The Big Fight

Twenty-four hours after arriving in Dublin, Muhammad Ali rang his publicist Harold Conrad. "Hey, Hal?" said Ali, "where are all the niggers in this country?" "Ali," replied Conrad, "there aren't any." On July 19, 1972, it took Muhammad Ali 11 rounds to defeat Al 'Blue' Lewis at Croke Park, Dublin. A mere footnote in the larger Ali story, this fight against a game ex-convict from Detroit marked the culmination of an extraordinary week in Ireland's sporting and cultural history. From the moment