What's My Name?

Today is the 40th anniversary of the infamous Ali/Ernie Terrell fight, source of much controversy for the Champ and now an essential chapter of his hagiography. In a nutshell, Terrell had refused to call Ali by his Muslim name, instead calling him Clay. Ali vowed to punish Terrell in the ring for his disrespect, and proceeded to do exactly that, dismantling him over the course of a brutal 15 rounds, continually taunting him with the line that has since become a mantra of vengeful righteousness - "What's my name? What's my name?"

Boxing writers eviscerated Ali in the media, saying that the beating he dished out to Terrell was cruel and unusual, a bizarre claim in a sport such as boxing. In retrospect, it's a claim that seems far more motivated by a presiding distaste for Ali than it was a legitimate concern for the well-being and dignity of Ernie Terrell.

In this clip on YouTube (embedding is unfortunately disabled) you can watch some of the Howard Cosell Wide World of Sports interview with Ali a few days after the fight. I've written about this interview a lot here on No Mas - that Cosell, a supposed "friend" of the Champ, jumped on this Terrell bandwagon is to me stark evidence of just how deep the sports media disdained Ali at the time.