October 1, 1975  was the day that Muhammad Ali died, while conquering his greatest foe, Smokin’ Joe Frazier. Being  Muhammad Ali , he lived 41 more years. The Thrilla in Manila is the greatest fight this Blogger has seen in his lifetime; this Blogger has also seen on his father’s old black and white television: Moore vs. Durelle, Sugar Ray Robinson vs. Olson, then on color television, Hearns vs. Hagler, and  Aaron   Pryor  vs.  Alexis   Argüello . The Thrilla in Manila was greater than all those. It ended in an incident which allowed Muhammad Ali to be victorious, and literally killed him. Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Clay Jr; Ali claimed that he changed his name to Muhammad Ali because Cassius Clay was his slave name. Ironically, the white Cassius Clay of Kentucky, the original Cassius Clay,  was an abolitionist, who was a "lion" against  Slavery . Muhammad Ali was the greatest heavyweight in History; and if Sugar Ray Robinson had not lived, the greatest boxer in History

  Below is an excerpt from Frederick Douglass’ 1845 book, NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS, about his slave mother.      That one excerpt    has more power to unmask the incredible, RELENTLESS, unrelenting, targeted    cruelty of American Slavery, than anything the films, 12 YEARS A SLAVE, or DJANGO UNCHAINED    or anything, angry, at her white mother, Nikole Hannah-Jones can conjure up.     There is a consensus that Frederick’s father was a white man; his name is lost to History.     Frederick Douglass was his nom de guerre; his official name was    Frederick Bailey. No one knows if Bailey was the name of his true white father, or the name of another white person, or a slave.     This Blogger does not know why he took a new surname. This Blogger assumes there was a Douglass who had been kind to him.     His real mother had died when he was young ( see excerpt),    and, as a slave,    he was given to one of those conflicted Southern slaveholding families in Maryland.     Con