean luminaries when one of the guys started rambling on about the moral superiority of North Korea, and how they could take out the United States or Japan any time they wanted. Suddenly, Ali piped up, clear as a bell, “No wonder we hate these motherf*ckers.”

I wonder how the North Korean translators translated that. Probably the same way they translated this:

Before we left North Korea, our handlers requested that I make a speech at the airport. They even had specific points that they expected me to articulate — things like North Korea being a worker’s paradise, and that America sucked. I looked at Bischoff and told him, “I can’t say this.” The last thing I wanted was to be quoted in the American press making statements that I didn’t mean. So I just spouted some generic comments and thanked everyone for their hospitality.

This is how I was quoted by the official North Korean press agency: “Before I leave this beautiful and peaceful country, I would like to make a tribute to the great leader, Mr. Kim Il Sung (the late father of the current dictator), who devoted his life to the Korean people’s happiness, prosperity, and Korean unification. His Excellency, Kim Il Sung, will always be with us.”

Muhammad Ali probably should have never went on the trip, but at least he did not fall for the propaganda like so many other foreigners like Dennis Rodman did when they traveled to North Korea.