dinsdag 25 juni 2013

Cassius, dichter

Clay comes out to meet Liston and Liston starts to retreat / if Liston goes back an inch farther he'll end up in a ringside seat / Clay swings with his left, Clay swings with his right / Look at young Cassius carry the fight / Liston keeps backing, but there's not enough room / It's a matter of time till Clay lowers the boom / Now Clay lands with a right, what a beautiful swing / And the punch raises the Bear clean out of the ring / Liston is still rising and the ref wears a frown / For he can't start counting till Sonny goes down / Now Liston is disappearing from view, the crowd is going frantic / But radar stations have picked him up, somewhere over the Atlantic / Who would have thought when they came to the fight? /That they'd witness the launching of a human satellite / Yes the crowd did not dream, when they put up the money / That they would see a total eclipse of the Sonny.
Mohammed Ali -toen nog Cassius Clay- maakte altijd een gedichtje voor/over de tegenstanders die hij in de ring zou ontmoeten. Alvorens hij op 25 februari 1964 Sonny Liston alle hoeken van de ring zou laten, componeerde hij dit rijmpje.

Het prentje dateert wel van een heel stuk later: George Foreman ligt uitgeteld in de ring. De spectaculaire afloop van een in alle opzichten spectaculaire kamp: The Rumble in the Jungle, Kinshasa, Zaïre, 1974. Muhammed Ali is weer helemaal terug.

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