Dear Editor,
I was reading your editorial of Friday 10-06-2016 titled `Muhammad Ali’ and I want to share an incident concerning the great man. It was in the year 1979 and Ali was scheduled to perform an exhibition bout against a Guyanese fighter who I cannot now remember, at the Albion Sports Complex.
I was a young man then and Ali being my idol I could not miss that occasion come hell or high water, so I acquired my ten dollars, which I guess must be ten thousand dollars now, bought my ticket and proceeded to in front of the stage at the Albion Sports Complex. As Ali came on stage he saw thousands of people standing outside the gate which was closed and well manned by security personnel. He asked someone why weren’t the people coming into the ground and was told that the people could not afford to pay the ten dollars.
Those were rough times and not many people could afford the ten dollars fee, it was a lot of money then. Editor, to this day I could not forget what happened next, Ali grabbed the mike and in a very angry voice said `Why are you charging my people to see me, I am doing this free of cost, you cannot afford to pay me even if I wanted payment, open the gate and let my people come in’. The gates were flung open and thousands poured into the ground and enjoyed a spectacle from Muhammad Ali who floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee. This one act of Ali embodies everything you wrote about him in your editorial. He is the greatest and will live with us forever.
Yours faithfully,
Imtiaz Baccus
