World Of Swords

Muhammad Ali was 70 on January 17th, 2012. He was the most feared opponent in the boxing ring in his long and dynamic career and with very good cause. He won the world heavy weight boxing championship three times after winning a gold medal at the Olympics and was named sportsman of the century by the BBC and Sports Illustrated.

Muhammad Ali was born in Louisville, Kentucky on January 17th, 1942 and was christened after his father Cassius Marcellus Clay. They added the epithet Junior, to distinguish him from his father who was a billboard painter. In 1967, Cassius changed his name to Muhammad Ali and became a Muslim.

A local white Louisville police officer named Joe E. Martin was the first individual to see that the young Clay had something special when he watched him scrapping over a stolen bicycle as a twelve tear old. Martin encouraged Clay to go to the boxing ring with him. Martin and Clay trained together at Stoner's Gym.

Martin and Ali used to do a show together called 'Tomorrow's Champions'. Stone was a useful coach for Ali and he remained his tutor for nearly all his amateur career (the last four years he was with Chuck Bodak).

As an amateur Ali won six Kentucky Golden Gloves, two National Golden Gloves, an Amateur Athletic Union title and the Gold Medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics for light-heavyweight boxing.

His history as an amateur was 100 wins and five losses. Ali was both hero-worshipped and ridiculed in his motherland. After Ali changed his name he refused to recognize the name Clay, saying that his family had been given it by slave-owners.

He was also accused of changing his name to dodge the call-up, but his famous reply to that accusation was: "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong... No Viet Cong ever called me nigger". In 1966 he was barred from fighting in the USA. Ali was stripped of his boxing titles and his boxing license was suspended. So he fought abroad, often in the United Kingdom.

Ali's first title fight was against Sonny Liston on February 25 1964, but it was nearly postponed indefinitely, because it became known that Ali had joined Malcolm X's Nation of Islam. The promoter, Bill Faversham. was concerned that that may ruin the attendance figures, because Ali was not considered likely to win anyway (7:1 against).

Ali agreed not to authenticate that he had associations with Malcolm X until after the bout and it went ahead. At the weigh in, Ali's pulse was 120 as opposed to his norm of 54 and his opponent's team misinterpretted this as nerves. This was when Ali, the Louisville Lip, first said that he was going to "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee".

Ali saw his first professional loss in 1971 against Joe Frazier, although he won the title back from George Foreman in 1974. This was the famous 'Rumble in the Jungle' which received political overtones.

It was ranked seventh in 'The 100 Greatest Sporting Moments'. Ali's fight against Chuck Wepner in 1975 motivated the film 'Rocky', which won the Academy Award.

Ali announced his retirement on June 27th 1979, but manufactured a comeback 18 months later in October 1980. He finally retired in 1981, but before that the councillors of Louisville renamed Walnut Street as Muhammad Ali Boulevard. Twelve of the seventy street signs were stolen within a week.

In 1984, Ali was diagnosed as having Altzeimer's, which people who have head trauma are more liable to get. Despite his illness, Ali has worked untiringly for peace and equality and has represented America at a number of international peace negotiations.

He has won more prizes than anyone can possibly remember and established a $60 million not for profit centre in Louisville which houses his awards, but is there to promote peace, social responsibility, respect and personal growth.

On average, Ali travels over 200 days a year to raise money for and awareness of poverty and hunger. It has been estimated that he has helped supply over 22,000,000 meals.

Angelo Dundee, Ali's cornerman and trainer from 1960-1981 died on February 1st 2012 at the age of 90,

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on a number of subjects, but is now concerned with Quotes On Mixed Martial Arts. If you would like to know more, go to our website at Mixed Martial Arts Quotes

The subject of oriental Martial Arts is one of the most memorable presents of Asia to the world. Who will not remember that Bruce Lee was first and principally a martial arts athlete before becoming a film star?

Martial arts pictures are a colossal hit with the ever-rising popularity of Asian cinema like 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' and 'The House of the Flying Daggers'.

The Chinese are the first nation that come to mind if you think of such sports, but the Japanese are equally as sporty with a rich heritage of body contact sports in their past. Modern Japan still gives honour to the martial arts by holding tournaments and advertising their martial arts in foreign countries.

Aikido is one of these. It is fascinating to note the fact that the word comes from three Japanese characters from which is derived the one word. Ai is 'joining', Ki is 'spirit' and Do is 'way'.

From this we can see why Aikido lies beyond just the physical skills of it students, particularly since its first advocate, Ueshiba, focused on the spiritual and philosophical development of his students.

In Aikido, one is not educated in violence rather, one is trained to be in harmony with the opponent so that you are able to defeat him more easily. This might appear strange but it really works.

When approaching an opponent, the objective of the Aikido practitioner is to be one with the adversary so as to be able to tackle him where he is weakest and in so doing, deflect or immobilize him, but never to kill him.

This is where Aikido becomes an art form. Art is something beautiful to look at and something constructive and Aikido is all that. At least one of the contestants concerned in the combat is searching for concord and concord can only be achieved if there is grace in the actions.

The moves may be premeditated, but there is an air of elegance in performing these actions. Not a feminine grace, but a grace that emanates peace. The 'art of peace' is what they call it in Aikido.

It is one of the most affirmative influences of Aikido on its students and to everyone else who chooses to learn about this Japanese martial art.

Some of the moves in Aikido involve the following:

Ikkyo is the first process. Using this technique, you direct an adversary by using one hand to hold his elbow and one to hold near the wrist. This action is supposed to allow you to pin your adversary down to the ground.

Nikyo, the second technique, is when you perform a wrist lock which empowers you to twist the arm of your adversary which will in turn cause nerve pressure.

Sankyo, the third technique, is a technique that creates upward-spiraling tension throughout the arm, elbow and shoulder. There are numerous other techniques but the first three are enough to give you a basic insight.

When studying Aikido, it is crucial to remember that, together with building physical strength, you will have to improve your mind to become able to overpower your antagonist. Just| like in any other art form, it takes a lot of training and discipline to reach the summit of the art of Aikido.

The vital thing to keep in mind is that anyone who wants to get into the art must have the resolve to give honour to the art by performing it in the best manner that they can.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many topics, but is now concerned with Mixed Martial Arts For Kids. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Mixed Martial Arts Quotes

Kung Fu has always fascinated me as a kid growing up watching great Kung Fu artist like Bruce Lee and later on Jackie Chan and also Jet Li really inspired me to learn more about the art, I would buy books to learn more I would study about different techniques but no one fascinated me more than Bruce Lee.

I was just simply astonished at what he was able to do, the scene with Chuck Norris in return of the dragon was simply awesome to behold that was probably my first observation of counter punching and counter kicking just amazing, also Enter the Dragon was another stellar martial arts performance by Bruce.

I never really got the chance to explore the art form as I would have wanted although my fascination with the art was enormous, I guess you could say that life got in the way, but my fascination with the art still exists today.

I was impressed years ago while watching a Shaolin Master in a kung fu exhibition as he instructed a gentleman to try to hit him he told the gentlemen to punch him anywhere he wanted to the man obliged him, but the master easily blocked everything that the guy threw while at the same time countering whatever the guy threw, it was just amazing considering most martial arts displays are performed by the teacher knowing exactly what punch or kick the person is going to throw as they are instructed. This display was unique in that the Shaolin Master did not know when or where the punch was coming from, which made it all the more amazing.

Outside of boxing because of its dramatic knockouts and skill displays nothing has impressed me as much a kung fu. I have witnessed other forms of martial arts like karate, taekwondo etc but nothing in my opinion holds a stick to kung fu, one of the reasons is because kung fu prepares the practitioner to defend against virtually all forms of attack whether it be punching, kicking, grappling, throwing etc. Kung Fu prepares one to be able to effectively deal with any life threatening situation, nothing beats kung fu in my opinion when it comes to dealing with real life threatening scenarios.

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