THERE are those who have been touched by greatness. And there are those who have been smashed in the face by it.

An elite band of the latter gathered at Manchester's Piccadilly Hotel on Saturday evening to honour The Greatest of them all, the incomparable Muhammad Ali.

Sir Henry Cooper, Leon Spinks, Ernie Terrell, Earnie Shavers, and Brian London were the star guests as punters paid upwards of é100 a head in order to sit in the presence of those who have exchanged blows with a legend.

They told M.E.N. Sport beforehand of the impact Ali had on their lives and, in some cases, their looks!

Spinks had the honour of beating Ali in an undisputed world title fight in 1978, only to lose a re-match seven months later.

"He was my idol, because growing up we had all looked up to him," said Spinks. "Later on in my life, I realised how he had been trying to open doors for black men, but at the time I just saw him as a great boxer. I won our first fight and I thought I won the second fight, but you never know in boxing."

Terrell's fight with Ali in 1967 is seen by many as showing a dark side of the man. Ali taunted then WBA champion Terrell, who insisted in using his old `slave name' of Cassius Clay, asking him "What's my name?" as he prolonged the fight longer than necessary.

Still a huge, bear of a man, Terrell sees the fight differently to the rest of the world: "Ali was a very unusual young man, a man who always had boxing on his mind. I remember one day doing some roadwork with him and he climbed up on to the parapet of a bridge with a 50 ft drop. He just walked the length of the bridge. I guess that is how he lived his life, not being able to afford to make a mistake.

Hit

"When we fought, I thought I could beat him, but in the third round he thumbed me in the eye and jammed the muscle on to the bone, which broke and snagged the muscle. "I still can't look upwards properly because of that injury."

"Shavers hit me so hard he shook my kin folk back in Africa" said Ali after they fought in 1977.

Shavers now lives on the Wirral and even spent a time preaching the Gospel while working as a bouncer in Liverpool nightclubs!

He is regarded by many as the hardest-hitting heavyweight in history, with 78 knockout wins in his 98 pro fights, but he couldn't shift Ali.

Former British and Empire heavyweight champ London succumbed inside three rounds in 1966, but he used the money he earned from the sport to open a club in his home town of Blackpool, where he lives to this day.

"It didn't change my life at all, because I did so badly it wasn't true. I just didn't try," he said. "He whacked me, and that was it, because I should have had a go.

"I just wish I could have my life over again. I would never beat Ali, because he was a phenomenon, but I would put on a better show."

And then there was former British and European champ Sir Henry, still getting rapturous receptions for having the audacity to dump the brash young Cassius Clay on his pants before losing on a cut at Wembley in 1963, and then again being carved open by Ali's slicing right hand in 1966.

"Ali had great reflexes for a man who was six ft three and a half," said Sir Henry. "My tactic was to try to trap him in the corners and get him on the ropes to cut his mobility down.

"But he was so unorthodox - in fact some of his problems nowadays come from the fact that he was so unorthodox, because he could turn his head away from punches and took too many on the base of the brain, destroying too many of the cells there and causing the Parkinson's syndrome he has."

What are your memories of Ali's fights? Have your say.

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