One of my fondest memories of Ma K (mother Kelly) as I was growing up was of her love of boxing.
 
We grew up watching & following one of the greatest boxers of all time – Mohammed ‘Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee’ Ali (aka Cassius Clay).
 
Whenever the biggest matches were shown on TV...well, win or lose, it was always a celebration. Friends would arrive baring vocal lubricants to wash down the ginormous pots of soup or curry & rice my mother would have prepared at the crack of dawn...and as soon as the match would begin, all hell would break out! Levelled at the TV... ‘Come ooon!’, you can do better than that!’...’Lick him!...’(translated in this instance ‘punch him out!...), mimmicked left hooks and kicks...
 
In our household, ‘Armchair critics’ took on a very very different meaning!
 
The gloves & punch bag? Fond reminders of care free childhood memories, free 99’s from our next door neighbours ice-cream van , back alley shooties, chase games in the back streets way past dusk, lots of laughter...good times, good memories of a much missed giant of a sporting personality, God & legend and of happy moments shared between mother, son & daughter....
 
Portobello Market
London W10/ ©2011