“The daily battle with those who God only knows they would come up with next, will be eventually won by us, and on the same way in which Cassius Clay won his matches. With a knockout, in a situation where the opponent thinks that he is nearly done,” said Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski from the national gathering of VMRO-DPMNE in Ohrid.
Former boxer decided to address the opposition with boxing vocabulary, which is almost identical to “truck driver” vocabulary of former SDSM leader Branko Crvenkovski, who would have ran over the opposition “as truck did to a frog”.
Gruevski’s new message exceeded Branko Crvenkovski’s statement before 1998 parliamentary elections, when he said “we will run you over as truck did to a frog”, referring to the opposition VMRO-DPMNE and its leader Ljubcho Georgievski.
Perhaps any similarity is accidental, but history in Macedonia most definitely repeats itself.
Just a reminder, Cassius Clay is boxer Mohammed Ali (Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.), born 17th of January 1942 and a former three-time world heavyweight champion.
After winning his first world title, Clay walked around the ring shouting “I am the greatest!”
Ali changed his name after he approached the Nation of Islam in 1964.
The turning point in his life occurred when he was 22-year-old and he got the chance to fight for the title of world boxing champion. His opponent, Sony Liston, was considered as favorite and their betting ratio was 7: 1. Clay managed to win the title and has since become a major topic, not only in sports circles.
His style of boxing, as well as arrogant statements such as “I move like a butterfly, sting like a bee”, “I managed to win big, dangerous monster, which knocked everybody out”, drew a lot of attention.
When in 1967 he refused to go to Vietnam as a US soldier, he was sentenced to five years in prison. Thanks to paid bail, Clay remains at large, but lost the world champion title, as well the license to compete again. In 1971, he returned to the ring, where he suffered the first defeat in his career. Although many have declared him as “done”, he managed to win the world championship two more times and thus became immortal, because nobody ever succeeded it.
On the other hand, there is no legend for the truck and the frog. It’s just an urban phrase that marked a decade of pluralism in Macedonia. However, it also shows another dimension. That Clay and the truck are always fighting the opposition. Democracy in action!
