"I was blessed to even know a man like Muhammad Ali and to be around a man like Muhammad Ali. We used to have dinner at 5 and we wouldn't leave the table until 12 at night just talking...When you mention Ali...listen, I have pictures all over my home with me and Ali shadowboxing each other at the airport. I have pictures of me and Ali at his home with my hands around his neck choking him. I have fond memories of the times I spent with Ali. Even the days I used to box him with no one around, just me and him, we would box...I remember one time, we were boxing and we had a big audience in the gym. They had over 200 people in the gym and the boxing got so good that he pulled the plug and we boxed for an hour and a half straight. The situation with me and Ali couldn't have been any better. I couldn't have asked for a better person to be around. He was a great man," stated world-class trainer Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, who shared his memories of the time he spent with Muhammad Ali. In this unique series, relive untold stories of the Greatest of All Time by individuals who spent countless hours with him.
PC: Who introduced you to Muhammad Ali? How did you meet him?
EMM: I had a friend of mine, his name was Bahar Muhammad, and he was a security guard for Ali. When it was my turn to fight for the world title against Marvin Johnson, he asked me if I wanted to go up to Ali's camp and I said, "Sure!" So I got to meet Ali and we kicked it off real good. I mean, Ali gave me the camp for free. I didn't have to pay anything. We became friends. We sat and we did a lot of talking about life in general, like where I was born and raised and how was my upbringing. We spoke more about life and worldly affairs than boxing most of the time. It was just a great situation.
PC: You were on the verge of a title shot when you met him, but where was Ali at in his career when you guys met?
EMM: He was basically at the tail end of his career. It was around the Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick fight. It was around that era. That's when we became real close. He knew I was serious about the game of boxing and he just gave me much help, not only on the physical side of the sport, but also from a financial standpoint. I was boxing a great deal of rounds in the gym and he wasn't charging me anything; I was just having a great time being around him.
PC: By the time you met him, he had already established his greatness and made his mark on the sport. Were you surprised at how approachable and down to earth he was when you met him?
EMM: That's the point, because when you get to meet a guy like Ali, you figure he would be a guy that was unapproachable, but he was a people person. He needed people around him to function, and not just the people that worked around him either. I'm talking about the everyday person; men, women, children, babies and on and on. He just needed them around him because he was that type of person. He wanted to be attached to people, period. It wasn't just white or black; you name it and he wanted them around. He wanted to be attached to everybody.
PC: He wasn't as adored when he was fighting as he is now. A lot of people disliked his words and actions when he was an active fighter. What do you feel was the biggest misperception of Muhammad back then?
EMM: It was just because he was a Muslim; it was sort of like he was an outcast. Until Malcolm [X] went to Saudi Arabia and found out that there were white Muslims...I mean, even the American people didn't know about Muslims. The only thing they knew about Muslims were that they were terrorists and that they were anti-white, which was not true. Then, when Malcolm went to Mecca and found out that there were blonde haired and blue eyed Muslims, it shook everybody up. It opened the doors for us to reach out across the world and let everybody know that we're not terrorists and things like that; we're just like you. But Ali was the first athlete of prominence to become a Muslim and I think for that, he was misunderstood.
PC: You told me before that Ali was the guy that influenced you to become a Muslim. Do you remember what it was that he said or did to have that kind of influence on you?
EMM: His humbleness to everybody. He considered himself everybody's equal. He wasn't better than anybody. He felt he was on the same level as everybody else and that's what he prided himself on. There were a lot of occasions where we would be in the car driving in New York City and we would be going to prayer. We got stuck in traffic and this man jumps out of the car, and I'm talking about lunch time in July and everybody is out, but Ali is running through the crowd like a football player and everyone is going crazy when they realize who it is. Something simple like us going to make our prayer he turned into a big commotion because he loved getting out and mingling with the people. It was crazy. I will never forget that day man.
PC: Given the time that you befriended him, what was it like for you seeing him in those fights with Holmes and Berbick, because we all know that was his lowest point in the fight game?
EMM: You couldn't tell Ali it was time to quit. You can't tell any fighter when it's time to quit. They have to find out for themselves when it's time to quit and that's the hard part about it. I would box Ali, but I would never hit him in the head. I would never hit Ali to the head. I would always work the body against Ali and I would always wear a pair of 20 oz. gloves that he gave me just to box him. I don't want to sit here and say I didn't want to hurt him, but I didn't want to add to the damage, so I strictly worked the body with him. I would jab him to the head and that was about the extent of me going anywhere near his head.
PC: What is the most memorable thing that Muhammad Ali told you or did for you that you use to this day?
EMM: He just told me to stay humble because people are going to think what they think about you anyway. That's how I've always been, just humble, because that's what he taught me just being around him. I saw how humble he was and seen what type of fun-loving person he was. He was a practical joker. I could remember one time when I was in Brooklyn playing basketball and he called me up at my mother's house and told me to meet him at the Newark Airport in New Jersey, which was only about a 45-minute drive. So I meet him at the airport and I go around to the side entrance and I see a Leer Jet with a butterfly and a bee on the wing. So I'm like, "Okay...and?" He goes, "This is my jet. Let's go for a ride." I said, "Where we going?" He said, "I don't know. We'll go somewhere." So we jumped on the plane and he gets into the pilot seat. I say, "Hold on, dog, hold on. What's up with this move?" He says, "I'm the pilot. I fly my own plane." I say, "I'll tell you what, I'll wait until you come back." He was only jiving, but we flew to Panama and hung out for a couple of days. He was a funny dude man. He was definitely a funny dude and a lot of fun. I have so many stories about him that will make you laugh your head off man. He was a funny guy.
PC: Muhammad Ali always said he didn't want anyone to feel sorry for him. It's gotta be tough when you see the situation he's in.
EMM: No doubt because that's who he is. He doesn't want anyone to feel sorry for him. He's a God-fearing man and he feels if this is what God has in store for him, then so be it. He lives with it. It's hard for me to not be emotional in the situation, but this is what he wants. He doesn't want us to feel sorry for him because he truly feels this is what God had in store for him. Again, I'm an emotional person and it's hard for me to see him live like that, but I understand where he's coming from.
PC: It's ironic that you guys are such great friends because he probably stuck around a little too long whereas you said as soon as you got stopped you would retire and that's exactly what you did. Did being around Ali in the later stage of his career make you conscious of what could happen if you stuck around too long?
EMM: Yeah, you know, for the simple reason that I knew what was instilled in me. I made that promise to myself and I'm not the type of person that would break a promise to myself. If I would have gotten stopped in my first professional fight, that would have been it. I got stopped in my 60th fight and to my knowledge, it was a premature stoppage, but I dealt with it. I made that promise to myself. Everyone was telling me that I would be back. I'm 58 years old and I'm still waiting. And they still waiting too.
PC: Was it one of those situations where you hit the mitts or sparred from time to time or did you do like Marvin Hagler and basically never picked up a glove again?
EMM: No, when I said that was it, that was it. I went down to Europe. I was in Monte Carlo. I wanted to get boxing out of me, but it was still in me because I could still fight at the time. So I went to see Mike McCallum fight in his second fight with Sumbu Kalambay. I kind of helped Mike through that whole fight. I was standing up hollering and telling him what to do from my front row seat. And Mike McCallum was doing what I told him to do and he was the one that told me I should train fighters. He told me, "I was listening to you. I wasn't even listening to my corner."
PC: Who was your first world champion?
EMM: My first world champion was Carl Daniels at 154 pounds. I never looked back after that. I just kept going; world champion after world champion.
PC: Ali labeled himself as the greatest of all time. Where do you rank him as a fighter for his accomplishments?
EMM: You have to break that down into parts. In my opinion, he was the greatest heavyweight of all time. The greatest fighter of all time was Ray Robinson. Now, as a person, he changed everything. He stood up at the prime of his career. He stood up for his beliefs and said, "I am an American Muslim and we don't believe in going to wars and doing all of that stuff. We aren't radicals." People wanted to believe he was this radical guy. He stood up to the Vietnam War to prove his point. When the Trade Center went down, he was one of the first guys there saying, "We as Muslims don't condone this. We don't give our blessings to things like that." Islam means "peace." Those were radical people and he cleared that up right away and he did it in the state where he was at, and he was sick, but he went to Ground Zero to let everyone know that a true Muslim was not a part of this. We still, to this day, try to preach that Islam means "peace." We're not radicals, but people gonna think what they want to think. I was blessed to even know a man like Muhammad Ali and to be around a man like Muhammad Ali. We used to have dinner at 5 and we wouldn't leave the table until 12 at night just talking.
PC: When you think of athletes that really revolutionize an entire country, you immediately think of football or baseball players. Muhammad Ali is a world-known figure and was the face of America. How rare was that title for a professional fighter?
EMM: No doubt. When you mention Ali...listen, I have pictures all over my home with me and Ali shadowboxing each other at the airport. I have pictures of me and Ali at his home with my hands around his neck choking him. I have fond memories of the times I spent with Ali. Even the days I used to box him with no one around, just me and him, we would box...I remember one time, we were boxing and we had a big audience in the gym. They had over 200 people in the gym and the boxing got so good that he pulled the plug and we boxed for an hour and a half straight. The situation with me and Ali couldn't have been any better. I couldn't have asked for a better person to be around. He was a great man.
PC: Do you still visit him or do you give him his space and let him live his life?
EMM: I let him enjoy life. I don't want to crowd him. If I see him, we will stop and shoot the breeze. He likes to whisper. He would whisper in my ear, "Yo, what's up chump." He would say stuff like, "Yo, could you still whoop me?" Things like that. I would tell him, "Man, I used to whoop you all of the time." He would come to all of my fights. We fought on the same cards in the Bahamas. He would come and watch me work out and get in shape. I remember one time, he was in the hospital and I was training in Palm Springs, so I talked to him and I said, "Hey, they tell me you're sick, man." He said, "I was just getting a checkup to make sure I'm alright. Where you at man?" I said, "I'm in Palm Springs training for Michael Spinks. I got a big fight coming up, so I gotta buckle down." He said, "Listen, you take care of yourself and handle business." The next day, he drives up to my camp, gets into the ring and boxed me 6 rounds. That was the very next day. Is that a friend or is that a friend? He came to my camp with a suit and tie on and he took his shirt and tie off and boxed me in his trousers. We have a lot of good memories together. You can't really appreciate that until I can just sit down and tell you all of the great times we had together; the fire side chats. We talked a lot about our way of life, which is being an American Muslim. He was such a worldly person and that's what made me such a worldly person. He knew what was going on around the world.
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