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[QUOTE="Crusty, post: 1781166, member: 2265"]
I watched the "Rumble in the Jungle" on closed circuit TV at Madison Square Garden. The whole place was rooting for Ali, which was sort of amazing given that Foreman was a popular Olympic Gold Medalist as well. The place was fairly quiet until everyone started to realize that Ali was allowing Fireman to punch himself out and people started to talk about it. In the beginning it was a bit of whistling by the graveyard and then, all of a sudden, Ali started to take charge. When he knocked Foreman out the place went crazy. Total strangers hugging and doing high fives. There were no races nor genders at that moment. I have never witnessed anything like it before or since.

I also saw him fight Floyd Patterson in 1972 at the Garden. Patterson refused to refer to him as Muhammad Ali.  Every time Ali landed a punch, you could hear him say, "What's my name?"

The last time I saw him fight was against Ken Norton in Yankee Stadium in 1976. It was the rubber match between the two. Norton won the first by split decision and Ali the second, also by split decision. Ali won the 15-rounder by unanimous (yet controversial) decision.  They placed the ring near the right field foul line well past the infield - a real old fashion event. We had seats on the field side and you could walk onto the out field.

During rounds I walked to center field and looked back toward home plate. It was a thrill standing there thinking if all the greats that stood there in the past. Quite a night.

Thanks for the memories Champ.
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