The Thrill of Victory The ecstasy of Defeat

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INNOCENT HURRICANE

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$40.00

AVAILABLE ONLY IN LARGE.

Excoriated for his conversion to the Nation of Islam, banned from boxing and threatened with prison for refusing to fight in Vietnam, Muhammad Ali knew about racial injustice in America. In 1975 he lent his voice to the cause of a black fighter many believed to be the victim of racial persecution.

That fighter was Rubin “Hurricane” Carter whose questionable  prosecution for double murder had become legend through the words of a Bob Dylan song.  In September of 1975, Ali took time off from training for the Thrilla in Manila™ to address a rally for Carter in Newark.  He wore the t-shirt that we reproduce here, bearing a slogan that, like so much of Ali’s poetry, was counterintuitive, instinctive, and as penetrating as the champ’s right hand jab.