DVD Review: Muhammad Ali - Made In Miami

In the post-WW2 era there weren't that many opportunities for a young black man to break free of the living situation he was born into. A very few were able to afford college or university, but for the rest, professional sports provided the only other chance of financial success. With segregation still commonplace as far north as cities like Chicago, team sports in America were slow to integrate. Professional boxing was one of the viable options.

It wasn't cheap to become a professional boxer, and the usual route that a young man would follow is that he would sign a contract with a group who, in return for paying his way, would pretty much own him. Inevitably the men with the money were white and a young black man would find that not only did signing a contract give them authority over his fight career, but he was expected to act in a manner befitting his station.

In 1960 a young black man returned home to Louisville, Kentucky from the Rome Olympics only to find that the gold medal he'd won in the light-heavyweight boxing competition wasn't enough to break the colour bar. When the opportunity arose to continue his boxing career by signing a contract with a consortium of white businessmen in Louisville, The Louisville Sponsoring Group, he jumped at the chance. They decided that in order for him to fulfill his potential he needed a good trainer, and they sent him down to Miami, Florida to train at the 5th Street Gym with Angelo Dundee. The rest, as they say, is history.

Until 1966 when he left Miami, it became Cassius Clay's — later to change his name to Muhammad Ali — base of operations. It was during his stay in Miami that Ali went from being a young boxer with talent and potential, to being not only the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, but an inspirational figure to people of colour all over the world. The Public Broadcasting Service's (PBS) documentary that's just been released for sale on DVD, Muhammad Ali: Made In Miami, traces not only the route he took in becoming heavyweight champion of the world, but the way in which he managed to win the minds and hearts of so many people around the world.

Article Author: Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of the recently published What Will Happen In Eragon IV? and has had his work published in print and on line all over the world. The not so long-haired Canadian iconoclast writes reviews and opines on the world as he sees …

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