As Tiger Woods lurches from one PR disaster to another it is almost incredulous to think that at the height of ‘Tiger Mania’ he was being lauded as comparable to Muhammad Ali.
Infact when the golfer made his comeback at this year's US Masters the press got themselves into such frenzy that they equated his homecoming with Ali's sensational return to the ring 40 years ago.
Much has already been said and written about the transgressions which have left the golfer so professionally and personally wounded.
Before the sordid revelations of flings with cocktail waitresses and porn stars were revealed to a shocked world, Woods was primarily known as a sporting phenomenon and for that there can be no doubt.
Since he altered the sporting landscape in April 1997 when he became the youngest US Masters winner, and first afro-american, he has amassed 14 grand slam victories and built a personal fortune of a billion dollars.
For a man of colour to smash the cosy white dominated world of golf is a supreme achievement.
But comparisons between Tiger and Ali are not only ill thought out and odious –they do both men a disservice.
Ali was also no saint –just a cursory look his private life will also reveal his fondness for the ladies. But he was fortunate in that he lived in a time before the rolling 24 hours news channels and the paparazzi culture which now stalks Tiger’s every move.
But it’s their achievements away from their respective sports which makes the comparisons laughable.
Tiger Woods is a supremely talented golfer; probably the best there’s ever been and has a wonderful smile.
Muhammad Ali was a supremely talented boxer ; probably the best there’s ever been......and not only did he have a wonderful smile but he challenged America’s attitude to non whites and shook the existing natural order.
He aligned himself with the controversial black power movement in a bid to politicise his status as the heavy weight champion of the world.
He refused to be drafted into the US army to fight in Vietnam on the grounds of being a conscientious objector after his conversion to Islam.
He once famously declared ‘I aint got no quarrel with the Viet Cong, they never called me n*****’.
This principled stance led to him being convicted, sentenced to five years in prison, fined $10,000, stripped of his heavyweight title and banned from fighting in the USA.
All this robbed Ali, and the world, of his best boxing years, yet he still returned and regained his heavyweight crown in some of the greatest fights ever to have taken place.
Can you imagine any modern day sportsman even considering an action like this?
So comparisons between Ali and Woods should be rendered useless and this is no fault of Tiger's.
Woods is a great sportsman and money making machine but he is no cultural icon like Ali.
For Ali’s achievements in and out the boxing ring, means he stands alone as the greatest.
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