Today’s Word of the Day is “loquacious.”
lo·qua·cious | \ lō-ˈkwā-shəs
Definition of loquacious
Today’s loquacious star is boxing legend Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. – AKA “The Louisville Lip,” AKA “The Greatest,” AKA Muhammad Ali.
On This Day in History in 1964, twenty-two year old Cassius Clay shocked the odds-makers by dethroning defending heavyweight champ Sonny Liston in a 7th-round TKO in Miami. The new champ met with Malcolm X and converted to Islam a short time later, becoming better known as Muhammad Ali. The new name of course rhymed better with “bee” than “Clay” ever did – just sayin’.
********
After he beat Liston, Ali reclaimed the title 2 more times – in 1974 against George Foreman and again in 1978 against Leon Spinks. That makes him the only 3-time heavyweight champ in history. His brutal 15-round decision against long-time nemesis Joe Frazier in 1979 (the so-called “Thriller in Manila”) was arguably one of the most memorable fights of all time.
********
Having been an Olympic gold medalist at light-heavyweight in 1960, Ali lit the torch at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. For his philanthropic work he won the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005. He died in 2016 at age 74, after a long, slow, painful-to-watch decline from the effects of pugilistic Parkinson’s Syndrome.
********
“It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.”
Near the end of his life, Muhammad Ali lived near my adopted hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia. In those days, I was travelling frequently for work, so it was not uncommon to run into him on a flight out of our tiny local airport.