Abriel Medill News 847: Recent Episodes
Abriel Siregar
What has the experience been of Northwestern students studying in different time zones?
Transcript:
When a heavyweight boxer becomes champion of the world, they earn two titles. One is the physical title. That big gold belt.
But the other, arguably more prestigious, is a non-physical title. It’s an honorific title given to and reserved only for the heavyweight champion. It’s the title of “baddest man on planet.”
Now if I could invite anyone for dinner, I would invite who I believe was the “baddest” of all the “baddest men on the planet.” And that is Muhammad Ali.
But of course, at dinner, I’m not going to ask Ali to show me how he boxes. That would be rude, not to mention impractical. But also, his skills in the ring aren’t why I want to talk to him. In truth, I’m too young to have ever watched him fight live.
But there is an old saying that “fighting is 90% mental and the other 10% is in your head.”
I want to know what’s inside Muhammad Ali’s head.
As a person who sometimes struggles with self-belief, I would like to talk to the person who made poems about how he was the greatest. A person who said he was pretty. And said those type of things, before a fight, in front of people trained specifically to punch him in the face.
I want to learn what it takes to believe you can win when you’re bloodied and fighting against a fighter, who had already beaten you in a previous bout. I want Ali to teach me how to keep getting up when I’m knocked down.
But of course, Ali’s conviction and self-belief weren’t limited to his poems and his boxing.
For all of Ali’s fights in the ring, his biggest fights were for the civil rights movement and against prejudice.
I want to talk to Ali about why he decided to change his name and how he viewed his religion. I remember, being almost jealous, watching him be eulogized by religious leaders of several different faiths. As a follower of one faith, I wanted to know if it took courage for him to ask of this and if he felt that any push back from his own faith.
I also want to ask Ali about what he believe he learnt most from fighting in the civil rights movement. I want to show him the state of the world now and ask him if he had any advice for the younger generation hoping for more equality.
Most of all though I want to ask Ali about sacrifice.
When Ali refused to be drafted for the Vietnam War because he didn’t believe in it, he gave up 3 years of his boxing prime and his heavyweight title.
I want to learn from Ali, exactly that conviction. To be willing to give up what you have for what you believe in.
See I told you at the start of this podcast that the title of “baddest man on the planet” comes with being heavyweight champion. But in my eyes, Ali cemented his position in history as the “baddest” of all the “baddest” men in that very moment he stopped being the heavyweight champion.
I want to invite Muhammad Ali to my dinner table because for someone who punched people for a living and for someone who once held the title of “baddest man on the planet”, I believe he has a lot of “good” to share, especially in the form of self-belief and conviction.