Welcome Back!

There's this whole thing about leaving something and coming back.

Think about the Champ being forced to leave the boxing world while his license was revoked till 1970. There was no welcome mat for him from his peers and that couldn't have been clearer when he was floored by his arch rival Joe Frazier just months after his reintroduction to the sport.

Touted as the Fight of the Century, you'd think this match was it. This would determine whether Ali would ever make it back again or not.

Truth be told, Ali hadn't lost a step at all. He was every bit as fierce and brilliant of a fighter as he ever was. But things had changed since his brand of ferocity and brilliance put him on the world stage as the best fighter on Earth. Matter of fact, the Ali Brand became the model for any successful fighter. That being said, not only had his opponents reverse engineered Ali's style, but they adopted and evolved it to a level he himself wouldn't recognize till it literally hit him in his own face.

The only welcome mat he found was the one he got knocked to and handed the first official boxing loss of his career.

"Welcome back Champ - we still don't fucking like you. And furthermore we see you've become soft and now you're a joke. Stand by to get eaten alive - you'll be outta here faster than it took you to book your first fight."

I can only imagine what was going through Ali's head as he watched the masses and fans turn their support and awe into doubt and disappointment. It would be fascinating to know how he truly felt, rather than studying what came out of his mouth.

I have a distinct feeling he felt the awakening of a spirit deep inside him - the spirit that truly made him the best fighter in history. It was the developing of the Ali Brand and style that made him great, it was the insight and intuition he had to self create that ability. That's how Ali became the Greatest.

And in the end, Ali wiped his feet w/out a welcome mat and adapted to be the best boxer in history.

Don't forget, if he'd have never come back, he'd have just been another great fighter - not The Greatest.