CATEGORIES
|
ALI, Muhammad (1942-2016). American professional boxer, considered by many the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. Olympic Gold medalist (1960). His greatest win might have been traveling to Iraq after it invaded Kuwait. Saddam Hussein took thousands of foreign hostages including 15 Americans. He used them as human shields. Some of them had worked for the GM plant in Baghdad. Ali was supposed to meet Saddam but Saddam stalled for a week. Ali was in rough shape as he ran out of his Parkinson’s medication. Ali was able to find some of the medication at a Baghdad hospital and met with Saddam Hussein on Nov. 29, 1990. Ali convinced Hussein to release all the American hostages and they went to Ali’s modest hotel room. On Dec. 2, 1990, Ali and the hostages flew out of Baghdad to JFK airport in new York. Just a few weeks later on Jan. 16, 1991, the U.S. began bombing Iraq known as “Operation Desert Storm.”
On a piece of brown board measuring appx. 6”x8” Ali has written: ‘To Charles from Muhammad Ali. Three Time World heavyweight Champion. After me there will never be another, 2-11-88.” In addition Ali has drawn a boxing ring and a “Smiley Face.”..................................$795.00
|