I was recently saddened to hear that Muhammad Ali was in critical condition. Out of all the portraits I have created this one is the most meaningful. I began working on this tribute drawing non-stop since the moment I heard the news yesterday. As many of my family and older friends know I was heavily into sports as a child. Through high school into college I took up boxing among other sports. Boxing became an important aspect of my life. Not just for stress relief but also it helped me learn about hard work, setting goals, being able to look my problems in the eye and fighting the good fight.

In college I had the Muhammad Ali vs. Sonny Liston 1965 first round knockout poster on my wall. Many of Muhammad Ali's metaphors and sayings I have adapted to my own life, including the one I drew into my drawing. Last year I climbed a Rocky Mountain 14er (a mountain that is 14,000 feet or higher) through the night on my own to see a sunrise, during last years supermoon (yes I really did it). The experience was epic and scary at the same time. Many times I told myself "Julio, what the heck are you doing." or "Julio, this is impossible; you are going to kill yourself or worst get eaten by a mountain lion." Luckily that didn't happen and I made it to the top a couple of cold hours before sunrise. The sunrise and experience were both life changing.

I just told you that story because during that experience Muhammad Ali's words came to my mind. As I would tell myself "this is impossible" I would remember "Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” When I was afraid I would remember “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life” and “Live everyday as if it were your last because someday you’re going to be right.”

 

Muhammad Ali's death at the age of 74 on Friday night has shook the sports world. However who Muhammad Ali was, how he lived his life and faced adversity is something that will last on within the minds and hearts of people across the world for generations to come.

 

Muhammad Ali - born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016 - Rest in Peace.