Muhammad Ali can be described as a boxer and a sporting icon in his own words as “The Greatest”. Ali once said that it wasn’t boasting if you could back it up, and he surely did that in a career spanning 27 years where he ‘floated like a butterfly’ and ‘stung like a bee’.
He was also one of the richest sportsmen in history earning and amassing a fortune of 65 million dollars by early 1980’s. But Ali started as a normal Afro-American guy who achieved much in later life when he realized that he was in possession of fast legs and hands and an equally fast mouth. He was never afraid of obstacles that came his way in the form of racism, and became stronger in spirit with every impediment he faced in life.
Ali started learning Boxing so he could beat up the person who stole his bike, when he was 12. Later in his later in his career Ali commented that “boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up”. Ali was directed towards learning boxing by Louisville police officer Joe E. Martin. Ali’s last amateur loss was to Kent Green of Chicago, who could say he was the last person to defeat the champion until Ali lost to Joe Frazier in 1971 as a professional. Muhammad Ali went on to win six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union National title, and the Light Heavy Weight Gold Medal in the 1960 Olympics in Rome beating Zibigniew Pietrzykowski of Poland. He later turned professional.
Standing tall, at 6-ft, 3-in (1.91m), Ali had a highly unorthodox style for a heavy weight boxer and brought novelty to heavy weight boxing. Rather than the normal style of carrying the hands high to defend the face, he instead relied on foot speed and doing his “Ali Shuffle” and quickness to avoid punches and carried his hands low delivering devastating blows.
After beating Sonny Liston with what is known by delivering “the Phantom Punch” Ali became the World Heavy weight champion in 1964. It is notable that Ali had not yet changed his name to Ali and was known by his birth name Cassius Clay. He later changed his name to Muhammad Ali after joining and sympathizing with ‘Nation of Islam’, an organization formed to promote Blacks. In 1967 Ali refused to join the Vietnam War draft and was a conscientious objector. He later said that he had no quarrel with Viet Cong and war is against the teachings of the Holy Quran, which is the Holy Book of his new found faith, Islam. After this Ali was stripped of his title and could not fight for nearly 2 years.Ali made a come back in 1970, and tried to regain the world title by beating “Smoking” Joe Frazier, where Frazier beat Ali. Ali said, “Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face to the US Bureau of Wild Life.”
Ali in 1974 fought against George Forman in Zaire (now called Democratic Republic of Congo) to regain his world title. This match was called “Rumble in the Jungle” where he used the technique-Rope a Dope to beat Forman.
