"Ali took 200,000 punches he suffered brain damage far earlier than we thought he mistreated women, but at the same time, I hope that this book will also help us appreciate him in the larger sense and to see his accomplishments and to see how they fit in, so that the negatives and the positives combine."Īli the boxer absorbed "an obscene amount of punishment," Eig concluded, taking into account amateur and professional bouts, as well as sparring sessions. "I think a lot of the revelations in the book at first will appear to be negatives," Eig told Jeremy Schaap of ESPN's E:60 in a recent interview. The book also contains grim, disturbing material about the three-time heavyweight champion, who died last year at 74. So the author of four books - on Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson, Al Capone and the scientific team that invented the birth control pill - embarked in 2013 on writing a fifth: "Ali: A Life."Įig says he interviewed more than 200 people, collaborated with Arizona State University scientists to analyze Ali's speech patterns and their neurological implications, commissioned a CompuBox study of every punch landed by and against boxing's self-proclaimed "Greatest of All Time" and pulled no punches in the 500-plus-page biography set for release on Tuesday.Įig presents an expansive explanation and celebration of Ali as a courageous activist who spoke truth to power for the causes of racial justice and nonviolence, as well as a mythical - and surprisingly humble - personality and athlete. "But nobody had written the full-blown biography." There have been terrific books written about him," Eig said. "There have been a hundred books written about him. The 53-year-old journalist told an audience on Sunday at Chicago's Emanuel Congregation that he was dumbfounded a few years ago over a realization about Ali. In Eig's view then, Ali was a "superhero." The first and last image Jonathan Eig says he saw each day in his boyhood bedroom was a poster of Muhammad Ali on the ceiling. Nomber_key:000033You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browserīiography on Muhammad Ali offers provocative view into life of 'The Greatest'
0 kommentar(er)
