Rahaman Ali: ‘The Greatest’ younger brother always in Muhammad Ali’s corner
Rahaman Ali, who lived and fought in the shadow of his legendary brother Muhammad Ali before becoming his trusted confidant, has died aged 82.
Rudolph Clay could have been a contender. His only problem was growing up with an older brother who already knew that he was “the Greatest”.
Sharing a room in a small pink house in Louisville, Kentucky, Cassius and Rudolph Clay wrestled like puppies, but when they played cowboys and Indians with their mother’s broomsticks, Cassius was always the cowboy because “the cowboys were always portrayed as the good guys in the westerns and my brother always wanted to be the good guy”.
Aged five, Cassius was the archetypal Tom Sawyer or William Brown, “standing on a platform like a leader addressing the neighbourhood kids”. Many of the brothers’ games revolved around demonstrating Cassius’s athletic prowess, such as the one where Rudolph threw rocks while he ducked, weaved and learnt to “float like a butterfly”. Rudolph would remain on what he called “the undercard” for the rest of his brother’s life as Muhammad Ali, the greatest boxer who ever lived.
Rudolph Arnett Clay was born in 1943, 18 months after his brother Cassius. Their father, Cassius Sr, a sign painter, quickly renamed his second son Rudolph Valentino Clay after his favourite actor. Cassius Sr was also a talented artist and jazz lover who rattled out words with the kind of jive rhythm that would be Cassius Jr’s ABC. Like Valentino, he also was something of a lothario.
The more sensitive of the brothers, Cassius Jr would cover his face with a blanket while their father argued with their mother, Odessa, nee O’Grady, a cook and house cleaner of mixed race whose father was an Irish immigrant. Rudolph later said his brother “inherited his sweet, giving nature” from Odessa. Both brothers were expected to make their beds, look neat and tidy at all times and be home before dark on pain of their father’s belt.
Cassius took up pugilism aged 12 after tearfully discovering that his bicycle had been stolen. On asking for a police station to report the crime, the brothers were misdirected to a gymnasium. Rudolph recalled hearing the “thwap thwap thwap” of skipping ropes hitting the floor before they walked in.
“Muhammad was so enraptured by the sights, the smell, the vibe of the gym that he almost forgot about his bike,” Rudolph recalled. He watched Cassius’s first 60 seconds in the ring with an older and more experienced boy, who picked him off easily, leaving him dazed and with a bloody nose.
Yet trainer Joe Martin saw something. “That first failed foray into the ring showed my brother’s heart and zeal.”
Naturally, Rudolph also joined the gym, one of the few places where whites and blacks mixed in the segregated state, literally exchanging beads of flying sweat as they learnt the sweet science. As teenagers, the brothers were well matched, Rudolph often coming out on top as they sparred.
The difference was ambition. “The moment he walked into the gym, he knew he would be great,” recalled Rahaman Ali, who also changed his name after joining the black separatist group the Nation of Islam like his brother.
In 1960 the 18-year-old Cassius won Olympic gold in Rome in the light heavyweight division. Rudolph recalled his brother dropping the medal into the Ohio river after being refused service in a Louisville restaurant. The story is disputed, but Rudolph claimed to have seen it “with my own eyes”. The waitress said: “We don’t serve Negroes.” Cassius’s reply was as quicksilver as his punches. “I don’t eat ’em either. Just serve me a cheeseburger.”
When his brother relocated to Miami to train with Angelo Dundee, Rudolph went with him.
Rudolph fought more than 100 bouts as an amateur. He then watched Cassius beat the highly favoured Sonny Liston to “shake up the world”.
Over an eight-year career Rahaman would win 14 professional bouts, draw one and lose three and then became a key member of Ali’s entourage as “the Champ”.
Muhammad Ali’s life sped up to a pitch of insanity as the most famous living sportsman on the planet. Some felt that Rahaman’s services bordered on slavish. For example, Muhammad did not wear a watch and relied on Rahaman to tell him the time.
Rahaman himself regarded his principle role as minder, in a deeply divided country where he was in as much danger of assassination as Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X.
In later years Rahaman returned to Louisville in penury. Recalling their last conversation, he said: “He said to me, ‘I’m in no pain. Don’t cry for me, Rahaman. I’m going to be with Allah God.”
Rahaman Ali. Boxer. Born Louisville, Kentucky, US, July 18, 1943; died Louisville, August 1, aged 82.
The Times
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