Huntington Quarterly Summer 2022

E FIGHT RasheenAli led the nation last year with 25 touchdowns. Now Herd fans wonder what the former boxer will do for round two. By Keith Morehouse

T he story of how a talented kid with the surname Ali started out in a boxing ring and ended up on the football field is quite the tale. Boxing lore is seldom dull, and Rasheen Ali’s memoir is the profile of a prodigy. It starts in Cleveland, Ohio, where Ali’s dad, also named RaSheen, was an up-and-coming fighter in the 1980s. He loved the fight game and would even open his own gym — the DNA Level C (Cleveland spelled backwards) Boxing Club. He would become a coach and eventually work with USA Boxing. His all-time favorite fighter is six-time world champion Sugar Ray Robinson, called by many the greatest pound-for-pound fighter in boxing history.When he had a young son named Rasheen, he didn’t expect him to be the next Sugar Ray, but he did expect him to learn the lessons that the “sweet science” teaches.

can blame the center, the quarterback or the linemen. With boxing, you have to look at the man in the mirror and make it happen.” Still, young Ali’s mother and father dis agreed about where to begin.Ali’s dad wanted him to box, and his mom wanted him to play football — talk about a split decision. “I really don’t like it. I enjoy out thinking another man and out-maneu vering him, but I still don’t like to fight.” — Sugar Ray Robinson “I never really liked boxing honestly,” Ali said. “It was just something that I had to do.” Ali now understands that his father knew best. The elderAli has seen close-up what the canvas can teach — discipline, motivation, fortitude, toughness and self-preservation. That his son was athletically gifted was an added advantage.

Boxing taught Rasheen Ali discipline, motivation, for titude, toughness and self preservation — all the things needed to be successful on the football field.

“His first fight was when he was 10 or 11 years old,” Ali’s father said. “He was so big for his age he used to spar up. Not to brag but his reflexes were phenomenal.” Many times, it was simply the tale of the tape that would intimidate Ali’s opponents.

“The plan was for him to get the discipline first,” Ali said of his son. “Let’s be honest, nobody wants to get hit. Most importantly, it’s just you in there. In football, you

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