Big-money sports today are more about entertainment than competition, and most athletes know that. Mohammad Ali was very candid about the brash persona he assumed and the antics he performed to capture the public’s attention:
Where do you think I would be if I didn’t know how to shout and holler and make people sit up and take notice? I would be poor for one thing….
I said to myself, How am I going to get a crack at the title? I knew I’d have to start talking about it—I mean really talking, screaming and yelling and acting like some kind of nut. I would be like Gorgeous George, the wrestler, who got so famous by being flashy and exaggerating everything and making people notice him.
One thing people can’t stand is a blowhard, and the more I blew, the more people would come out to see me get beaten. I said I was pretty. (I’m not as pretty as I let on.) I said I was fast. I said I was terrific, and it got so you couldn’t keep people away. And they would yell, “Take away his pink Cadillac, the bum,” and “bash in his pretty nose.” I don’t really care what people say about me personally as long as they buy a ticket to come see me.
It worked. Ali was not only a terrific boxer, he was one of the best-known and widely recognized persons in the world.
