At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, he won a gold medal as a light
heavyweight boxer. He then turned professional under the tutelage
of boxing legend Angelo Dundee and quickly became famous for his
unorthodox style, his spectacular results, and his tireless self-promotion.
He made a name for himself as the "Louisville Lip" by
composing poems predicting in which round he would knock his opponent
out. He boisterously sang his own praises, with sayings like "I
am the greatest" and "I'm young, I'm pretty, and I can't
possibly be beat."
In Louisville on October 29, 1960 Cassius Clay won his first professional
fight. He won a six-round decision over Tunney Hunsaker who was
the police chief of Fayetteville, West Virginia. From 1960 to 1963,
the young fighter amassed a record of 19-0 with 15 knockouts. He
defeated such boxers as Tony Esperti, Jim Robinson, Donnie Fleeman,
Duke Sabedong, Alonzo Johnson, George Logan, Willi Besmanoff, and
Lamar Clark (who had won his previous 40 bouts by knockout). Among
Clay's more impressive victories were against Sonny Banks (who knocked
him down earlier in the bout), Alejandro Lavorante, and Archie Moore
(a boxing legend who had won over 200 previous fights). Strangely,
Banks and Lavorante were both killed in the ring in later bouts.
Cassius became the number one contender for Sonny Liston's title.
Liston was greatly feared, and some have said that he was the Mike
Tyson of his era. Almost no one gave the young boxer a chance of
beating Liston.
First
Title Fight, Clay versus Liston
Clay, however, had a plan. Misreading Clay's exuberance as nerves,
Liston was over-confident and underprepared for any result but a
quick stoppage. In the opening rounds, Clay's speed -- greater even
than his idols, Sugar Ray Robinson and Archie Moore -- kept him
away from Liston's powerful head and body shots, as he used his
height and reach advantage to effectively counterpunch with the
jab. As early as the third round, Liston began to visibly tire,
and Clay took full advantage, landing several heavy punches. By
the third, Clay was clearly on top and had opened a large cut under
Liston's eye. Liston regained some ground in the fourth, as Clay
was blinded by a foreign substance. It is unknown whether this was
something used to close Liston's cuts or applied to Liston's gloves
for a nefarious purpose. Partially sighted, Clay was able to keep
out of range, and by the fifth and into the sixth, he was looking
for a finish. That came before the seventh, when Liston retired
on his stool, later claiming his shoulder had become dislocated.
Clay leapt out of his corner, proclaiming himself "King of
the World" and demanding the writers eat their words.
Clay was duly crowned the heavyweight champion of the world. He
would confirm his abilities in 1965, when he knocked Liston out
in the first round of their rematch, albeit controversially, as
few observers saw the "phantom punch" that floored Liston.
Clay
becomes Ali
In between the two matches, he also became famous for other reasons:
he joined the Nation of Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali,
although only a few journalists like Howard Cosell accepted it.
In 1966, he refused to serve in the American army during the Vietnam
War as a conscientious objector, famously saying that he "got
nothing against no Viet Cong" and "No Vietnamese ever
called me a nigger." He was stripped of his championship belt
and his license to box and sentenced to five years in prison. The
sentence was overturned on appeal three years later.
Ali's actions in refusing military service and aligning himself
with the Nation of Islam made him a lightning rod of controversy,
turning the outspoken but popular former champion into one of that
era's most recognizable and controversial figures. Appearing at
rallies with Nation of Islam leaders Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm
X and declaring his allegiance to them at a time when mainstream
America viewed them with suspicion—if not actual hostility—made
Ali a target of outrage and suspicion as well. Ali seemed at times
to even provoke such reactions, with viewpoints that wavered from
support for civil rights to outright support of racial separatism.
In 1970, granted a license to box once more following his Supreme
Court victory wherein he was granted his right to refuse military
service, he began a comeback. But he suffered a setback when he
lost his 1971 title fight, a bruising 15-round encounter with Joe
Frazier at Madison Square Garden. This fight, known simply as "The
Fight," was perhaps one of the most famous and eagerly anticipated
bouts of all time, since it featured two skilled, undefeated fighters,
both of whom had reasonable claims to the heavyweight crown. The
fight lived up to the hype, and Frazier punctuated his victory by
flooring Ali with a hard left hook in the final round. Ali split
two bouts with Ken Norton before beating Frazier on points in their
1974 rematch to earn another title shot.
The
Rumble in the Jungle and Thrilla in Manila
The incumbent, George Foreman, was a large, hard-hitting, undefeated
young fighter who had previously demolished Frazier, KO'ing him
in the second round of their championship fight. Foreman was the
heavy favorite. The fight was held in Zaire and promoted by Don
King as "The Rumble in The Jungle." In the October 30,
1974 bout that would cement his reputation as "The Greatest",
Ali boxed his best tactical fight. Leading with his "wrong"
hand and playing "rope-a-dope" by leaning far back on
the ropes (that had supposedly been loosened by Dundee), Ali absorbed
everything Foreman could throw at him, whilst only occasionally
throwing counter-punches. By the end of the sixth round, Foreman
had punched himself out, and Ali was able to attack a little more.
Foreman kept advancing, but his blows were much less effective,
and near the end of the eighth, Ali's right hand finally sent the
exhausted Foreman to the floor. As a result of this fight, he was
awarded the 1974 Hickok Belt as top professional athlete of the
year and Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsman of the Year"
award.
In 1975, Ali defeated Joe Frazier once more in the Thrilla In Manila
in the Philippines. This fight surpassed their earlier bouts and
became one of the most well-known heavyweight fights ever. After
14 grueling rounds, Frazier's trainer Eddie Futch refused to allow
Frazier to continue, and Ali left the winner by TKO. Along with
the "Rumble", his fights with Frazier are widely considered
among the greatest in boxing history. Ring Magazine called this
bout 1975's Fight of the Year, the fifth year an Ali fight had earned
that distinction.
He would retain his title until a 1978 loss to 1976 Olympic champion
Leon Spinks, who was fighting in only his eighth professional fight.
He defeated Spinks in a rematch, becoming the heavyweight champion
for the record third time. Then on June 27, 1979, he announced his
retirement and vacated the title.
That retirement was short-lived, however, and on October 2, 1980,
he challenged Larry Holmes for the WBC's version of the world Heavyweight
title. Looking to set another record, as the first boxer to win
the Heavyweight title four times, he lost by technical knockout
in round eleven, when Dundee would not let him come out for the
round. The Holmes fight, promoted as "The Last Hurrah",
was a fight many fans and experts view with disdain because of what
many viewed as a "deteriorated version" of Ali. Holmes
was Ali's sparring partner when Holmes was a budding fighter; thus,
some viewed the result of the fight as a symbolic "passing
of the torch." Holmes even admitted later that, although he
dominated the fight, he held his punches back a bit out of sheer
respect for his idol and former employer.
Despite the apparent finality of his loss to Holmes and his increasingly
suspect medical condition, Ali would fight one more time. On December
11, 1981, he fought rising contender and future world champion Trevor
Berbick, in what was billed as "The Drama in the Bahamas."
Because Ali was widely viewed as a damaged fighter, few American
venues expressed much interest in hosting the bout, and few fans
expressed much interest in attending or watching it. Compared to
the mega-fights Ali fought in widely known venues earlier in his
career, the match took place in virtual obscurity in Nassau. Although
Ali performed marginally better against Berbick than he had against
Holmes fourteen months earlier, he still lost a 10-round unanimous
decision to Berbick, who at 27 was twelve years younger.
Following this loss, Ali retired permanently in 1981 with a career
record of 56 wins, 37 by knockout, against 5 losses.
Ali had a highly unorthodox style for a heavyweight boxer. He carried
his hands at his sides rather than the orthodox boxing style of
carrying the hands high to defend the face. Instead, he relied on
his extraordinary reflexes and reach (83 inches) to keep him away
from his opponents' blows. Ali punched to the head much more than
most boxers -- a high-risk strategy since, over the duration of
a long fight, punches to the body can be much more effective in
tiring an opponent out.
In
retirement
Ali was diagnosed with Pugilistic Parkinson's syndrome in 1982,
following which his motor functions began a slow decline.
Despite this, he remains a hero to millions around the world. In
1985, he was called on to negotiate for the release of kidnapped
Americans in Lebanon. In 1996, he had the honor of lighting the
Olympic flame in Atlanta, Georgia. At the same Olympics, Ali was
also presented with a replacement gold medal. He had supposedly
thrown the previous one, won in 1960, in the Ohio River after he
had been refused service in a restaurant because of his race. (This
story first appeared in Ali's autobiography, "The Greatest",
and its veracity is in some doubt).
His daughter Laila Ali also became a boxer in 1999 despite her father's
earlier comments against female boxing in 1978: "Women are
not made to be hit in the breast, and face like that... the body's
not made to be punched right here [patting his chest]. Get hit in
the breast... hard... and all that."
The $60 million Muhammad Ali Center is scheduled to open in downtown
Louisville, Kentucky in 2005. In addition to displaying his boxing
memorabilia, the center will focus on core themes of peace, social
responsibility, respect, and personal growth.
Books
Sting Like a Bee, by Jose Torres (with significant contributions
from Bert Randolph Sugar and Norman Mailer). ISBN 0071395881
King Of The World, by David Remnick -- An account of Ali's rise
to greatness, focussing on the two fights with Sonny Liston
[edit]
Films
The Greatest (1977, starring Ali as himself)
Ali (2001, directed by Michael Mann, starring Will Smith)
When We Were Kings (filmed 1974, released 1996, documentary about
the "Rumble in the Jungle" by filmmaker Leon Gast.)
I Am the Greatest: The Adventures of Muhammad Ali, an animated television
series
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