{"id":98136,"date":"2025-08-28T07:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T07:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/98136\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T07:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T07:06:08","slug":"for-rahaman-ali-brotherly-love-was-a-double-edged-sword-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/98136\/","title":{"rendered":"For Rahaman Ali, brotherly love was a double-edged sword \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the November day in 2005 when Muhammad Ali<\/a> returned to Louisville with typical fanfare for the dedication of the centre bearing his name, attendees came upon his younger brother Rahaman outside the event. Wearing a pork pie hat, a black leather jacket and frayed black pants betraying a man who\u2019d perhaps seen better days, he was wandering around the plaza abutting the Ohio River. Now and then, he stopped to introduce himself to perfect strangers with the line: \u201cI\u2019m Muhammad Ali\u2019s brother.\u201d His opening gambit since forever, his calling card in history.<\/p>\n

The two men once shared a bedroom in the small house at 3302 Grand Avenue, just 6km down the road. During the day, they played cowboys and Indians and at night the elder sibling tormented the younger by using a piece of string to make the curtains dance, convincing the gullible child there was a ghost in the house. Known as Cassius and Rudolph Clay back then, there were just 18 months between them. <\/p>\n

As teens, they used to square off for impromptu bouts in the backyard of Tucker\u2019s grocery store. One combatant grew up to become the most famous athlete of the 20th century, the other pieced together a pro boxing ledger of 10 wins, three losses and one draw, before settling for a bit part touring the world in his brother\u2019s rollicking Broadway show of a life. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe quit boxing to become a full-time hanger on,\u201d wrote American sportswriter Dick Schaap in 1975. \u201cIn Ali\u2019s army of hangers-on, Rahaman is the only related by blood and no one is more faithful to the champion. When Muhammad spars, Rahaman leans on the ropes and leads the cheers. When Muhammad clowns, Rahaman slaps his thighs and leads the laughter. And when Muhammad preaches, Rahaman slips almost into a trance and leads the worshippers, \u2018That\u2019s right, you\u2019re right, that\u2019s right\u2026right\u2026right.\u2019 The night his brother knocked out George Foreman to regain the heavyweight championship of the world, Rahaman Ali cried.”<\/p>\n

[\u00a0When Muhammad Ali came to Ireland: how a \u2018splendid spoofer\u2019 from Kerry planned to lure the boxer to DublinOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Often an effective sparring partner for the champ, the younger Ali died on August 1st, aged 82. The more comprehensive obituaries came laced with sad stories of how he was often subjected to random acts of meanness by his brother. Unnecessary put-downs in front of reporters. Snarky reminders of his status as the lesser. In the mid-seventies, Muhammad helpfully told journalists he paid his brother an annual salary of $50,000 to work as his chauffeur, quipping: \u201cThat\u2019s not bad for jivin\u2019 and drivin\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"MuhammadMuhammad Ali (centre) acknowledges the crowd with his brother Rahaman Ali and wife Lonnie Ali in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2005. Photograph: David R. Lutman\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Worse still was the time he got cut off from the three-time heavyweight champion\u2019s largesse later in life. Rahaman Ali ended up living for a time in government housing on a Louisville street named Muhammad Ali Boulevard.<\/p>\n

The relationship wasn\u2019t always dysfunctional. An hour before he fought Joe Frazier at Madison Square in the Fight of the Century, when he might perhaps have been focusing on that contest, Ali stole out of his dressing room and stood in a back corridor watching aghast as Rahaman suffered a shock defeat to Dangerous Dan McAlinden, the Newry-born heavyweight. Another night, he turned up at The Auditorium in Milwaukee to cheerlead Rahaman\u2019s second-round stoppage of Larry Beilfuss, only for his presence at ringside to impress the crowd far more than anything his brother unleashed in the ring.<\/p>\n

When Ali arrived in Dublin<\/a> to fight Al \u2018Blue\u2019 Lewis at Croke Park<\/a> in July, 1972, Rahaman was, as always, by his side. He was often on his back shoulder in photographs. As Elgy Gillespie, then a cub reporter with this newspaper, hung around Oppermann\u2019s Hotel in Kilternan trying to snag an interview with the main man, she struck up a friendship with Odessa Clay that yielded an introduction to her younger son. \u201cMay you receive all the wonderful blessings of goodness that life has to offer you,\u201d wrote Rahaman in a note to the journalist before delivering her a stern lecture on the evils of smoking. <\/p>\n

\"RahamanRahaman Ali talks to Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher during the dedication of the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2005. Photograph: David R. Lutman\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cRahaman was very strict about his beliefs and he talked to me for a long time about religion,\u201d said Gillespie. \u201cI think he was under the impression that he was making great headway converting me to Islam because I was drinking it all in and listening. Some of the other members of the Nation of Islam were strict in one way and then they were ludicrously licentious in other ways. I felt it hadn\u2019t dawned on them that you can\u2019t be a strict Muslim and retain an entourage of five prostitutes. They hadn\u2019t really gotten the concept clearly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two Alis were sharing a room at Opperman\u2019s and as promised, he eventually got Gillespie the interview she needed. After Lonnie, Ali\u2019s fourth wife, took stern hold of his admittedly chaotic financial affairs and cut off much of her husband\u2019s sprawling entourage in the late 1980s, Rahaman lost his beloved gig as one of his brother\u2019s keepers. With a resume of his own that included stints as an appliance salesman, boxing trainer and restaurateur, he was remembered in Louisville \u2013 especially at the Baptist Church to which he had returned later in life \u2013 for his charity work helping others, a task he remained committed to up until his death.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot live in the shadow of Muhammad Ali,\u201d said boxing manager Angelo Dundee of Rahaman one time. \u201cThat\u2019s something you never want to do. How could this poor boy survive? That\u2019s a big shadow. A big, long shadow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The biggest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the November day in 2005 when Muhammad Ali returned to Louisville with typical fanfare for the dedication…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,8027,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-98136","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-muhammad-ali","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}