Make that 22 things he dodged...His Pussy ass dodged the draft also...
whoa, I was there at the time, and there was no pussy about it. He woulda gone into some designed role, pumping up the citizens to support the war against all those horrible vietnamese poised to invade OUR country, kinda like they did anyway years later, peacefully, with small businesses, and kids doing better in school than euro, african, and hispanic Americans tend to do.
For the record, I am an old school boxing fan who hates the swag Ali popularized for boxers since then, I prefer the quiet ones like Louis, Marciano, and the cajones-to-the-wall Mexicans who own some of the lighter wt. divisions. I will never like Ali for how he mocked opponents in and out of the ring, and trumped dignity with showbiz, but he did not pussy out of the draft. Whether he was coached by the Chicago hdqs of the Muslim movement, or just had his own thoughts (doubtful ), he was dodging a cushy job 300 yards behind the USO doughnut wagon, no pussy about it. Cost him 3 yrs of illegal removal from the job he had, probably the best 3 yrs, everything else he is remembered for since is in spite of that.
I am American, born, raised, and grateful, but all these ill-advised little hobby wars we like to engage in use people who volunteered to participate, not pawns drafted by the Suits in local and national gov't. This is mostly due to an overwhelming anti-draft sentiment from us goddamn Boomers who realized Nam and the wars that followed were not the same as WWII, but gestures like Ali's helped shape the freedom to choose young macho males have today.
Never will be my favorite boxer, but he was good, and what he did dodge was the path of least resistance to instead make a statement that still resonates today, when he coulda just kissed everybody's ass and had a cushy PR job created by the pentagon.