Muhammad Ali’s Passing Rocks Sports World: 33-Year-Old NHL Connection
By Ryan Ritchie
Muhammad Ali’s Death on Friday Night Rocked the Sports World: Remembering “The Greatest” – a Look Back at His 33-Year-Old NHL Connection
Late Friday evening, the sports world was devastated as news broke that legendary boxer Muhammad Ali had passed away.
Ali was suffering from Parkinson’s disease for an extensive amount of time, and hospitalized earlier this week due to respiratory issues. He passed away Friday night at the age of 74.
You don’t need to be a boxing fan to understand the magnitude of this loss. Muhammad Ali was perhaps the most recognizable figure in all of sports.
He also had some of the most legendary quotes of all-time; “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”, and “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life”, among a long list of famous quotes (linked here).
Even number 99 shared a moment about meeting Muhammad Ali. Ali said to Gretzky, “I hear you’re the great one… just remember that I’m the greatest ever”.
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So what exactly does Muhammad Ali have to do with hockey?
Athletes of any sport can use the lessons taught by Ali as inspiration towards working at their goals in whichever sport they play – even hockey.
Dedication, passion, hard work, all-around humanitarian, there aren’t enough words to explain the type of person Muhammad Ali was outside of the ring. Those intangibles are also what made him such an incredible athlete, and as we know – the greatest ever.
Did you know Muhammad Ali actually has a connection to the NHL?
Back in the 1980s when fighting was still prevalent in hockey, Muhammad Ali was part of a boxing match with then-Edmonton Oilers goon Dave Semenko. For those unfamiliar with the name, Semenko was known as Wayne Gretzky‘s bodyguard – yes, back when stars were protected.
Greatest Hockey Legends describes the details of the three-round event “sketchy”, but it sounds as though Mark Messier‘s uncle Larry was responsible for arranging the match.
We have included a seven-minute video of that boxing match at the bottom.
Semenko apparently trained quite hard for the event, training under Rocky Addison, a former Manitoba middleweight champion. They watched video of Ali’s fights looking for tendencies, and hit the gym for many hours. They held a one week training camp at the worst possible time for Semenko.
“I didn’t know what I was supposed to wear and didn’t have a boxing wardrobe kicking around the house. I didn’t have boots like Ali, so I got a pair of old black high-top runners. He had his zippered sweat suit to wear into the ring. I wore a crimson-and-silver terry-towel bathrobe. We hadn’t even thought about it, but I’d been wearing the robe when they laced the gloves on me. So there we were, standing in our corner with the opening bell about to ring and I couldn’t get the damned bathrobe off over those great big sixteen ounce boxing gloves. So Rocky stood real close to me, trying to block out everybody’s view, while he hacked the sleeves off my bathrobe with a pair of scissors.”
For the entire in-depth story from Greatest Hockey Legends, click here – it’s worth the read.
Long story short, the match between Muhammad Ali and Dave Semenko finished in an apparent draw with no knockout.
Next: Jaromir Jagr: Appreciating an All-Time Great
That event, which happened on June 12th, 1983, was just nine days away from reaching its 33rd anniversary.
While generally here at TMMOTS we focus on NHL and hockey specific topics, the loss of boxing legend Muhammad Ali is something that sends shock-waves through the entire sports world. The best athlete the world has ever known, Ali will be truly missed.