He boasted he was “The Greatest,” and in the prime of his charismatic career, he proved it. But as brilliant as Muhammad Ali was in the ring, perhaps his true greatness was outside it when he fought the United States government. His refusal to accept induction into the armed forces on religious grounds cost him millions and his heavyweight title, but in the end Ali came up victorious in the most significant battle of his life.
He was born Cassius Clay on Jan. 18, 1942, in Louisville, Ky. Clay, who started fighting at the age of 12, won two national Golden Gloves middleweight championships and an AAU national light-heavyweight title. Soon after graduating from high school, Clay won the light-heavyweight gold medal at the 1960 Olympics in Rome. The sports world is filled with showmen and great athletes, but perhaps never were they better combined than in the young man who began life as Cassius Clay and became a worldwide phenomenon as Muhammad Ali. The man who bragged about his ability to “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” went from being a curious oddity in the early 1960s to a national villain to an international hero. And now, his body limited by Parkinson’s disease, he reigns as one of the most beloved men on the planet.
In his early pro bouts, Clay showed unbelievable hand and foot speed for someone 6-foot-3 and about 190 pounds. As he developed, he showed a stinging jab and an improving right hand. He held his hands low and avoided punches to the head by bobbing out of the way.
The brash youngster was a terrific self-promoter, mugging for the camera and boasting that not only was he the greatest fighter, he also was the prettiest. He predicted in rhyme, with unerring accuracy, the round in which he would knock out his opponent (“They all fall/in the round I call”). In a period when interest in boxing had waned, Clay revitalized the sport.
While he had brought life to the sport, the boxing press was not convinced Clay was ready to dethrone heavyweight champ Sonny Liston. Before the Feb. 25, 1964 fight in Miami Beach, 43 of 46 writers predicted a Liston victory. A 7-1 underdog, Clay scored a stunning upset when Liston didn’t come out for the seventh round, claiming a shoulder injury.
The next morning he confirms he had joined the Nation of Islam. On March 6, the sect’s leader, Elijah Muhammad, gave a radio address which he declared the name Cassius Clay lacked a “divine meaning.” He gave him the muslim name “Muhammad Ali.” Muhammad meant one worthy of praise, and Ali was the name of a cousin of the prophets.
The popular opinion was that the heavyweight champ shouldn’t be preaching what was considered a “hate religion.” Ali’s popularity nose-dived.
Promoters shied away from his rematch with Liston, and it was held in front of only a few thousand fans in Lewiston, Maine, on May 25, 1965. Liston never made it past the first round, Ali scoring a knockout with what some claim was a “phantom punch.” Six months later, Ali unmercifully punished former champ Floyd Patterson before the fight was stopped in the 12th round.
Ali successfully defended his title seven more times through March 22, 1967. But his TKO of Zora Folley was his last fight in the ring for 3½ years. Now, Ali’s opponent was Uncle Sam. When the military attempted to draft him, Ali said he was a conscientious objector. “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong,” he had said in 1966. Appearing for his scheduled induction on April 28, 1967 in Houston, he refused three times to step forward at the call of his name. An officer warned him he was committing a felony punishable by five years in prison and a fine of $10,000. Once more Ali refused to budge when his name was called That day, the New York State Athletic Commission suspended his boxing license and stripped him of his title. Other boxing commissions followed suit.
He was involved in several historic boxing matches and feuds, most notably his fights with Joe Frazier, such as the Fight of the Century, which has been called “the biggest boxing event, if not the biggest sporting event, of all time and the Thrilla in Manila, and also his fight with George Foreman, known as The Rumble in the Jungle, which was watched by a record estimated television audience of 1 billion viewers worldwide, becoming the world’s most-watched live television broadcast at the time. Ali thrived in the spotlight at a time when many fighters let their managers do the talking, and he was often provocative and outlandish. He was known for trash-talking, and often free-styled with rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry, anticipating elements of hip hop
He has been ranked the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time, and as the greatest sportsman of the 20th century by Sports Illustrated and the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC.
Outside the ring, Ali attained success as a spoken word artist, where he received two Grammy nominations. He also featured as an actor and writer, releasing two autobiographies. Ali retired from boxing in 1981 and focused on religion, philanthropy and activism. In 1984, he made public his diagnosis of Parkinson’s syndrome, which some reports attribute to boxing-related injuries, though he and his specialist physicians disputed this. He remained an active public figure globally, but in his later years made fewer public appearances as his condition worsened, and he was cared for by his family. Ali died on June 3, 2016.