>Ficker has earned his reputation for self-promotion. It's hard to find an instance of where he has underplayed, well, anything about himself—except, that is, for his heyday brushes with Ali. He did recently post a photo of him running in Greenbelt Park with Ali in 1976—apparently the same shot used in that GE newsletter—up on the Facebook page for his current campaign, but that's about it. So why hasn't he gone all Ficker on his Ali ties? Well, maybe it's because his interactions with the champ, as cool as they seem on paper, were never as exhilarating as his dealings with Layden or Barkley or Jordan or during his heckler days. >Or perhaps Ficker doesn't boast about just being near Ali because he "gets sad" whenever he thinks about him. >He's felt that way ever since he went down to a Silver Spring bookstore in the late 1990s, where Ali was scheduled to make an appearance. Ficker made the trip thinking he'd try to engage the champ about old times. Ali, he says, was there in body, but not mind. When he approached Ali, Ficker says, he realized right away there was not going to be any reminiscing. >"I looked in his eyes," Ficker said, "but there was no recognition. No nothing. He had no idea who I was."
