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 Battle of Rorkes Drift is without doubt one of the more well-known actions from the history belonging to the British Army. On 22 January 1879, just hours immediately after the Zulu victory at Isandlwana, approximately 4,000 Zulus assault the mission station at Rorkes Drift just along the Buffalo River in Natal.

With less than 140 men defending Rorkes Drift, you would be forgiven for guessing the soldiers had little prospect of survival, particularly taking into consideration what happened to their colleagues at Isandlwana. Nonetheless, together with in addition to being very courageous soldiers, the defenders of Rorkes Drift had a rifle that would give them an advantage over the Zulus. The weapon in question was the Martini Henry rifle.

This .45 calibre rifle was very effective at inflicting bad wounds and when fired at a range of less than 200 yards, a round could very well easily pass through a body injuring the person behind too. The Martini Henry was a single shot, breech loading rifle and provided the British an important advantage over the Zulus who were just armed with short stabbing spears (iklaws).

Even if the Martini Henry was held responsible partly for the defeat at Isandlwana, when properly taken care of, it had been a superb rifle. To single the rifle out for the defeat at Isandlwana is severe as there were a number of other factors that contributed towards the defeat.

At Rorkes Drift, the Martini Henry was essential for the British. As a store, there was a lot of ammo plus extra weapons plus the defensive area was a good deal more compact and so was less of a challenge to defend compared to the position at Isandlwana. Brought to the British Army in 1871, the Martini Henry could well fire up to 10 rounds a minute in the possession of a properly trained soldier. The rifle had a highly effective range of beyond 500m that resulted in providing the British could spot the Zulu warriors, they could possibly start killing them before they were close enough for hand to hand fighting.

Despite the overwhelming odds at Rorkes Drift, the British only lost approximately 10% of their men while at the same time, they buried roughly four hundred Zulu warriors and it was viewed a similar number might have later died of their injuries. The British had beaten back the Zulu attack and were grateful to the Martini Henry rifle

The best known action of the Anglo Zulu War of 1879 is without question Rorkes Drift. The British defenders were able to see off the Zulu warriors using the iconic Henry Martini rifile.. Unique version for reprint here: The Martini Henry Rifle That Rescued The Men At Rorkes Drift.

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Samurai stories are well-known and there are an overwhelming amount of movies, plays and books that illustrate Samurai and related fictions. In fact Samurai is the name of a powerful military class that existed in feudal Japan. Same as the stories about them, their real history is also enchanting for everyone irrespective of age.

History of the Samurai art cannot be explained without referring to the history of the Samurai tribe. The ruling system that existed in Japan in 12th century was denominated as Shogunate and the ruler was known as Shogun. At that time, Japan was suffering a lot from frequent struggles between the then existed powerful groups named Taira and Minamoto.

Daimyo who were much the same to the Dukes in Europe were the second powerful authority in the country. Samurai were the fighters of these dukes. There were Ronin in the Samurai people who became masterless as their masters had committed suicide.

Samurai people were entitled with several special rights that the ordinary people did not have. As per the laws and rules of that time, a commoner was not licensed to carry any weapon with him, but Samurai were allowed to carry two swords together. Even if they made away with any common man for annoying them, no one was able to question them.

The Samurai tribe itself was categorized into three classes - the administrators who were named housemen, soldiers who were permitted to fight on horse back named mounted Samurai and the foot soldiers.

Over the years the role of the Samurai changed as they now became independent farmers who were limited to the citadels. They were also entitled to a certain percentage of the rice tax based on their ranks. The code of ethics followed by the Samurai class was known as Bushido which meant the way of the warrior. It was based around loyalty towards their leader called the daimyo.

Suppuku was a strange custom among the Samurai people which represented a ritual of suicide. This practice was performed either within a battle or outside the war in a public ceremony and was believed to be a honourable form of death. When the era of battles and feudalism came to an end in Japan, the Samurai caste changed into bureaucracy.

The term Samurai needs no explanation because of the fame they accomplished via different kinds of media and fictions. Their history and life triggers curiosity in anyone outside Japan. Their strange practices and the perfect discipline are hard to swallow for the people around the world.

The Samurai life had a great influence on the Japanese art of those times because of the power and position they possessed in the society. Their life, history and culture had been illustrated in the Japanese art works with all the charm. These arts catch the attention of everyone including those who are not at all familiar with the Japanese way of life.

Japanese Samurai artwork is an integral part of being a traditional warrior. If you would like to learn more about Japanese love symbols click on the preceding text links.

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