April 9, 2025 • 10 mins
DeVone Holt, CEO of the Muhammad Ali Center, sat down to deliver the good news of the center's incredible growth curve over the years. It's no boxing museum, it's a center for the advancement of the human condition.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
There's always something there to remind me by Naked Eyes,
Verry good young man Naked Eyes. They went on to
have a slew of hits like, uh was this one
and uh well there was this one. Oh yeah, that's right,
I did it. Promises promises and uh, I think that
(00:20):
completes the record of hits. And that's something like these
British boys are probably walking around someone you know who
I am. I had a hit song forty years ago,
well maybe one and a half hits. Yeah, well, can
I still have the pancakes that I ordered? I mean
that is that what we're doing here? That's how it goes,
mister naked eyes. Naked Eyes in the studio with me
(00:43):
is the CEO of the Muhammad Ali Center and just
an all around great Louisville and Devon Holt. It's great
to see you again, Terry.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I still think those guys deserve their pancakes because that
song was hot.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Isn't he in a phone booth in the video?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Remember it was.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
You who is this? I love you?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
I like that song.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Those experimental days though a video, Yeah, that was an
open thing. They were like, just do something, we gotta
have a video for MTV. So just just do something,
and like Journey goes, well, we don't want to. Why
do we gotta make a video? Just we need one?
So they went down to the docks in New Orleans
and you know, they did one of their big hit
(01:30):
songs there and they're just standing there in front of
a warehouse.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
They did it in about fifteen.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Its low budget, and look at it. It's probably got
a million YouTube views right now.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Right you are.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah, Well, it's good to see you again. We're neighbors. Yes,
the Muhammad Ali Centers right over here, next to our studios,
and you guys are doing so many wonderful things in
this community. It's always good to have you over.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Thank you, Terry. You know we I was debating whether
or not I was gonna walk over here, drive over here,
or canoe over here.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Oh, that's right, you are right on it.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
We are right on it. If you look out our
sixth floor window, which I argue is still one of
the best views of the Ohio River in all of Louisville,
you will see more water than than than you can imagine,
and it presses up past River Road onto Sixth Street,
(02:26):
which is where Muhammad Ali Center is located. Right before Maine,
and that water, along with all the debris, has just
crowded Sixth Street, and it's amazing to see how many
people are showing up. I'm like, are you here to
see the Ali Center? You want to come in? No,
we just we're taking pictures on the drift Wood Street.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yeah, it's such an odd vision. Yeah it is.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
And obviously you don't have anything of value down there
on a low level to clean up mess though.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Well, I will tell you literally, as I was on
my way here. We as a precaution and I don't
think we're gonna necessarily need it, but you always want
to be safe than sorry. The Rose Royce Mohammad's Mohammad's
not Roy's Rolls Royce, which is on the lower level
of the Muhammad Ali Center. We had some guys come
(03:16):
in and lift it up, so it's about a foot
off the ground now just in case, but based on predictions,
we don't anticipate that we'll have any water inside the building,
but just in case, we want to protect one of
our greatest assets at the Muhammad Ali Center, Mohammad's Rose Royce.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
How come that's not inside I'm just curious, Well.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
It's inside but it's just on the lower level inside
on the.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Lower level of the Yeah. No, no, no storage or something. No, no,
it's on display. You can you can take pictures of it,
h and with it. But I think as we reimagine
the Ali Center for the next twenty years, we might
be moving that upstairs.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
I'd say.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
So, so let's talk about the growth to the Muhammad
Ali Center. What's happened with it? Are you getting ample
sponsorship and as leadership supporting so the.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
People are showing up Terry. You know, we just had
this past Saturday, a celebration Arab American Day at the
Muhammad Ali Center, and oodles of people from around the
region showed up to the Muhammad Ali Center. And so
(04:30):
we continue to have these these programs, these events and
these activities that continue to bring people to the Muhammad
Ali Center. Uh And in many cases they're showing up
for those activities, but they while they're there starting to
realize that this is one pretty cool place. And so
so we get our hooks and people in a lot
of different ways. You know that we were planning a
(04:52):
huge thunder over Louisville event at the Muhammad Ali Center.
When I started, you werecalling. I came over here in
with you and we talked about one of the priorities
of mine as the new CEO, and that was to
make sure that we did more to bring the community
into the Muhammad Ali Center to get more engaged, more interactive.
(05:13):
And this was going to be our way of doing that.
We were opening the doors of the Muhammad Ali Center
for people who needed a safe, clean, dry place to
watch the fireworks in the air show. And obviously we
had to put that on the back burner because Thunder
of Louisville is probably going to be safer in twenty
(05:36):
twenty six than it's going to be than it would
have been in twenty two.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
He had no doubt about it. And in the facility,
the Muhammad Ali Center is so much more multi dimensional,
and I think a lot of people realize it is
I think, oh, it's a boxing museum. No no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
No no, no. So much more than that. You know,
part of what Mohammad wanted to do he and Lonnie
when they were building out the Muhammad Ali Center was
not just to his story as a box. I mean,
you can't tell Mohammed's story without speaking of him as
a boxer, as a matter of fact, the greatest of
all time. But it wasn't so much him as a
(06:11):
boxer that they wanted to tell the story. They wanted
to tell the story of him as the people's champ,
which is different because the people's champ is the person
that we've come to know outside of the boxing ring.
And that's the other person, the other element of Muhammad
that's on display that is designed to help people recognize
(06:32):
his humanitarian service, his commitment to people, the compassion he
displayed in the work outside of the ring that he did.
And he was very intentional about wanting this space to
be used as a place that inspired the next generation
of change makers.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
And there's a famous moment and I forgot which city.
Some man was talking about killing himself and Mohammad and yes,
Los Angeles was able to talk ye window and yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
He talked him out of it. And there were so
many examples of that. I will tell you, though, Terry.
You know the stories after story after story of Muhammad
exercising just extreme levels of compassion. Now you got to
meet him.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Right many times.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
I got to meet him, and we all know that
he was big, he was brash, he was bold, but
one of the stories that was told to me, you know,
I can invite it to speak a lot of places
as the CEO of the Mhammad Ali Center, and one
of the places I spoke at was a synagogue recently,
and after speaking, one of the guys came up to
me and he said, I want to tell you this
(07:36):
story about Mohammad visiting a Jewish Senior citizens complex in
Miami years ago. And he came in and he was big, bold, brash,
asking people do you know who I am? Do you
know who I am? And everybody was responding, and there
was one older gentleman in the wheelchair in the corner
who finally spoke up and he says, I know who
(07:57):
you are. You're my favorite boxer. You're Joe Louis. Oh boy.
And the people there started to correct this Genermal were
preparing to and Muhammad said no because he learned that
this man had dementia. And Mohammad said, no, if he
needs me to be Joe Louis today, I'm going to
(08:19):
be Joe Louis.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
And so for the rest of the time that he
was there, he was Joe Louis for the rest of
the day. For that man, isn't that something? Isn't that something?
Isn't that something?
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Well, I just want people to be aware that the
Muhammad Only Center, obviously right now you are staying over.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Yes, we are staying open. Monday and Tuesday are typically
days where we work internally to kind of get ready
for the community. Will be open at ten am on
Wednesday and throughout the week, and so the doors are open.
We're continuing to welcome the community in actually Terry on
the days when j CPS is out. It's amazing to
me how many young people and their families show up.
(08:55):
I think oftentimes parents would just pull up to the
Alley Center and kick their kids out of learned something.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Good place to be there.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
It is, it is indeed, so you.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Can soak up so much of life's joy through Muhammad's
eyes and his legacy at the at the place, it's
just so much more than boxing. I hope people will
give it time. I'm so glad to see you again the.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Same here, my friend. Thank you for having us. You know,
we've got so much more cooking. We're gonna encourage people
to go to Ali Uhh Center dot org, AI Center
dot org. We've got a host of events that are
coming up five two Tuesday at Churchill Downs, we'll be
celebrating Muhammad Ali Day.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
There.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
We've got another Daughters of Greatness. We'll be celebrating daughters
here locally who do great things in the spirit of
Muhammad Ali. We just celebrated Maggie Harlowe Corenza Townshend with
Norton Healthcare, who helped build the hospital in.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
West Louis a Network News story the other night.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yes, yes, big, big news, phenomenal and so she's incredible.
So we'll be celebrating her. And we've got Ali Fest
which is coming up in May thirtieth through June third.
You'll recall, probably one of the greatest moments in this
city's history was how we celebrated the life of Muhammad
when he passed away, and every year since then we've
(10:15):
used that time of year, Terry to try to build
that kind of energy in this community where we share love,
show respect, and celebrate kindness together.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
We will visit again on that prior to Ali Fest.
Let's do it great see again. Thank you, my friend
Davon Holds, CEO, Muhammad Ali Center
There's always something there to remind me by Naked Eyes,
Verry good young man Naked Eyes. They went on to
have a slew of hits like, uh was this one
and uh well there was this one. Oh yeah, that's right,
I did it. Promises promises and uh, I think that
(00:20):
completes the record of hits. And that's something like these
British boys are probably walking around someone you know who
I am. I had a hit song forty years ago,
well maybe one and a half hits. Yeah, well, can
I still have the pancakes that I ordered? I mean
that is that what we're doing here? That's how it goes,
mister naked eyes. Naked Eyes in the studio with me
(00:43):
is the CEO of the Muhammad Ali Center and just
an all around great Louisville and Devon Holt. It's great
to see you again, Terry.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I still think those guys deserve their pancakes because that
song was hot.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Isn't he in a phone booth in the video?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Remember it was.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
You who is this? I love you?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
I like that song.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Those experimental days though a video, Yeah, that was an
open thing. They were like, just do something, we gotta
have a video for MTV. So just just do something,
and like Journey goes, well, we don't want to. Why
do we gotta make a video? Just we need one?
So they went down to the docks in New Orleans
and you know, they did one of their big hit
(01:30):
songs there and they're just standing there in front of
a warehouse.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
They did it in about fifteen.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Its low budget, and look at it. It's probably got
a million YouTube views right now.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Right you are.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah, Well, it's good to see you again. We're neighbors. Yes,
the Muhammad Ali Centers right over here, next to our studios,
and you guys are doing so many wonderful things in
this community. It's always good to have you over.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Thank you, Terry. You know we I was debating whether
or not I was gonna walk over here, drive over here,
or canoe over here.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Oh, that's right, you are right on it.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
We are right on it. If you look out our
sixth floor window, which I argue is still one of
the best views of the Ohio River in all of Louisville,
you will see more water than than than you can imagine,
and it presses up past River Road onto Sixth Street,
(02:26):
which is where Muhammad Ali Center is located. Right before Maine,
and that water, along with all the debris, has just
crowded Sixth Street, and it's amazing to see how many
people are showing up. I'm like, are you here to
see the Ali Center? You want to come in? No,
we just we're taking pictures on the drift Wood Street.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yeah, it's such an odd vision. Yeah it is.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
And obviously you don't have anything of value down there
on a low level to clean up mess though.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Well, I will tell you literally, as I was on
my way here. We as a precaution and I don't
think we're gonna necessarily need it, but you always want
to be safe than sorry. The Rose Royce Mohammad's Mohammad's
not Roy's Rolls Royce, which is on the lower level
of the Muhammad Ali Center. We had some guys come
(03:16):
in and lift it up, so it's about a foot
off the ground now just in case, but based on predictions,
we don't anticipate that we'll have any water inside the building,
but just in case, we want to protect one of
our greatest assets at the Muhammad Ali Center, Mohammad's Rose Royce.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
How come that's not inside I'm just curious, Well.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
It's inside but it's just on the lower level inside
on the.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Lower level of the Yeah. No, no, no storage or something. No, no,
it's on display. You can you can take pictures of it,
h and with it. But I think as we reimagine
the Ali Center for the next twenty years, we might
be moving that upstairs.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
I'd say.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
So, so let's talk about the growth to the Muhammad
Ali Center. What's happened with it? Are you getting ample
sponsorship and as leadership supporting so the.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
People are showing up Terry. You know, we just had
this past Saturday, a celebration Arab American Day at the
Muhammad Ali Center, and oodles of people from around the
region showed up to the Muhammad Ali Center. And so
(04:30):
we continue to have these these programs, these events and
these activities that continue to bring people to the Muhammad
Ali Center. Uh And in many cases they're showing up
for those activities, but they while they're there starting to
realize that this is one pretty cool place. And so
so we get our hooks and people in a lot
of different ways. You know that we were planning a
(04:52):
huge thunder over Louisville event at the Muhammad Ali Center.
When I started, you werecalling. I came over here in
with you and we talked about one of the priorities
of mine as the new CEO, and that was to
make sure that we did more to bring the community
into the Muhammad Ali Center to get more engaged, more interactive.
(05:13):
And this was going to be our way of doing that.
We were opening the doors of the Muhammad Ali Center
for people who needed a safe, clean, dry place to
watch the fireworks in the air show. And obviously we
had to put that on the back burner because Thunder
of Louisville is probably going to be safer in twenty
(05:36):
twenty six than it's going to be than it would
have been in twenty two.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
He had no doubt about it. And in the facility,
the Muhammad Ali Center is so much more multi dimensional,
and I think a lot of people realize it is
I think, oh, it's a boxing museum. No no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
No no, no. So much more than that. You know,
part of what Mohammad wanted to do he and Lonnie
when they were building out the Muhammad Ali Center was
not just to his story as a box. I mean,
you can't tell Mohammed's story without speaking of him as
a boxer, as a matter of fact, the greatest of
all time. But it wasn't so much him as a
(06:11):
boxer that they wanted to tell the story. They wanted
to tell the story of him as the people's champ,
which is different because the people's champ is the person
that we've come to know outside of the boxing ring.
And that's the other person, the other element of Muhammad
that's on display that is designed to help people recognize
(06:32):
his humanitarian service, his commitment to people, the compassion he
displayed in the work outside of the ring that he did.
And he was very intentional about wanting this space to
be used as a place that inspired the next generation
of change makers.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
And there's a famous moment and I forgot which city.
Some man was talking about killing himself and Mohammad and yes,
Los Angeles was able to talk ye window and yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
He talked him out of it. And there were so
many examples of that. I will tell you, though, Terry.
You know the stories after story after story of Muhammad
exercising just extreme levels of compassion. Now you got to
meet him.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Right many times.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
I got to meet him, and we all know that
he was big, he was brash, he was bold, but
one of the stories that was told to me, you know,
I can invite it to speak a lot of places
as the CEO of the Mhammad Ali Center, and one
of the places I spoke at was a synagogue recently,
and after speaking, one of the guys came up to
me and he said, I want to tell you this
(07:36):
story about Mohammad visiting a Jewish Senior citizens complex in
Miami years ago. And he came in and he was big, bold, brash,
asking people do you know who I am? Do you
know who I am? And everybody was responding, and there
was one older gentleman in the wheelchair in the corner
who finally spoke up and he says, I know who
(07:57):
you are. You're my favorite boxer. You're Joe Louis. Oh boy.
And the people there started to correct this Genermal were
preparing to and Muhammad said no because he learned that
this man had dementia. And Mohammad said, no, if he
needs me to be Joe Louis today, I'm going to
(08:19):
be Joe Louis.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
And so for the rest of the time that he
was there, he was Joe Louis for the rest of
the day. For that man, isn't that something? Isn't that something?
Isn't that something?
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Well, I just want people to be aware that the
Muhammad Only Center, obviously right now you are staying over.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Yes, we are staying open. Monday and Tuesday are typically
days where we work internally to kind of get ready
for the community. Will be open at ten am on
Wednesday and throughout the week, and so the doors are open.
We're continuing to welcome the community in actually Terry on
the days when j CPS is out. It's amazing to
me how many young people and their families show up.
(08:55):
I think oftentimes parents would just pull up to the
Alley Center and kick their kids out of learned something.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Good place to be there.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
It is, it is indeed, so you.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Can soak up so much of life's joy through Muhammad's
eyes and his legacy at the at the place, it's
just so much more than boxing. I hope people will
give it time. I'm so glad to see you again the.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Same here, my friend. Thank you for having us. You know,
we've got so much more cooking. We're gonna encourage people
to go to Ali Uhh Center dot org, AI Center
dot org. We've got a host of events that are
coming up five two Tuesday at Churchill Downs, we'll be
celebrating Muhammad Ali Day.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
There.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
We've got another Daughters of Greatness. We'll be celebrating daughters
here locally who do great things in the spirit of
Muhammad Ali. We just celebrated Maggie Harlowe Corenza Townshend with
Norton Healthcare, who helped build the hospital in.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
West Louis a Network News story the other night.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yes, yes, big, big news, phenomenal and so she's incredible.
So we'll be celebrating her. And we've got Ali Fest
which is coming up in May thirtieth through June third.
You'll recall, probably one of the greatest moments in this
city's history was how we celebrated the life of Muhammad
when he passed away, and every year since then we've
(10:15):
used that time of year, Terry to try to build
that kind of energy in this community where we share love,
show respect, and celebrate kindness together.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
We will visit again on that prior to Ali Fest.
Let's do it great see again. Thank you, my friend
Davon Holds, CEO, Muhammad Ali Center
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