Boxing Highlights

With Ali, boxing was chic. All smiles and flashes and a little cha-cha, with Frank Sinatra on the sidelines, it was one marvelous of all boxing highlights. But before that, before Ali had strutted shadowboxing for the stage, boxing was Mr. Grim. Many dour Morse coders are busy trying to decipher telegraph codes as Joe Louis representing America tries to knock out Max Schmeling who would represent Germany and its face of Adolf Hitler. And there was still, even before that, the Cinderella Man. And there was Jack Dempsey.

Boxing highlights is one of the most colorful highlights in history, even in a time when color of choice was still black and white. It had represented every facet of man, from rags to riches, and riches to rags, from dedication to consternation, boxing highlights has seen them all.

Here are some of the best boxing highlights the world has experienced.

Yes, Joe Louis was one spectacular fighter, but it wasn't his persona that made his 1938 contest against Max Schmeling one of the most important boxing highlights, it was what they would represent. To many, it was a symbolical match: Joe Louis would be carrying the burden of the American dream, while Max Schmeling would be Germany and Adolf Hitler's propaganda. On the immortalized date of June 22, 1938, Joe Louis became the champion of the American cause.

Even when he was Cassius Clay, Muhammad Ali was already a loudmouth, brazen, brash, and spunky character -to the delight of his million admirers. He was, to aficionados a poet and an artist, aside from an exceptional boxer. But for most, he was more of a showman who miraculously landed on a giant boxer's frame.

Muhammad Ali, through wit and charm and an excellent skill in boxing, would dominate the entire era populated with exceptional boxers like Frazier and Foreman. But neither their bright shining lights can make dim Ali's blaze of stardom. He was every bit a star, and he did what other stars would do: stay in front of the camera.

But what others wouldn't readily see is that behind those charms was a devious tactician. Ali was a master goader, and that's what he does to dispossess opponents long before a match starts. But he analyses and executes devices well; evident with the way he disposed Foreman in "Rumble in the Jungle" and Frazier in "Thrilla in Manila", two of the best boxing highlights in history.