After winning a light heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 summer Olympics for his country in Rome and becoming an Amateur Athletic Union national title winner at only 18 years old, Cassius Clay had the world at his feet. As an amateur, he had won 100 fights and lost only five. Upon returning home, he went to a restaurant with his friend in Ohio and was refused entry due to the colour of his skin. In his autobiogra- phy, he recalls how he proceeded to throw his gold medal into the river.
Ali has had unique success and was world heavyweight champion for three separate periods (1964-67, 1974-78, and 1978-79). Immensely popular, his unique personality in press conferences (coining phrases such as “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”) and epic fights; such as the ‘Thriller in Manila’ against Joe Frazier and ‘Rumble in the jungle’ with George Foreman, made him a hero to many around the world. In his epic bout with Foreman he opted to play “rope- a-dope”, taking huge numbers of punches in order to tire Foreman. After lolling back on the ropes and inviting punishment for 8 rounds against the world champion, Ali burst into life and managed a knockout.
In addition to his sporting prowess, his humanity always managed to shine through. Whilst he won multiple titles, he also lost them. Losing 5 times in his career, his most famous defeats included losing his title to Ken Norton after 12 rounds on a points decision, and then there’s his defeat to Joe Frazer after an epic 15 rounds. Yet what made him so great was that he always came back and triumphed in spite of his setbacks.
Indeed, he overcame adversity through- out his career, inside and outside the ring. In 1967 he was stripped of his heavyweight title and forced to fight through the courts to clear his conviction for draft evasion. He had refused to fight in the Vietnam War, famously stating that, “no Vietcong ever called me n****”. By the time he was cleared, he had been away from boxing for 4 years. However, even after losing years of his prime, he still managed to come back and twice regain the Heavyweight title. He was also a face of the civil rights movement. A friend of Malcom X, in 1964 he converted to Islam and joined the Nation of Islam group, announcing that, “Cassius Clay is my slave name”.
One of the biggest tragedies of Ali’s life has been in his later years, with years of taking punches linked to his contraction of Parkinson’s disease.
He now focusses on supporting the Muhammad Ali Parkinson’s Research Center in Phoenix, Arizona and is a driving force behind the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act, which attempts to improve the condition of professional boxers in the US; protecting the athletes from manipulative trainers and poor conditions.
He was an inspiration to the world, having been voted “sportsman of the century” by Sports Illustrated, and Sports’ Personality of the century by the BBC. Not only a great sportsman, he was a campaigner for civil freedoms and rights, and now is an influential ambassador for international peace. He had to overcome deep prejudices and adversity, whilst revolutionising the sport of boxing.
