The day he sparred with Mohammed Ali

By Frank Neill

Wainuiomata’s Michael Ngarotata last week marked the 44th anniversary of the day he sparred with the then World Boxing Champion Mohammed Ali.

The sparring session happened at Wellington Airport, just after Ali stepped from the plane on 23 February 1979 to visit Wellington.

A photo of the sparring session featuring Michael and Mohammed appeared in the next day’s edition of “The Dominion”. [That was before “The Dominion” merged with “The Evening Post” and became the “Dominion Post”.]

“Michael Ngarotata was singled out by the formidable Ali for a bit of exhibition boxing at Wellington Airport yesterday,” the paper said.

“It was pretty surreal,” Michael says.

At first Ali was speaking to his cousin. “Then he came over and beckoned to me and pulled me out of the crowd.

“He said: ‘I wanna meet a big black brother’.

“I went over and we had a bit of punching each other.

“I hit him twice on the left shoulder and twice on the right shoulder.

“He said ‘is that all you’ve got?’ and I said ‘no’.”

Following that exchange Michael proceeded to attempt the famous Ali shuffle right in front of the famous boxer.

“’That’s not how you do it,’ he said, and then he did the shuffle.

“It was awesome. And all the time he was calling me ‘brother’.

“He asked me who was my favourite boxer.

“I didn’t answer that straight away and he said ‘well?’

“Then I said Ingemar Johansson, and Ali said ‘I whipped that white boy’.”

When Mohammed Ali shook Michael’s hand, Michael said “I’ve just shook the hand who shook the world” and Ali said “you’ve got it man”.

Ali also asked Michael if he had boxed and Michael replied that he had boxed but was no longer involved.

“He asked why I didn’t keep going and I said I had no one else to beat.

At one point white they were sparring, Ali said “look at that car”.

Michael turned to look, and when he turned back again Ali’s fist was millimetres from his face.

At the end of their time together both Ali and his wife said “it was a pleasure to meet you”.

“It was awesome,” Michael says of his 10 minutes or so with the champion.

When Michael later told people about the encounter, a lot of them didn’t believe him.

“I said: ‘I will show you the photo’,” and he did.

The photo is now framed and hangs proudly on the wall of Michael’s lounge.

“I’m going to get the frame carved,” he says.

“My nephew is a carver in taki.”

Country concert

The Wainuiomata Country and Western Club will be holding a concert at the Pioneer Church on Coast Road, starting at 6:30pm on Sunday 19 March.

The concert is being held as a fund-raiser for the Pioneer church.

As well as the club’s band, club members will entertain the audience.

Steady as you go

Steady as You Go falls prevention classes for senior citizens are held at 11am on Tuesdays at the Holy Trinity Anglican Church.

A booking is not needed, although Age

Concern asks people to give a $2 koha to help cover costs.

The classes improve balance and leg strength, flexibility, general fitness and wellbeing.

Plant more trees. Trees are the lungs of the earth. Every development should have a green area.

I am not concerned about it right now. A lot of people are but I’m not.

Everything they can. The world is not right at the moment.

This week I received a book from an old friend of mine, Julia Sich which she has written and called ‘Julia’s Guide to Edible weeds and Wild Green Smoothies’. Many of you will know the ‘Weed Lady’ through her previous book and workshops. In your gardens you will likely have a number of plants we call ‘weeds’ which are of benefit to your diet and health. The definition of a ‘weed’ is simply ‘a plant that is growing where we do not want it to grow’. Many of the plants we grow for food or for their flowers; when allowed to self seed they become weeds. I recommend that you obtain a copy of Julia’s book and learn to your benefit, many of the plants you pull out, kill and compost which could be better off been cultivated and consumed. The book is available in two formats as a down load E Book or as a printed publication. The web site is https://www. juliasedibleweeds.com/ and the book is available for NZ$19.95 for the Ebook OR $34.95 plus postage for the printed version. The book gives you both the common names and the Botanical names as well as coloured pictures to assist in identification. Each weed has a written description along with its nutritional values and how to use them for your benefit. Mind you if the Government had its way it would ban the use of these natural plants and their ancient uses if favour of Big Pharma’s bottom line. (Therapeutic Products Bill) Pharmaceutical companies hate natural remedies even though many of their concoctions were originally derived from plant’s properties. If you have the knowledge such as given in Julia’s book then you can look after your own well being as our fore fathers did from all races on the planet. (And at no expense if out of the weeds in your gardens) We have to read and learn about the advantages of these plants but in Nature animals know what is best for them as far as