Mark Bell's Power Project - Mark Bell's Saturday School EP. 3 - Who is Muhammad Ali?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome everybody to Saturday School, an awesome new format that Mark... Awesome! Yeah, this is your opportunity to ask Mark Bell pretty much any question you have in mind, but let's be honest, if it sucks, it might not make it onto the show. However, what doesn't suck is Piedmontese beef. Somehow they have higher protein, less fat, cooks faster, tastes better than anything on the planet. Shout out to them. Thank you for sponsoring this episode. It's piedmontese.com. It's P-I-E-D-m-o-n-t-e-s-e.com at checkout enter promo code power

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Starting point is 00:01:34 attention, get it, and you guys will be able to have your question answered by the one and only Mark Bell. Now, for today's session, I wanted to ask Mark, if you have one opportunity, one chance to watch any professional athlete in his or her prime, who would it be? Let's see here. So, I had an opportunity to see Jordan. So, that was awesome. I would say, you know, I've gone to like some UFC events and stuff and seen I got to see Bones Jones fight. I would say like probably Muhammad Ali. You know, Muhammad Ali, you know, he transcended sport and he transcended race. Um, he kind of flipped everything up, you know, he kind of flipped everything upside down.

Starting point is 00:02:35 He did some really remarkable things and, you know, he ended up being, uh, you know, more than, more than a boxer. And George Foreman has been quoted as kind of saying he's not the greatest boxer. He thinks he might be the greatest fighter, the greatest person of all time beyond boxing. And other people might have other things to say about it because no one lives a perfect life. No one gets out of this unscathed with a completely perfect record with no blemishes on your record.

Starting point is 00:03:03 But when I have seen things about muhammad ali and when i've seen um the way that he changed the way that uh white americans and and and other ethnicities for that matter were looking at african americans uh pretty unbelievable and then also like the world shut down, you know, like right now we're in this like quarantine and, you know, everyone's kind of watching Netflix and there's no cars out on the street. You know, from what I heard when Muhammad Ali fought, when he fought like in Africa and when he would fight in these other countries, other countries would put up millions of dollars to have him come and fight because it would draw so much money.

Starting point is 00:03:47 It was like worth it to them. And then it was like kind of these countries would fight, you know, kind of almost like the way that kind of wealthy people will, where it's like, no, I got more money to throw at him. No, I got more money to throw at him. And so, you know, there was a lot of that going on, but I admired also like his strategy. I'm a boxing fan. Grew up watching a lot of that going on, but I admired also his strategy. I'm a boxing fan.

Starting point is 00:04:07 Grew up watching a lot of boxing as a kid. Loved watching Tyson. Loved watching the lighter weight classes as well because they're just the quickness and the speed and the agility and the sweet science of boxing and the strategy that goes into it was always really cool to watch. But when Ali fought, you know, George Foreman, I don't think people understand that George Foreman was like a complete

Starting point is 00:04:33 wrecking machine. And he was a little bit like Tyson, where he was like an angry dude. Now we're used to seeing the Foreman grill and we're used to seeing big old George with a big old smile. And it's easy to have that big old smile because he's made it and he's made millions and millions of dollars now. But when he was young, he was very hungry and he was a brutal, brutal fighter. And the fighters that he fought, uh, when he fought Ali, they, they were, um, you know, these guys were, these guys were in their prime and, and Foreman knocked them out a lot easier than what, what Ali was able to do. Not only did he knock them out. I mean, you know, a lot of times Ali would be pressed to go the distance with some of

Starting point is 00:05:16 these guys that Foreman beat very, very easily. Like Ken Norton and Joe Frazier, George Foreman, just like beat the ever living crap out of Joe Frazier. I think he knocked him down like three times in one round. And I don't think the fight went very long. I want to say it's like a three to five round fight or something like that. And then people know the story, you know, people that are fans of boxing know that Ali and Joe Frazier had like wars in the ring. Like there was a really good matchup, uh, smoking Joe Frazier, you know, being a Southpaw and, and being, uh, kind of having that peekaboo style where he stayed down real low was a good

Starting point is 00:05:54 matchup against Ali who was jabbing from the outside and floating like a butterfly. But what Ali was able to do, um, inside the ring was phenomenal, but what he was able to do inside the ring was phenomenal. But what he was able to do before you got in the ring was a real art form. The way that he was able to talk people out of victory, in a sense. Obviously, he had to do it with an in-ring performance that was stellar. He had to kick it with an in-ring performance that was stellar right like he had to kick ass in the ring uh otherwise it would have been all for not right like he would just get

Starting point is 00:06:30 knocked out but could you imagine somebody in the press you know talking about you so much and you're revved up and you're pissed off and you're gonna get in the ring and you're gonna tear this guy a new one right and you get in the ring and you're going to tear this guy a new one, right? And you get in the ring and bam, bam, bam, you nail him with all you got. And this is a legendary thing from Ali that he said to Foreman. I think it was like in maybe like the eighth round or something. He said, is that all you got, George? And Foreman was like, wow, man, like he got me. Like that's all I got. It's all I got. And it's not,

Starting point is 00:07:08 it hasn't phased him. It hasn't hurt him at all. And Ali talks about how, how it's such a beautiful thing to go on the ropes, you know, and do the rope-a-dope and to allow Foreman to really wear himself down and basically just tire himself out by, cause he's a power puncher and what a brilliant thing. Like, Hey, look, man, I'm not good enough to beat him anyway. If I can't absorb some of his shots since that's his strength, but I'm going to make his strength, his weakness in this sense, because I'm going to just have him hit me in the forearms a lot and have him hit me in the side a lot. And all that stuff still is very damaging.

Starting point is 00:07:47 But what Ali knew was that if he did this over time and he could pitter-patter and he could smack George here and there with some shots, that he would really be able to slow him down and he'd really be able to end up winning because he'd be able to tire him out so much. And you could have probably just blew George Foreman over with a, with a, with a feather at the, at the end there, because he was so fatigued that he got spun around and, and Ali did hit him with some good shots, but it was really nothing.

Starting point is 00:08:17 All that monumental or astronomical. It was almost like a push. You can almost just like push him over and you knew he wasn't going to be able to get back up. Cause he was like humiliated, demoral almost just like push him over. And you knew he wasn't going to be able to get back up because he was like humiliated, demoralized, too fatigued. Like he probably wasn't even hurt that bad. I'm sure he's hurt, but like it probably just wasn't really that bad. I mean, Ali did nail him with a really good shot, at least one really good shot.

Starting point is 00:08:38 But what I want to talk about a little bit, but even leading up to that was Ali's ability to defeat you before he got in the ring. So, and this is amazing. And a lot of people do this. You see this on shark tank, like they'll do this on shark tank. They, they like they devalue your product, they devalue your brand and they're like, why do you have that high of an evaluation? Like you shouldn't think that highly of yourself. Right.

Starting point is 00:09:05 And so Ali would do that with everybody he fought. He would like devalue you. He would he would bring in he would bring in like his interpretation of what really happened, which would be a little bit different than the actual facts. You know, but it would just it would be it would be factual enough to where people would be like, hmm. So what he said about Foreman was he said, look at George Foreman. He's like, people think he's a powerful fighter, but I haven't seen him knock out anybody. I haven't seen him knock out anybody. And they were like, what are you talking about?

Starting point is 00:09:38 You haven't seen him knock out anybody. He's got at that point, he had like 30 or 40 knockouts or something or 30 knockouts or something like that. They're like, you're crazy, Ali. What are you talking about? He's like, I mean, like knocked out. Like these are technical knockouts. He's like, anybody can do that. He's like, you know, when he goes, when I knock, when I knock out somebody, they're out. They ain't getting up. Like they're out. You count them out for 10, 15 seconds. He's like, they're done. He's like, these other guys that Ali's knocking out, like what he did to Joe Frazier. It's like Joe Frazier kept getting back up. He's like, so how bad could it really be? How hard could it really be punching? And so to, to take the audience

Starting point is 00:10:16 that, cause there's probably a lot of people that want to see Ali get his ass kicked. I don't think he alluded the draft or chose not to go into the war or however you want to put it at that time just yet. So there wasn't that many people hating on him for that. But, you know, it was like the 60s or 70s and people hated on him because of his skin color. And George Foreman is also black as well. But I think, you know, they're trying to I think people didn't like the fact that Ali ran his mouth. and I think they wanted to see him get his ass kicked finally against some of the opponents that he went against but when he said that about Foreman I think he really flipped the audience and they're probably like yeah you know what you're they're kind of right like Foreman's

Starting point is 00:10:58 kind of a bully you know and he's probably not as tough as everyone says. And then he also said the other thing he did is he was talked about how unathletic George Foreman was. He's like, you know what I'm going to call him? He goes, I'm going to call him the mummy. He's like, because he moves around like a mummy. His arms are out. He's all stiff like he's wrapped up. And he's like, what is he going to do? He's going to come at me and lunge with these punches.

Starting point is 00:11:24 Boom, boom, boom. And he made it like comical, you know, meanwhile, you know, you're thinking George Foreman's going to be like foaming at the mouth and he's going to like absolutely kill him. And he just diffused all that. He like burst his bubble before he ever got into the ring. And he really brought a lot of that down, but imagine shifting, uh, that many people in your favor and it's in Africa and Ali knew how to get attention from everybody. Um, he's the first guy of his kind. I mean, there'll never be anybody like him ever again. Um, that guy, uh, that guy knew how to get the intention of a camera. That guy knew. I mean, he invented fight camps. I mean, he was like, he's revolutionary in so many different ways.

Starting point is 00:12:09 There's videos of him, you know, having, he had a, like, kind of like a quote unquote vacation home. That was a place that he would go to and train. And then he'd bring in other boxers and the other boxers could live there. This was like a real training ground. But then he would have horses and ponies and stuff. So the people can bring their family and the kids could like, you know, ride the horses and stuff as well. So, you know, if there's anybody that I'd want to see, it would be Muhammad Ali, but it's like, it's so much more about,

Starting point is 00:12:38 you know, kind of all the other stuff that he brought to the table. And it wasn't necessarily like, uh, you know, it wasn't necessarily just what he was able to do in the ring, but we'll never find another guy to, uh, to be able to talk anything like that. I think other guys try, I think McGregor and some of these guys, I think they try, but, um, McGregor has been pretty successful because McGregor has talked himself into being great. He's talked himself into being, uh, you know, one of the best and Ali certainly did that. And I always admired that. And then to back it up, you know, that's the thing is like any of us can like talk trash, you know, but to be able to back it up and then, you know, to be able to, uh, to be able to be the fighter that he was, that, that would be the one guy that i would love to uh i'd love to get an opportunity to see sick man that was great yeah in my opinion yeah it would be ali back in the day

Starting point is 00:13:31 because you know i didn't get to watch michael jordan like in person but i got to see him on tv i got to experience that so if it's not ali it would be jordan and i was going to say mike tyson but like if i go watch him in his prime i'll hang out for like five minutes and the fight's over. So yeah. And he, uh, he might fight again. I heard he might fight Shannon Briggs coming up. Dude, that training footage looks really good. I mean, it's, it's like people had sent it to me and they're just like, Oh my God, did you see this? I'm like, it's Mike Tyson. What do you expect? You know, it's not going to get better than that. Another thing about Ali that I thought was really funny is like how he came to all the press conferences,

Starting point is 00:14:09 like prepared with these like funny sayings and speeches and poems. And this is a black guy in the 70s going to like Harvard and Yale to do speeches. And he's got like the shortest, uh, he's got like the shortest, uh, speech or poem, like on record, he said like me, we, I don't, I don't know what the meaning of it was. No one else does, but that's all he said. Um, you know, he's, he's, uh, he's just a legend in so many different ways. And to do it at that time, I mean, you know, guys like Martin Luther King are getting like assassinated and there's riots in the street. Like it just doesn't make any it doesn't make any sense.

Starting point is 00:14:51 And my understanding, too, is that he was in the line of fire as well. Like I heard that he was going to get assassinated, I think, along the same lines with the same people that got Malcolm X or something like that. Just something I heard. I don't know if it's true, but I would imagine that would be true because just how out there he was. But my favorite thing is when he talks about training for foreman and he talks about how he's training different. Do you remember that speech? Do you remember what he says in that one? No, I don't remember now. He says, he goes, I've been chopping down trees. And they're like, what?

Starting point is 00:15:30 He's like, he goes, that's right. He's like, I've been chopping down trees. I tussled with an alligator. I wrestled with a whale, handcuffed, lightning through thunder in jail. And he's just like going on there. Everyone's like, what the hell is he talking about? i do remember that yeah i remember last week i murdered a rock injured the stone hospitalized a brick i'm so bad i make medicine sick all that stuff it's like unbelievable it's like what the hell like guys writing poetry and kicking people's asses there's uh nothing

Starting point is 00:16:03 better than that yeah that that that quote's been used in so many motivational videos and stuff so i'm pretty sure everybody listening has definitely heard a version of it so that dude yeah like i said hospitalized a brick no one's even ever said that in like hip-hop like that's like next level he was actually kind of rapping almost back then yeah yeah all right. All right, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for checking out today's episode. Let us know whether it be Instagram, YouTube, Twitter. Let us know who is the one athlete that if you had the opportunity to watch them in their prime,

Starting point is 00:16:35 maybe even like down to like the exact, whether it be fight, Jordan versus the Knicks, Jordan versus Charles Barkley in the finals, whatever it may be. Damn, that would be really good too. I was just thinking like him and then against the Magic too back when Penny Hardaway was getting better. Oh, my gosh.

Starting point is 00:16:53 My uncle got a chance to see Charles Barkley. He saw Jordan and Charles Barkley. He got to see both guys play. And he said he was really more mesmerized by Barkley just because Barkley was so big and the way that he could move he's like it just didn't make any sense man he was he was amazing yeah I saw Barkley in person and oddly enough the one thing I remember the most was before the game Dan Marley was hitting jumpers from half court hitting nothing but net consistently Dan Marley was a savage dude He was so good from behind the line.

Starting point is 00:17:26 Why do you have such a tan? Well, living in Phoenix, playing for the Suns. Yeah, he was like when he was guarding Jordan on that last dance. He's like orange. Well, think about it. If you're going to be guarding the best player ever, are you going to not come in looking jacked and tan? You're probably going to go get your hair done.

Starting point is 00:17:49 You're going to get the tan going. You're going to probably get a good pump before you head out onto the court because you're like, dude, everyone's going to be watching me guard Jordan. I got to look good for this. Next episode, I think I should answer the question of how I got the name Smelly. Sounds good to me. All right, ladies and gentlemen, again, please hit us up at MarkBell's Power Project on Instagram, at MB Power Project on

Starting point is 00:18:09 Twitter. Hit us with your Saturday school questions. And if you have any questions for me personally, it's at I am Andrew Z. Mark Bell, where are you at? I'm at Mark Smelly Bell, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube. Strength is never weakness. Weakness never strength. Catch y'all later.

Mark Bell's Power Project - Mark Bell's Saturday School EP. 3 - Who is Muhammad Ali?

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