He is recognized as the greatest athlete of
modern times.
In the boxing ring, he was nothing short of
superb, punishing his opponents at will.
Yet, it was outside of the ring that he he
would have his greatest battles – and show
the world what it really meant to be a man.
In this week’s Biographix, we discover what
it was that made Muhammad Ali the greatest.
It’s just a job.
Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand.
I beat people up.
Early Life
Cassius Marcellus Clay was born om January
17th, !942 in Louisville, Kentucky.
His father, Cassius, Senior, was a sign painter,
while his mother, Odessa, worked as a maid
for wealthy white folks in Louisville.
A precocious but polite child, young Cassius
was raised as a God-fearing Baptist along
with his younger brother Rudy.
In his younger years he gave no indication
to his athletic future.
He steered clear of sports, preferring to
play marbles with Rudy or read comic books
on his bed.
In 1954, when he was twelve years, Cassius
and a friend rode their bicycles to the Columbia
Auditorium, which was hosting the Louisville
Home Show.
They spent the afternoon checking out the
wares of various African-American merchants
and gorging themselves on the free popcorn
and candy that was on offer.
When they emerged from the exhibition, the
boys were dismayed to discover that Cassius’
brand new red and white Schwinn bike was missing.
It had been stolen.
Cassius was livid with rage.
Crying and upset he began asking people if
they’d seen who took his bike.
A woman suggested that he report the theft
to Officer Joe Martin who operated a boxing
gym in a nearby basement.
Finding Martin, Cassius explained what had
happened, adding that he was going to ‘whup’
whoever had taken his bike.
Martin, who had been coaching youth boxing
for decades, asked the boy if he knew how
to fight.
When Cassius admitted that he didn’t, the
officer suggested that he’d better learn.
It was the beginning of a long friendship
and a glorious career.
* * *
An Emerging Champ
Cassius threw himself into boxing training
with a passion and commitment that impressed
Martin.
Although he had very little natural skill,
he had more heart than anyone else in the
gym.
He’d race to the gym every day as soon as
school let out and would even train on Saturdays.
Martin had never seen a kid work so hard.
Outside of the gym, Cassius stayed away from
anything that would interfere with his training.
He was displaying the kind of determination
and discipline that was lacking in many of
the older boxers that Martin coached.
Martin introduced Cassius to a local boxing
trainer named Fred Stoner, who helped to teach
him the fundamentals of the sport.
Under the guidance of these two men, young
Clay began winning one amateur bout after
another.
Month after month, year after year, a handful
of amateur wins built up a formidable record.
By the age of 18 he had won 108 bouts, six
Kentucky Golden Gloves championships and two
national AAU titles.
In the ring, Cassius was fearless.
He carried a self confidence and believe in
his ability that put his opponents off guard
before the first round bell had even sounded.
But in his personal life he struggled.
He was a poor student, with his teachers unable
to understand why he couldn’t transfer the
dedication he put into his sport to his studies.
No one realized at the time that his struggles
in school were due to the reading disability,
dyslexia.
In February, 1957, Professional Boxer Willie
Pastrano visited Louisville with his trainer,
Angelo Dundee.
Cassius found out where he was staying and
phoned Pastrano’s hotel room.
The phone was picked up by Dundee.
Cassius blurted out that he was going to be
the world’s greatest boxer and that he wanted
to meet Pastrano.
With nothing on their schedule that afternoon,
Dundee and Pastrano invited Cassius to their
hotel room.
For the next several hours, Cassius peppered
Pastrano with questions, only pausing long
enough to predict his own future greatness.
A bemused Angelo Dundee was impressed with
the boy and kept in touch with him.
He sometimes sent Cassius and his family free
tickets when one of his boxers had a fight
lined up in Louisville.
* * *
Olympic Gold
In March, 1959, Cassius was training in a
gym in Chicago, Illinois prior to an AAU title
bout.
He overheard some other boxers talking about
a group called the Nation of Islam, who were
espousing Black pride.
Back home in Louisville, he decided to learn
more about the group by doing a school assignment
about them.
However, his teacher shut the idea down, telling
him that the group were dangerous and that
they preached hatred against all white people.
Clay, however, was still intrigued by the
Nation of Islam.
He got hold of a copy of a newspaper they
put out and reading as much as he could about
them.
At the same time, he was wrestling with the
weighty decision about what direction to take
his boxing future.
People had been talking him up as a hot prospect
for the 1960 Olympics in Rome.
At that time, only amateurs were eligible
to compete at the Olympics, so he had to decide
if he was going to turn professional or compete
in Rome as part of the United States boxing
team.
He turned to Angelo Dundee for advice.
Dundee told Cassius that he could earn more
money as a pro if he was an Olympic champion
first.
As a result, he decided to stay an amateur
and compete in the Olympics.
By the time the American Olympic team were
set to depart for Italy, Clay was in peak
physical condition and mentally primed for
victory.
But, there was one slight problem – he was
terrified at the prospect of flying on a plane.
In fact, he was so terrified that he almost
passed up the opportunity to represent his
country.
He only relented when his old friend and mentor,
Joe Martin, convinced him to fly with a parachute
on his back!
Fortunately, Cassius didn’t need to operate
his parachute and the plane touched down in
Rome without incident.
He began his Olympic campaign with a quick
two-round win over Belgium’s Yvon Because.
That victory was followed with a win over
the Soviet Union’s Genrdiy Shatkov, the
gold medal winner at the 1956 Olympics.
Cassius then triumphed in the semi-finals,
defeating Australia’s Anthony Madigan.
The only man standing between Clay and Olympic
glory was Poland’s Zbigniew Pietrzykowski.
In contrast to Cassius, who had only been
boxing for six years, Pietrzykowski was a
three-time European Champ and had even won
bronze at the 1956 Olympics.
However, it was Clay who played the more aggressive
game, throwing an avalanche of punches to
take a first round lead.
The Polish champ was unable to recover and,
at the end of three rounds, Cassius claimed
the Olympic Light heavyweight gold medal.
* * *
Cassius returned to Louisville a local hero,
with even the mayor turning out to receive
him.
He was so proud of his victory that he wore
his gold medal everywhere.
About a week after his return, he and a friend
ducked into a restaurant to get out of the
rain.
But when they tried to order a couple of cheeseburgers
and milkshakes, they were told that the restaurant
did not serve Black people and were thrown
out.
Cassius Clay was an Olympic champion.
Yet he was still a second class citizen in
his hometown.
Standing on the Second Street Bridge, he grabbed
his gold medal, ripped it from his neck and
threw it into the Ohio River.
Turning Pro
Despite his frustration with the social climate,
Cassius was facing a bright boxing future.
Turning professional, he was sponsored by
a group of local white businessmen who agreed
to sponsor him.
They offered to pay him ten thousand dollars
up front and to cover all of his training
expenses.
In return, they would take half of his earnings
for the next six years.
Despite his impressive victories in Rome,
boxing pundits didn’t expect a great career
for Clay.
The consensus was that had quick footwork,
but not much else.
He spent too much energy, they said, dancing
around the ring and, when he leant back to
protect his face, he would leave his body
exposed.
However, Cassius relied on his long reach
to strike his opponents from a distance.
Cassius wanted to train under Angelo Dundee,
but his sponsors sent him to California to
wprk with a trainer by the name of Archie
Moore.
He made his pro debut in front of his home
crowd on October 29th, 1960, His opponent
was Tunney Hansaker.
Clay won the fight with a unanimous six round
decision.
It was a great start to his pro career.
But Clay wasn’t happy with Archie Moore’s
training style and he headed to Miami and
asked Angelo Dundee to take over as his trainer.
Dundee agreed, but it meant that Cassius had
to live in a very rough neighborhood that
was filled with gangs, drugs and prostitution.
Still, he took immediately to his new training
environment, flourishing under the tutelage
of Dundee.
By now it had become evident that Cassius
was a master self promoter.
In fact, his mouth worked faster than his
fists.
He never tired of announcing that he was the
greatest, the prettiest and the fastest athlete
to ever step into a ring.
But, he was soon encouraged to talk even more.
In June, 1961, Clay traveled to Las Vegas
for a boxing match.
While in Vegas, he went to see a wrestler
by the name of Gorgeous George.
Cassius watched as George acted outrageously,
trash talking his opponent for an upcoming
match.
He talked endlessly before, and even during,
the match.
The whole crowd rooted for the other guy.
After the match, Cassius met George backstage.
The wrestler explained that his self promotion
was designed to get as many people as possible
to pay to come and see someone shut his mouth.
He advised Clay to keep sassing his opponents
and to always be outrageous.
He also told him to find a gimmick to set
himself apart.
Clay soon found his gimmick – he would predict
the round that he would win the match in.
* * *
Heavyweight Champ
On November 15th, 1962 Cassius met his former
trainer Archie Moore in the ring.
Moore claimed that he had developed a ‘lip
buttoner’ punch to finally silence the Louisville
Lip, as Cassius had come to be known.
In response, Clay predicted a fourth round
knockout.
And that is precisely how the fight went down.
Cassius was now a sixteen win, zero loss pro.
He felt he had earned a shot at the heavyweight
world champ, Sonny Liston.
He engaged upon a campaign of taunting Liston
into taking the challenge.
He began referring to the champ as a big ugly
bear, and even once traveled to his hometown
of Springfield, Colorado and banged on his
door at three in the morning to call out the
champ.
Clay made sure that TV cameras were recording
every second of the charade.
Finally, Liston had had enough and agreed
to take on the upstart.
The heavyweight champ made a prediction of
his own – pain!
It was no idle threat.
Liston was a mountain of a man who had a killer
punch.
He was considered by many boxing experts to
be unbeatable.
Cassius trained hard for this, the biggest
fight of his life.
But he didn’t give it his absolute focus.
Both Cassius and his brother Rudy were becoming
increasingly interested in the Nation of Islam.
They started attending meetings and Cassius
became enamored with leader Elijah Muhammad,
along with the group’s spokesman Malcolm
X.
As the brothers spent more and more time at
their local mosque in Miami, Malcom told Cassius
to wear his Nation of Islam membership proudly.
The brothers spent more and more time at their
local mosque in Miami.
When the title fight sponsors learned that
the challenger was associating with the Nation
of Islam, they threatened to cancel the event
unless he disavowed the group.
But Clay would not abandon his newfound faith.
He was prepared to walk away from boxing to
stay true to himself.
The sponsors backed down and the fight went
ahead.
Liston was used to knocking opponents out
in the early rounds, but Clay was too fast.
His quick feet danced around the ring and
Liston was unable to touch him.
After a grueling six rounds, Liston refused
to come out for the seventh.
The twenty-two year old Cassius Clay was now
the youngest heavyweight champ in history.
As great a shock as his win was, it was superceded
the very next day when he officially announced
that he was a member of the Nation of Islam
and that he was changing his name to Cassius
X.
A week later the name evolved into Muhammad
Ali.
The Nation of Islam were very unpopular with
most of America.
It was predicted that, if he fought Liston
again, there wouldn’t be anyone rooting
for him.
The two did meet again – on May 25th, 1965.
Many in the anxious crowd expected to see
Liston win back the title he had lost to Ali.
Instead they were stunned to see the former
champ get knocked out in the first round.
On November 22nd,1965, Ali successfully defended
his title against former champ Floyd Patterson.
Patterson had spoken out against the Nation
of Islam and refused to call Ali by his Muslim
name.
Ali made him pay for the sleight, mercilessly
pounding him while yelling, ‘What’s my
name?’
In 1966, Ali defended his title 5 times, four
of those defenses being held outside the United
States.
On February 6th, 1967 he fought Ernie Terrell
in Houston, Texas.
Terrell had enraged Ali by, just like Floyd
Patterson before him, refusing to call Ali
by his name.
The result was what many believe to be the
worst beating every dished out in a professional
boxing match.
The champ tortured Terrell for the full 15
rounds, bringing him just short of a knockout
and then backing off, only to wallop him again
with further combinations.
Ali won a unanimous points decision.
* * *
Taking a Stand
Ali’s next battle would pit him against
the might of the United States government.
On April 28th, 1967, he turned up at the Houston
Induction Center for the US Armed Forces.
When the time came for him to take one step
forward, signifying his induction, Ali didn’t
move.
He explained that his religious believes prevented
him from joining the army and killing people
with whom he had no quarrel.
He further stated that he could not, in good
conscience give support to a war that he felt
to be morally wrong.
Within 24 hours Ali had been stripped of his
heavyweight title as well as his license to
box in every state in the country.
In an instant the title that he had worked
so hard for was gone.
When the US Government took away his passport
he couldn’t even box overseas.
They had effectively taken away his livelihood.
However, the champ was never going to lie
down.
He became am unlikely hero to the millions
of young anti-war activists around the nation.
He spoke at the most prestigious Universities,
where he was introduced as the first national
figure with the courage to stand up against
the war in Vietnam.
Still, the late 60’s were lean years for
Ali.
On August 17th 1967 he married Belinda Boyd.
The next year they had a child, Maryum.
But Ali’s name brought him new opportunities
and he managed to make ends meet.
He did everything from opening a restaurant
called Champ Burgers to starring in the musical
Big Time Buck White.
As the years passed, Muhammad continue training
in the hope that he would one day get the
opportunity to reclaim his title.
Finally, towards the end of 1970, some promoters
in Georgia, which didn’t have a boxing commission,
organized a bout against Jerry Quarry.
Though slower than he had been, Ali won in
convincing fashion.
Now other states considered letting him fight
again.
If he could get another win under his belt,
he might even get a shot at reigning champ
Joe Frazier.
Coming Back
To get to Frazier, Ali had to first defeat
Oscar Bonavena.
The fight almost went the full 15 rounds,
with Bonavena taking a great deal of punishment.
But he also dished out a level of abuse that
Muhammad had never had to withstand before.
Still Ali won in a last round TKO.
The fight of the century – the first ever
between two undefeated heavyweight champs
– took place on March 8th, 1971.
Frazier and Ali traded blow after blow.
Five years before, Ali would have easily dodged
some of Frazier’s punches.
But now he could only take the hits and fight
through the pain and abuse.
The fight went the distance.
It could have gone either way, but in the
end it was a unanimous decision to Frazier.
Muhammad Ali had suffered his first profession
loss.
Still, he was determined to get back on top.
He followed up his loss by winning ten fights
in a row.
But in his 11th he was stopped by the formidable
Ken Norton who broke Ali’s jaw.
But Ali came back in a rematch, knocking out
Norton in the sixth round.
Next came the rematch that he really wanted.
He fought Joe Frazier, who had lost his title
to George Foreman, for the second time on
January 28th, 1974, winning in a twelve round
unanimous decision.
But Ali still didn’t have his title back.
To claim it, he would have to defeat the new
champ.
The twenty-four year old Foreman had so far
won forty fights, and his last eight hadn’t
gone past the second round.
On paper it looked like the thirty-two year
old Ali didn’t have a chance.
The fight took place in Kinshasha, Zaire on
October 30th, 1974.
Over the early rounds it appeared as if Ali
was out of his depth, with Foreman apparently
pounding him at will.
What Ali was actually doing was allowing Foreman
to punch himself to exhaustion.
In the eight round, Muhammad came to life
and delivered a devastating series of blows
that put Foreman on the canvas.
The champ had reclaimed his heavyweight title.
A year later he faced Joe Frazier for the
third time.
Many believe that this was the hardest fought
heavyweight clash of all time.
Round after round, the stunned crowd watched
in awe as the battered boxers somehow fought
beyond exhaustion.
In the end, Ali was declared the winner in
the fourteenth round.
He was so exhausted that he couldn’t even
stand up to celebrate.
A Waning Career
An aging Ali defended his title seven more
times before squaring up to an unknown challenger
by the name of Leon Spinks on February 15th,
1978.
Ali underestimated the challenger, training
lightly and not taking the fight seriously
enough.
That night he lost his title to a man who
didn’t even deserve to be in the ring with
him at his prime.
Eight months later, despite obvious signs
of developing Parkinson’s Disease, he avenged
the loss to claim an unprecedented 3rd world
heavyweight championship.
Nine months later he retired from the ring.
But his time out of the ring would last for
less than a year.
On October 18th, 1980 he suffered a crushing
defeat at the hands of his former sparring
partner, Larry Holmes.
A year later, he was dispatched by a far less
impressive Trevor Berbick.
Time had finally caught up with Muhammad Ali.
Over the next decade his Parkinson’s Disease
got steadily worse.
The body that had served him so well was giving
up on him.
Still, he wasn’t done yet.
In the late 1980’s Muhammad Ali embarked
on a new career as a humanitarian, statesman
and promoter of tolerance and peace worldwide.
By the time he left us on June 3rd, 2016,
he was recognized as one of the great men,
and certainly the greatest athlete of 
the 20th century.
