The Hauser Report: Ken Burns Explores Muhammad Ali

Published

3 years ago

September 24, 2021

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“I wanted to write about Muhammad Ali,” Wilfrid Sheed told me years ago when we were discussing the text that Sheed had written for an elaborate coffee-table book. “He’s one of those madonnas you want to paint at least once in your life.”

Ali is also a subject that filmmakers want to make documentaries about. More documentaries have been fashioned about Ali than any other athlete ever.

There was a time when Ali was the most famous, most recognizable, most loved person on the planet. He was an important social and political figure in addition to being a great fighter. One day after Cassius Clay (as he was then known) beat Sonny Liston to claim the heavyweight crown, he met with reporters and told them, “I don’t have to be what you want me to be. I’m free to be what I want to be and think what I want to think.”

At a time when the heavyweight championship of the world was the most coveted title in sports, that lit a spark that grew into a raging fire. Commenting on the impact of Ali’s refusal to accept induction into the United States Army at the height of the war in Vietnam, Islamic scholar Sherman Jackson observed, “You can’t teach that kind of thing in lectures and books. That kind of thing has to be modeled.”

Now Ken Burns – one of America’s most honored filmmakers – has thrown his hat into the ring. Burns rose to prominence in 1990 when PBS aired his critically-acclaimed eleven-hour documentary on the Civil War. Since then, he has tackled subjects ranging from baseball, Mark Twain, and jazz to World War II, the war in Vietnam, and the Brooklyn Bridge. In 2005, he explored the life and times of Jack Johnson in a 3-1/2-hour documentary entitled Unforgivable Blackness. Now Burns has returned to the sweet science with Muhammad Ali – an eight-hour opus co-directed and written with Sarah Burns (his daughter), and David McMahon (her husband).

Muhammad Ali unfolds chronologically and is divided into four parts designated as “rounds” – a questionable designation since Ali was hardly a four-round fighter.

Round One: The Greatest (1942-1964) details Cassius Clay’s upbringing in Louisville through his first fight against Sonny Liston with considerable exposition of the Nation of Islam and the allure that it had for Clay.

Round Two: What’s My Name (1964-1970) covers Ali at his peak as a fighter [Liston II through Ali-Folley with Ali-Quarry I tacked on]. Also, Ali and the draft.

Round Three: The Rivalry (1970-1974) takes viewers from Ali-Bonavena, through Ali-Frazier I and II up to an introduction of Don King and the stirrings of Ali-Foreman.

Round Four: The Spell Remains (1974-2016) begins with “The Rumble in the Jungle” and lays out the remaining forty-two years of Ali’s life.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I was one of several people asked by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 2018 to review Burns’s proposal for the documentary and answer a series of questions keyed to whether or not CPB should fund it. Given the excellence of Burns’s work, I began my response with the thought, “It feels presumptuous to be critiquing a proposal by Ken Burns,” and added, “I have no doubt that Ken Burns will do a masterful job in the areas that he covers. His track record speaks for itself. Muhammad Ali is important. And Mr. Burns’s proposal, coupled with his reputation for excellence as a filmmaker, promise a comprehensive entertaining look at his subject.”

The finished documentary bears out that promise. It’s thorough and nicely put together. Burns lays out both the positive aspects and also the ugly underside of the Nation of Islam without sugarcoating the principles that Ali espoused at a time in his life when he adhered to the teachings of Elijah Muhammad. The glorious and ultimately tragic arc of Ali’s ring career is well told. The cruelties that he visited on Joe Frazier outside the ring and Ali’s profligate womanizing are honestly addressed. The archival footage and still photos are excellent.

Keith David’s narration is smooth. Some of the talking heads are exceptionally good.

Former WBO heavyweight beltholder Michael Bentt is particularly insightful in describing Ali’s ring technique.

Professor and media commentator Todd Boyd is a welcome voice. Speaking about Ali’s taunting of Joe Frazier, Boyd declares, “Ali is making the sort of jokes that racist white people would make. I feel like, in that instance, he used his powers for evil as opposed to using them for good.”

Khalilah Ali (Muhammad’s second wife) and two of his daughters, Rasheda and Hana, provide valuable personal insights. Veronica Porche (Muhammad’s third wife) is a particularly welcome inclusion.

Journalist Salim Muwakkil makes a solid contribution. And Burns gives ample time to three wise men who covered Ali for much of his journey – journalists Robert Lipsyte, Jerry Izenberg, and Dave Kindred.

Kindred is the most lyrical of the three. Recalling Ali-Frazier III, he states, “They turned each other into monsters. That’s boxing at its cruelest. That’s what the game is. And they were at their best cruelest that night.” Later, commenting on Ali’s horribly debilitated physical condition, Kindred observes, “The game that we asked him to play to entertain us has left him looking like this.”

On the minus side, the documentary is too long. Its eight hours drag in places. Some of the material (e.g., the extensive film footage from Ali’s amateur career and some of his professional fights) could have been shortened with no loss in quality.

More significantly, Burns offers no new interpretations of Ali.

In responding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting questionnaire, I advanced the thought, “There has been an endless stream of Ali documentaries over the past half century. More are currently in production. For maximum impact and to make a maximum contribution to history, it’s not enough for Mr. Burns to do what has been done before better than it has been previously done. He has to break new ground.”

How could he break new ground?

“I hope,” my response continued, “that Mr. Burns devotes some time to the final twenty years of Ali’s life in a more than superficial way. These decades cry out for interpretation. What did Ali mean to the world over these years? Was his legacy corrupted by the calculated filing away of rough edges from his persona and the ‘sanitization’ of his image by CKX, ABG [two companies that owned commercial rights to Ali’s name, likeness, and image], and others for economic gain? Is there still an Ali message that resonates? In memory, can Ali be a force for positive change? Is there a way to harness the extraordinary outpouring of love that was seen around the world when Ali died?”

“Round Four” of the documentary could have addressed these issues. But it didn’t. The last thirty-five years of Ali’s life (everything after the end of his ring career) are compressed into twenty-five minutes. And much of this time is devoted to Ali lighting the cauldron at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

The 1996 Olympics were an important marker in the public’s embrace of Ali. But they were also the point at which corporate America rediscovered Muhammad and the sanitization of his image for economic gain began. This was evident in everything from subsequent superficial advertising campaigns to the 2001 feature film starring Will Smith. Burns’s documentary doesn’t sanitize Ali. But it doesn’t talk about the sanitization either. And that sanitization was a corrosive force.

Decades ago, Alex Haley (who fashioned The Autobiography of Malcolm X with its subject) told me, “I think it’s important for future generations to know who Muhammad Ali was. So, if I were to talk to a young boy about Ali today – a young boy who wasn’t alive in the 1960s, who didn’t live through Vietnam, someone for whom Ali is history – I’d talk to that boy about principles and pride. I’d say, ‘If you really want to know about people and history in the times before you were born, you owe it to yourself to go back, not read books so much, but to go to a library where you’ll have access to daily papers and read about this man, every single day for years. That might give you some understanding of who Muhammad Ali was and what he meant to his people.'”

Every single day. Day after day. For years.

Muhammad Ali’s spirit is inside all of us. At its best, Ken Burns’s film reminds us of how charismatic, charming, electrifying, wise, foolish, generous, loving, cruel, kind, complex, simple, and great Ali could be.

Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His next book – Broken Dreams: Another Year Inside Boxing – will be published in October by the University of Arkansas Press. In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism. In 2019, he was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

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Thomas Hauser

Thomas Hauser is the author of 52 books. In 2005, he was honored by the Boxing Writers Association of America, which bestowed the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism upon him. He was the first Internet writer ever to receive that award. In 2019, Hauser was chosen for boxing's highest honor: induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Lennox Lewis has observed, “A hundred years from now, if people want to learn about boxing in this era, they’ll read Thomas Hauser.”

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Hall of Fame Boxing Writer Michael Katz (1939-2025) Could Wield His Pen like a Stiletto

Published

15 hours ago

January 30, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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One of the last of the breed – a full-time boxing writer for the print edition of a major metropolitan daily – left us this week. Hall of Fame boxing writer Michael Katz was 85 when he drew his last breath at an assisted living facility in Brooklyn on Monday, Jan. 27.

Born in the Bronx, Katz earned his spurs writing for the school newspaper “The Campus” at the City College of New York. He was living in Paris and working for the international edition of the New York Times when he covered his first fight, the 15-round contest between Floyd Patterson and Jimmy Ellis at Stockholm in 1968. He eventually became the Times boxing writer, serving in that capacity for almost nine years before bolting for the New York Daily News in 1985 where he was reunited with the late Vic Ziegel, his former CCNY classmate and cohort at the campus newspaper.

From a legacy standpoint, leaving America’s “paper of record” for a tabloid would seem to be a step down. Before the digital age, the Times was one of only a handful of papers that could be found on microfilm in every college library. Tabloids like the Daily News were evanescent. Yesterday’s paper, said the cynics, was only good for wrapping fish.

But at the Daily News, Michael Katz was less fettered, less of a straight reporter and more of a columnist, freer to air his opinions which tended toward the snarky. Regarding the promoter Don King, Katz wrote, “On the way to the gallows, Don King would try to pick the pocket of the executioner.”

With his metaphoric inkwell steeped in bile, Katz made many enemies. “Bob Arum would sell tickets to a Joey Buttafuoco lecture on morals and be convinced it was for a noble cause,” wrote Katz in 1993. Arum had had enough when Katz took him to task for promoting a fight on the night of Yom Kippur and sued Katz for libel.

“It was out of my hands, HBO picked the date,” said Arum of the 1997 bout between Buster Douglas and John Ruiz that never did come off after Douglas suffered a hand injury in training. (Arum would subsequently drop the suit, saying it wasn’t worth the hassle.)

At press luncheons in Las Vegas, the PR people always made certain to seat Katz with his pals Ed Schuyler, the Associated Press boxing writer, and Pat Putnam, the Sports Illustrated guy. They reveled in each other’s company. But Katz also made enemies with some of his peers on press row, in some cases fracturing longstanding friendships.

“I like Hauser,” wrote Katz in a review of Thomas Hauser’s award-winning biography of Muhammad Ali, “and was afraid that after Tom put in those thousands of hours with Ali, somehow the book couldn’t be as good as I wanted. With relief, I can report it’s better than I had hoped.”

The two later had a falling-out.

Katz’s most celebrated run-in with a colleague happened in June of 2004 when he scuffled with Boston Globe boxing writer Ron Borges in the media room at the MGM Grand during the pre-fight press conference for the fight between Oscar De La Hoya and Felix Sturm. During the fracas, Katz, Borges, Arum, and Arum’s publicist Lee Samuels toppled to the floor. The cantankerous Katz, who initiated the fracas by attacking Borges verbally, then wore a neck brace and carried a cane.

“I had my ups and downs with him,” wrote Borges on social media upon learning of Katz’s death, “but we traveled the world together for nearly 50 years and I long admired his talent, his willingness to stand up for fighters and to call out the b.s. of boxing and its promoters and broadcast entities who worked diligently to try and destroy a noble sport.”

A little-known fact about Michael Katz is that he played a role in getting one of the best boxing books, George Kimball’s vaunted “Four Kings,” to its publishing house. Kimball, who passed away in 2011, an esophageal cancer victim at age 67, was hospitalized and too ill to finish the proofing and editing of the manuscript and enlisted the aid of Katz and an old friend from Boston, Tom Frail, an editor at the Smithsonian magazine, to complete the finishing touches. “If there are any mistakes in the book,” wisecracked Kimball, “blame them.”

Katz was one of the first sportswriters to hop on the internet bandwagon, moving his tack to HouseofBoxing.com which became MaxBoxing.com. That didn’t work out so well for him. Some of his last published pieces ran in the Memphis Commercial Appeal and in the Las Vegas weekly Gaming Today.

A widower for much of his adult life, Katz was predeceased by his only child, his beloved daughter Moorea, a cancer sufferer who passed away in 2021. Her death took all the spirit out of him, noted matchmaker and freelance boxing writer Eric Bottjer in a moving tribute.

During a moment in Atlantic City, Bottjer had been privy to a different side of the irascible curmudgeon, “a beautiful soul when open and vulnerable.” The best way to honor Katz’s memory, he writes, is to reach out to a long lost friend. Pass it on.

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Boxing Odds and Ends: Ernesto Mercado, Marcel Cerdan and More

Published

3 days ago

January 28, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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The TSS Fighter of the Month for January is super lightweight Ernesto “Tito” Mercado who scored his sixth straight knockout, advancing his record to 17-0 (16 KOs) with a fourth-round stoppage of Jose Pedraza on the undercard of Diego Pacheco vs. Steven Nelson at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas.

Mercado was expected to win. At age 35, Pedraza’s best days were behind him. But the Puerto Rican “Sniper” wasn’t chopped liver. A 2008 Beijing Olympian, he was a former two-division title-holder. In a previous fight in Las Vegas, in June of 2021, Pedraza proved too savvy for Julian Rodriguez (currently 23-1) whose corner pulled him out after eight rounds. So, although Mercado knew that he was the “A-side,” he also knew, presumably, that it was important to bring his “A” game.

Mercado edged each of the first three frames in what was shaping up as a tactical fight. In round four, he followed a short left hand with an overhand right that landed flush on Pedraza’s temple. “It was a discombobulating punch,” said one of DAZN’s talking heads. Indeed, the way that Pedraza fell was awkward. “[He] crushed colorfully backward and struck the back of his head on the canvas before rising on badly wobbled legs,” wrote ringside reporter Lance Pugmire.

He beat the count, but referee Robert Hoyle wisely waived it off.

Now 23 years old, Ernesto “Tito” Mercado was reportedly 58-5 as an amateur. At the December 2019 U.S. Olympic Trials in Lake Charles, Louisiana, he advanced to the finals in the lightweight division but then took sick and was medically disqualified from competing in the championship round. His opponent, Keyshawn Davis, won in a walkover and went on to win a silver medal at the Tokyo Games.

As a pro, only one of Mercado’s opponents, South African campaigner Xolisani Ndongeni, heard the final bell. Mercado won nine of the 10 rounds. The stubborn Ndongeni had previously gone 10 rounds with Devin Haney and would subsequently go 10 rounds with Raymond Muratalla.

The Ndongeni fight, in July of 2023, was staged in Nicaragua, the homeland of Mercado’s parents. Tito was born in Upland in Southern California’s Inland Empire and currently resides in Pomona.

Pomona has spawned two world champions, the late Richie Sandoval and Sugar Shane Mosley. Mercado is well on his way to becoming the third.

Marcel Cerdan Jr

Born in Casablanca, Marcel Cerdan Jr was four years old when his dad ripped the world middleweight title from Tony Zale. A good fighter in his own right, albeit nowhere near the level of his ill-fated father, the younger Cerdan passed away last week at age 81.

Fighting mostly as a welterweight, Cerdan Jr scored 56 wins in 64 professional bouts against carefully selected opponents. He came up short in his lone appearance in a U.S. ring where he was matched tough against Canadian champion Donato Paduano, losing a 10-round decision on May 11, 1970 at Madison Square Garden. This was a hard, bloody fight in which both men suffered cuts from accidental head butts.

Cerdan Jr and Paduano both trained for the match at the Concord Hotel in the Catskills. In the U.S. papers, Cerdan Jr’s record was listed as 47-0-1. The record conveniently omitted the loss that he had suffered in his third pro bout.

Eight years after his final fight, Cerdan Jr acquired his highest measure of fame for his role in the movie Edith et Marcel. He portrayed his father who famously died at age 33 in a plane crash in the Azores as he was returning to the United States for a rematch with Jake LaMotta who had taken away his title.

Edith et Marcel, directed by Claude Lelouch, focused on the love affair between Cerdan and his mistress Edith Piaf, the former street performer turned cabaret star who remains today the most revered of all the French song stylists.

Released in 1983, twenty years after the troubled Piaf passed away at age 47, the film, which opened to the greatest advertising blitz in French cinematic history, caused a sensation in France, spawning five new books and hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles. Cerdan Jr’s performance was “surprisingly proficient” said the Associated Press about the ex-boxer making his big screen debut.

The French language film occasionally turns up on Turner Classic Movies. Although it got mixed reviews, the film is a feast for the ears for fans of Edith Piaf. The musical score is comprised of Piaf’s original songs in her distinctive voice.

Marcel Cerdan Jr’s death was attributed to pneumonia complicated by Alzheimer’s. May he rest in peace.

Claressa Shields

Speaking of movies, the Claressa Shields biopic, The Fire Inside, released on Christmas day, garnered favorable reviews from some of America’s most respected film critics with Esquire’s Max Cea calling it the year’s best biopic. First-time director Rachel Morrison, screenwriter Barry Jenkins, and Ryan Destiny, who portrays Claressa, were singled out for their excellent work.

The movie highlights Shields’ preparation for the 2012 London Olympics and concludes with her training for the Rio Games where, as we know, she would win a second gold medal. In some respects, the movie is reminiscent of The Fighter, the 2010 film starring Mark Wahlberg as Irish Micky Ward where the filmmakers managed to manufacture a great movie without touching on Ward’s famous trilogy with Arturo Gatti.

The view from here is that screenwriter Jenkins was smart to end the movie where he did. In boxing, and especially in women’s boxing, titles are tossed around like confetti. Had Jenkins delved into Claressa’s pro career, a very sensitive, nuanced biopic, could have easily devolved into something hokey. And that’s certainly no knock on Claressa Shields. The self-described GWOAT, she is dedicated to her craft and a very special talent.

Shields hopes that the buzz from the movie will translate into a full house for her homecoming fight this coming Sunday, Feb. 2, at the Dort Financial Center in Flint, Michigan. A bevy of heavyweight-division straps will be at stake when Shields, who turns 30 in March, takes on 42-year-old Brooklynite Danielle Perkins.

At bookmaking establishments, Claressa is as high as a 25/1 favorite. That informs us that the oddsmakers believe that Perkins is marginally better than Claressa’s last opponent, Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse. That’s damning Perkins with faint praise.

Shields vs. Perkins plus selected undercard bouts will air worldwide on DAZN at 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT.

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Ringside at the Cosmo: Pacheco Outpoints Nelson plus Undercard Results

Published

5 days ago

January 25, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Ringside at the Cosmo: Pacheco Outpoints Nelson plus Undercard Results

LAS VEGAS, NV – Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Promotions was at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas tonight for the second half of a DAZN doubleheader that began in Nottingham, England. In the main event, Diego Pacheco, ranked #1 by the WBO at super middleweight, continued his ascent toward a world title with a unanimous decision over Steven Nelson.

Pacheco glides round the ring smoothly whereas Nelson wastes a lot energy with something of a herky-jerky style. However, although Nelson figured to slow down as the fight progressed, he did some of his best work in rounds 11 and 12. Fighting with a cut over his left eye from round four, a cut that periodically reopened, the gritty Nelson fulfilled his promise that he would a fight as if he had everything to lose if he failed to win, but it just wasn’t enough, even after his Omaha homie Terence “Bud” Crawford entered his corner before the last round to give him a pep talk (back home in North Omaha, Nelson runs the B&B (Bud and Bomac) Sports Academy.

All three judges had it 117-111 for Pacheco who mostly fought off his back foot but landed the cleaner punches throughout. A stablemate of David Benavidez and trained by David’s father Jose Benevidez Sr, Pacheco improved to 23-0 (18). It was the first pro loss for the 36-year-old Nelson (20-1).

Semi wind-up

Olympic gold medalist Andy Cruz, who as a pro has never fought a match slated for fewer than 10 rounds, had too much class for Hermosillo, Mexico’s rugged Omar Salcido who returned to his corner with a puffy face after the fourth stanza, but won the next round and never stopped trying. The outcome was inevitable even before the final round when Salcido barely made it to the final gun, but the Mexican was far more competitive than many expected.

The Cuban, who was 4-0 vs. Keyshawn Davis in closely-contested bouts as an amateur, advanced his pro record to 5-0 (2), winning by scores by 99-91 and 98-92 twice. Salido, coming off his career-best win, a 9^th-round stoppage of former WBA super featherweight title-holder Chris Colbert, falls to 20-2.

Other TV bouts

Ernesto “Tito” Mercado, a 23-year-old super lightweight, aims to become the next world champion from Pomona, California, following in the footsteps of the late Richie Sandoval and Sugar Shane Mosely, and based on his showing tonight against former Beijing Olympian and former two-division title-holder Jose Pedraza, he is well on his way.

After three rounds after what had been a technical fight, Mercado (17-0, 16 KOs) knocked Pedraza off his pins with a short left hand followed by an overhand right. Pedraza bounced back and fell on his backside. When he arose on unsteady legs, the bout was waived off. The official time was 2:08 of round four and the fading, 35-year-old Pedraza (29-7-1) was saddled with his third loss in his last four outings.

The 8-round super lightweight clash between Israel Mercado (the 29-year-old uncle of “Tito”) and Leonardo Rubalcava was a fan-friendly skirmish with many robust exchanges. When the smoke cleared, the verdict was a majority draw. Mercado got the nod on one card (76-74), but was overruled by a pair of 75-75 scores.

Mercado came out strong in the opening round, but suffered a flash knockdown before the round ended. The referee ruled it a slip but was overruled by replay operator Jay Nady and what would have been a 10-9 round for Mercado became a 10-8 round for Rubalcava. Mercado lost another point in round seven when he was penalized for low blows.

The scores were 76-74 for Mercado (11-1-2) and 75-75 twice. The verdict was mildly unpopular with most thinking that Mercado deserved the nod. Reportedly a four-time Mexican amateur champion, Rubalcava (9-0-1) is trained by Robert Garcia.

Also

New Matchroom signee Nishant Dev, a 24-year-old southpaw from India, had an auspicious pro debut (pardon the cliché). Before a beaming Eddie Hearn, Dev stopped Oakland’s Alton Wiggins (1-1-1) in the opening round. The referee waived it off after the second knockdown.

Boxers from India have made large gains at the amateur level in recent years and Matchroom honcho Eddie Hearn anticipates that Dev, a Paris Olympian, will be the first fighter from India to make his mark as a pro.

Undefeated Brooklyn lightweight Harley Mederos, managed by the influential Keith Connolly, scored his seventh knockout in eight tries with a brutal third-round KO of Mexico’s Arturo de Isla.

A left-right combination knocked de Isla (5-3-1) flat on his back. Referee Raul Caiz did not bother to count and several minutes elapsed before the stricken fighter was fit to leave the ring. The official time was 1:27 of round three.

In the opener, Newark junior lightweight Zaquin Moses, a cousin of Shakur Stevenson, improved to 2-0 when his opponent retired on his stool after the opening round.

Photo credit: Melina Pizano / Matchroom

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