Background

Ethnicity: Some sources claimed, that Ali's father's paternal grandmother, Sallie Anne Clay, was a native of Madagascar. Ali's maternal great-grandfather, Abe Grady, emigrated from Ennis, County Clare, Ireland.

Muhammad Ali was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, to Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sr and Odessa Grady Clay. He was the eldest of the two sons of this couple. His father earned a living by painting billboards and signs.

Education

Ali or Cassius Clay, as he was known then, finished high school at Louisville High. He wasn't a bright student but he was very popular in school because of his obsession with the sport of boxing even at his young age. He'd shadowbox in school corridors and, still, in front of the mirror inside the restroom. In spite of his reputation as a gifted young boxer appearing regularly in local boxing shows, Clay was a sweet, charming and very likable fellow. His school principal, Mr. Atwood Wilson, was particularly fond of him that when there was any sort of trouble among the students, he'd switch on the PA and say something like, "Stop the crap or I'll put Cassius Clay on you!". And when Clay's teachers refused to allow him to graduate, Wilson interfered and gave an impassioned speech saying that "One day, this kid, in a single fight, will get more than all you teachers earn in a year combined, and our claim to fame will be that we taught Cassius Clay." This discourse became known in school lore as the "Claim to Fame" speech.

On June 5, 2007, Ali received an honorary doctorate in humanities at Princeton University's 260th graduation ceremony.

Career

When Clay was 12 years old, he took up boxing under the tutelage of Louisville policeman Joe Martin. After advancing through the amateur ranks, he won a gold medal in the 175-pound division at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome and began a professional career under the guidance of the Louisville Sponsoring Group, a syndicate composed of 11 wealthy white men.

In his early bouts as a professional, Clay was more highly regarded for his charm and personality than for his ring skills. He sought to raise public interest in his fights by reading childlike poetry and spouting self-descriptive phrases such as "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." He told the world that he was "the Greatest," but the hard realities of boxing seemed to indicate otherwise. Clay infuriated devotees of the sport as much as he impressed them. He held his hands unconventionally low, backed away from punches rather than bobbing and weaving out of danger, and appeared to lack true knockout power. The opponents he was besting were a mixture of veterans who were long past their prime and fighters who had never been more than mediocre. Thus, purists cringed when Clay predicted the round in which he intended to knock out an opponent, and they grimaced when he did so and bragged about each new conquest.

On February 25, 1964, Clay challenged Sonny Liston for the heavyweight championship of the world. Liston was widely regarded as the most intimidating, powerful fighter of his era. Clay was a decided underdog. But in one of the most stunning upsets in sports history, Liston retired to his corner after six rounds, and Clay became the new champion. Two days later Clay shocked the boxing establishment again by announcing that he had accepted the teachings of the Nation of Islam. On March 6, 1964, he took the name Muhammad Ali, which was given to him by his spiritual mentor, Elijah Muhammad.

For the next three years, Ali dominated boxing as thoroughly and magnificently as any fighter ever had. In a May 25, 1965 rematch against Liston, he emerged with a first-round knockout victory. Triumphs over Floyd Patterson, George Chuvalo, Henry Cooper, Brian London, and Karl Mildenberger followed. On November 14, 1966, Ali fought Cleveland Williams. Over the course of three rounds, Ali landed more than 100 punches, scored four knockdowns, and was hit a total of three times. Ali's triumph over Williams was succeeded by victories over Ernie Terrell and Zora Folley.

Ali was stripped of his title as he refused to render his services to the army in the Vietnam War. Not only was his boxing license suspended - he was sentenced to three and a half years in prison along with a fine. In October 1970, Ali was allowed to return to boxing, but his skills had eroded. Ali prevailed in his first two comeback fights, against Jerry Quarry and Oscar Bonavena. Then, on March 8, 1971, he challenged Joe Frazier, who had become heavyweight champion during Ali's absence from the ring. It was a fight of historic proportions, billed as the "Fight of the Century." Frazier won a unanimous 15-round decision.

Following his loss to Frazier, Ali won 10 fights in a row, 8 of them against world-class opponents. Then, on March 31, 1973, a little-known fighter named Ken Norton broke Ali's jaw in the second round en route to a 12-round upset decision. Ali defeated Norton in a rematch. After that, he fought Joe Frazier a second time and won a unanimous 12-round decision. From a technical point of view, the second Ali-Frazier bout was probably Ali's best performance in the ring after his exile from boxing.

On October 30, 1974, Ali challenged George Foreman, who had dethroned Frazier in 1973 to become heavyweight champion of the world. The bout (which Ali referred to as the "Rumble in the Jungle") took place in the unlikely location of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Ali was received by the people of Zaire as a conquering hero, and he did his part by knocking out Foreman in the eighth round to regain the heavyweight title. It was in this fight that Ali employed a strategy once used by former boxing great Archie Moore. Moore called the maneuver "the turtle" but Ali called it "rope-a-dope." The strategy was that, instead of moving around the ring, Ali chose to fight for extended periods of time leaning back into the ropes in order to avoid many of Foreman's heaviest blows.

Over the next 30 months, at the peak of his popularity as champion, Ali fought nine times in bouts that showed him to be a courageous fighter but a fighter on the decline. The most notable of these bouts occurred on October 1, 1975, when Ali and Joe Frazier met in the Philippines, 6 miles (9.5 km) outside Manila, to do battle for the third time. In what is regarded by many as the greatest prizefight of all time (the "Thrilla in Manila"), Ali was declared the victor when Frazier's corner called a halt to the bout after 14 brutal rounds.

The final performances of Ali's ring career were sad to behold. In 1978 he lost his title to Leon Spinks, a novice boxer with an Olympic gold medal but only seven professional fights to his credit. Seven months later Ali regained the championship with a 15-round victory over Spinks. Then he retired from boxing, but two years later he made an ill-advised comeback and suffered a horrible beating at the hands of Larry Holmes in a bout that was stopped after 11 rounds. The final ring contest of Ali's career was a loss by decision to Trevor Berbick in 1981.

Ali's later years were marked by physical decline. Damage to his brain caused by blows to the head resulted in slurred speech, slowed movement, and other symptoms of Parkinson's disease. However, his condition differed from chronic encephalopathy, or dementia pugilistica (which is commonly referred to as "punch drunk" in fighters), in that he did not suffer from injury-induced intellectual deficits.

In 1996 Ali was chosen to light the Olympic flame at the start of the Games of the XXVI Olympiad in Atlanta, Georgia. The outpouring of goodwill that accompanied his appearance confirmed his status as one of the most beloved athletes in the world.

Achievements

• 

  Ali's place in boxing history as one of the greatest fighters ever is secure. His final record of 56 wins and 5 losses with 37 knockouts has been matched by others, but the quality of his opponents and the manner in which he dominated during his prime placed him on a plateau with boxing's immortals. Ali's most tangible ring assets were speed, superb footwork, and the ability to take a punch. But perhaps more important, he had the courage and all the other intangibles that go into making a great fighter.
  
  The dramatic period of his life from 1964 to 1974 was the subject of the film Ali (2001), in which Will Smith starred as Ali. His life story is told in the documentary film I Am Ali (2014), which includes audio recordings that he made throughout his career and interviews with his intimates. Ali was a member of the inaugural class of the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990, and in 2005 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
  
  In 1999, Time magazine named Ali one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century. He was crowned Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated. Named Sports Personality of the Century in a BBC poll, he received more votes than the other contenders (which included Pelé, Jesse Owens and Jack Nicklaus) combined.
  
  On November 19, 2005 (Ali's 19th wedding anniversary), the $60 million non-profit Muhammad Ali Center opened in downtown Louisville. In addition to displaying his boxing memorabilia, the center focuses on core themes of peace, social responsibility, respect, and personal growth.
  
  Ali Mall, located in Araneta Center, Quezon City, Philippines, is named after him. Construction of the mall, the first of its kind in the Philippines, began shortly after Ali's victory in a match with Joe Frazier in nearby Araneta Coliseum in 1975. The mall opened in 1976 with Ali attending its opening.
  
  The 1976 Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki fight played a role in the history of mixed martial arts, particularly in Japan. The match inspired Inoki's students Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki to found Pancrase in 1993, which in turn inspired the foundation of Pride Fighting Championships in 1997. Pride was later acquired by its rival Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2007.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Greatest: My Own Story

    (In his own words, the heavyweight champion of the world p...)

    1975
  • The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life's Journey

    (In The Soul of a Butterfly, the great champion takes read...)

    2003

Religion

Ali's religious views evolved over time. In the mid-1970s, he began to study the Quran seriously and turned to Orthodox Islam. His earlier adherence to the teachings of Elijah Muhammad (e.g., that white people are "devils" and there is no heaven or hell) was replaced by a spiritual embrace of all people and preparation for his own afterlife. In 1984, Ali spoke out publicly against the separatist doctrine of Louis Farrakhan, declaring, "What he teaches is not at all what we believe in. He represents the time of our struggle in the dark and a time of confusion in us, and we don't want to be associated with that at all."

Politics

On April 28, 1967, Ali refused induction into the U.S. Army at the height of the war in Vietnam. This refusal followed a blunt statement voiced by Ali 14 months earlier: "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong." Many Americans vehemently condemned Ali's stand. It came at a time when most people in the United States still supported the war in Southeast Asia. Moreover, although exemptions from military service on religious grounds were available to qualifying conscientious objectors who were opposed to the war in any form, Ali was not eligible for such an exemption, because he acknowledged that he would be willing to participate in an Islamic holy war.

Ali was stripped of his championship and precluded from fighting by every state athletic commission in the United States for three and a half years. In addition, he was criminally indicted and, on June 20, 1967, convicted of refusing induction into the U.S. Armed Forces and sentenced to five years in prison. Although he remained free on bail, four years passed before his conviction was unanimously overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court on a narrow procedural ground.

Views

As the 1960s grew more tumultuous, Ali's impact upon American society was growing, and he became a lightning rod for dissent. Ali's message of black pride and black resistance to white domination was on the cutting edge of the civil rights movement. Having refused induction into the U.S. Army, he also stood for the proposition that "unless you have a very good reason to kill, war is wrong." As black activist Julian Bond later observed, "When a figure as heroic and beloved as Muhammad Ali stood up and said, 'No, I won't go,' it reverberated through the whole society."

Ali was a philanthropist. Over the years, he supported the Special Olympics and the Make-A-Wish Foundation, among other organizations. Ali traveled to numerous countries, including Mexico and Morocco, to help out those in need. In 1998, he was chosen to be a United Nations Messenger of Peace because of his work in developing nations.

Quotations: "The man who has no imagination has no wings."

"Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth."

"I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick; I'm so mean I make medicine sick."

"My way of joking is to tell the truth. That's the funniest joke in the world."

"If they can make penicillin out of mouldy bread, they can sure make something out of you."

Personality

Muhammad Ali was known for his lyrical charm. Often referring to himself as "the Greatest," Ali was not afraid to sing his own praises. He was known for boasting about his skills before a fight and for his colorful descriptions and phrases. In one of his more famously quoted descriptions, Ali told reporters that he could "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" in the boxing ring.

Physical Characteristics: Muhammad Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1984.

On June 2, 2016, he was hospitalized in Scottsdale, Arizona. Despite the fact, that this condition was initially described as fair, it worsened, and the athlete passed away the following day at the age of 74 from septic shock.

Quotes from others about the person

• "For his purposes, Elijah hijacked the impressionable young man's career and filled his head with racist nonsense." - Michael Shelden
  
  "Clay is a good enough fighter, but it's unfortunate that he's a Black Muslim. A champion should represent all sects, not one." - Joe Louis
  
  "Clay showed me that I'll get locked up for murder if we're ever matched." - Sonny Liston
  
  "He was quickly dubbed the 'Louisville Lip,' as he drummed up business with a tongue that was even faster than his fists." - Henry Cooper

Interests

• philanthropy, reading

• Writers

  Holy Quran

• Athletes

  Jack Johnson

Connections

Ali was married four times and had nine children, including two children he fathered outside of marriage. Ali married his first wife, Sonji Roi, in 1964; they divorced after one year when she refused to adopt the Nation of Islam dress and customs.

Ali married his second wife, 17-year-old Belinda Boyd, in 1967. Boyd and Ali had four children together: Maryum, born in 1968; Jamillah and Rasheda, both born in 1970; and Muhammad Ali Jr., born in 1972. Boyd and Ali divorced in 1976.

At the same time, when Ali was married to Boyd, he traveled openly with Veronica Porche, who became his third wife in 1977. The couple had two daughters together, including Laila Ali, who followed in Ali's footsteps by becoming a champion boxer. Porche and Ali divorced in 1986.

Ali married his fourth and final wife Yolanda ("Lonnie") in 1986. The pair had known each other since Lonnie was just six and Ali was 21; their mothers were best friends and raised their families on the same street. Ali and Lonnie remained married until his death and had one son together, Asaad.

Father:

Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr.

(born 1912 - died 1990)

Mother:

Odessa Grady Clay

(born 1917 - died 1994)

Wife:

Yolanda Williams

ex-wife:

Sonji Roi

(born 1945 - died 2005)

ex-wife:

Belinda Boyd

(born 1950)

Son:

Muhammad Ali Jr.

(born 1972)

ex-wife:

Veronica Porche Ali

(born 1955)

Daughter:

Laila Amaria Ali

Laila Amaria Ali (born 1977) is the daughter of Veronica Porché Ali and Muhammad Ali.

Daughter:

Maryum Ali

(born 1968)

Daughter:

Jamillah Ali

(born 1970)

Daughter:

Rasheda Ali

(born 1970)

Son:

Asaad Amin Ali

Daughter:

Hana Ali

(born 1976)

Daughter:

Miya Ali

(born 1972)

Daughter:

Khalilah Ali

(born 1974)

Friend:

Joe Frazier

(born 1944 - died 2011)

References

• Who Was Muhammad Ali?
  1981
• Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times
  1991
• Muhammad Ali
  2015
• The Greatest: Muhammad Ali
  2001
• Muhammad Ali Unfiltered: Rare, Iconic, and Officially Authorized Photos of the Greatest
  2016
• Muhammad Ali: A Champion Is Born
  2017