Joe Bugner versus Muhammad Ali
1975 was the year Muhammad Ali fought Joe Bugner in Kuala Lumpur for the World Heavyweight Championship. It was organised by Bank Rakyat, for which, they were faced with many legal consequences afterwards. The fight went for fifteen rounds and as expected, Ali won. The late Muhammad Ali is a very well-known athlete. However, Malaysians do not really recall who Joe Bugner is. Joe Bugner is a Hungarian-British boxer. He was born in Hungary in 1950 and died in Australia in 2025 at the age of 75, shortly after I had turned 50. Bugner was a Caucasian European and Ali was an African American.
Why am I telling you this? Well, here it goes. My mother was pregnant at that time. In the Malay tradition, or rather superstition, when a pregnant woman does, utters, witnessed, or attends to something; that something will manifest in her child. Guess what? She saw the Bugner versus Ali fight. Lo and behold, two months after the fight, on 29 August 1975, she gave birth to a pair of twins. The elder of the twins had a pale skin complexion like Bugner and the other had a darker skin like Ali. Close families called the twins Joe Bugner and Muhammad Ali.
According to the Malay tradition, there is an unwritten understanding between twins in the womb. The elder of the two would sacrifice the glory of being the first to see the World whilst the younger of the two, gets the glory of being the first to see the World. So, the elder becomes the younger and the younger becomes the elder. In the Malay literature, there is a saying, “Jauhari yang Mengenal Ma’nikam”, that translates into, “Only a Wiseman Knows a (Authenticity of) Jewel”. In the Malay dictionary, the word Champion is translated into Johan. So, the elder, who has now become the younger, is regarded as the Wiseman, and the younger, who has now become the elder, is the Champion.
On 29 August 1975, the twins, Johan and Johari, were born with the metaphoric alignment with the Joe Bugner versus Muhammad Ali fight. Although Muhammad Ali won the fight, Johan saw the World first.
