Muhammad Ali 1942–

Former heavyweight boxing champion

At a Glance…

Inspired by Religion

Stripped of Title

Ignored Warnings About Neurological Damage

Selected writings

Sources

Three-time world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, known for his lyrical charm and boasts as much as for his powerful fists, has moved far beyond the boxing ring in both influence and purpose. Ali won an Olympic gold medal for the United States but was later a witness to bitter racism in his own country. As a young man he was recruited by Malcolm X to join the Nation of Islam. He refused to serve in Vietnam—a professional fighter willing to serve time in jail for his pacifist ideals. He has contributed to countless, diverse charities and causes. And his later years have found him interested in world politics as he has battled to keep Parkinson’s disease at bay.

Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., on January 17, 1942, and was raised in a clapboard house in middle-class Louisville, Kentucky. Known as a shy and somewhat old-fashioned youth, he began boxing at the age of 12. A white Louisville patrolman named Joe Martin, who trained local amateur boxers, started Ali working out in Louisville’s Columbia Gym, but it was a black trainer named Fred Stoner who taught Ali the science of boxing. Stoner taught him to move with the grace of a dancer, and impressed upon him the subtle skills necessary to move beyond good and into the realm of great.

After winning an Olympic gold medal at 18, Ali signed the most lucrative contract—a 50-50 split—negotiated by a beginning professional in the history of boxing, with a 12-member group of millionaires called the Louisville Sponsoring Group. Later, he worked his way into contention for the coveted heavyweight title shot by boasting and creating media interest at a time when, by his own admission, he was only ranked number nine on the list of contenders. Even from the beginning, it was clear that Ali was his own man—quick, strong-willed, original, and witty. In 1961 he told Sports Illustrated’s Gilbert Rogin, “Boxing is dying because everybody’s so quiet.… What boxing needs is more … Clays.” Ali knew that his rhymes and press-grabbing claims would infuse more interest and more money into the sport of boxing, and he was his own best public relations man. In February of 1964 he told readers of Sports Illustrated, “If I were like a lot of … heavyweight boxers … you wouldn’t be reading this story right now. If you wonder what the difference between them and me is, I’ll break the news: you never heard of them. I’m not saying they’re not good

At a Glance…

Born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.; name changed to Muhammad Ali, 1963; born January, 17, 1942, in Louisville, KY; son of Cassius (a piano player) and Odessa Clay; first wife named Belinda; second wife named Aaisha; married Veronica Porche; married Yolanda Williams, 1986; children: (third marriage) Hana, Laila; three others. Religion: Muslim.

Former world heavyweight boxing champion. Began professional career, 1960; initially became heavyweight champ, 1964; stripped of title and boxing license over refusal to participate in the Vietnam War, 1966; retired from boxing, 1981. Appeared in film The Greatest, 1976, and television film Freedom Road.

Awards: Olympic Gold Medal in boxing, 1960; six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles; National Golden Gloves titles, 1959-60; world heavyweight championship, 1964-67, 1974-78, 1978-79.

Addresses: Home—Deer Park, Ml.

boxers. Most of them … can fight almost as good as I can. I’m just saying you never heard of them. And the reason for that is because they cannot throw the jive. Cassius Clay is a boxer who can throw the jive better than anybody.”

The following month Ali—then still Cassius Clay—fought Sonny Liston in a match of classic contenders for the heavyweight championship of the world. The Miami fight almost single-handedly restored intelligence and balance to boxing. Cassius Clay had been chanting the war cry “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” for weeks; he beat Liston in a display of beautiful, controlled boxing. Liston could hit with deadly power, but Ali utilized his skills and courage with forethought and aplomb. He won the fight to become heavyweight champion of the world. At the tender age of 22 Ali knew that he was something above and beyond a great boxer: He had marketing sense, political finesse, and a feeling of noble purpose.

Throughout his career and life, Ali has always professed to want to help other black Americans—and he has, time and time again. When he returned from Italy, having just won an Olympic gold medal, he was so proud of his trophy that he wore it day and night and showed it to everyone, whether they wanted to see it or not. In the Philadelphia Inquirer Ali’s first wife remembered him saying “I was young, black Cassius Marcellus Clay, who had won a gold medal for his country. I went to downtown Louisville to a five-and-dime store that had a soda fountain. I sat down at the counter to order a burger and soda pop. The waitress looked at me.… ‘Sorry, we don’t serve coloreds,’ she said. I was furious. I went all the way to Italy to represent my country, won a gold medal, and now I come back to America and can’t even get served at a five-and-dime store.… That gold medal didn’t mean a thing to me if my black brothers and sisters were treated wrong in a country I was supposed to represent.”

Inspired by Religion

While in Miami, at the age of 21, Ali was inspired by human rights activist Malcolm X to become a member of the Muslim faith. The following year Malcolm X said of Ali, as quoted by Houston Horn in Sports Illustrated, “[He] will mean more to his people than any athlete before him. He is more than [first black major-league baseball player] Jackie Robinson was, because Robinson is the white man’s hero. But Cassius is the black man’s hero. Do you know why? Because the white press wanted him to lose [his heavyweight championship bout] … because he is a Muslim. You notice nobody cares about the religion of other athletes. But their prejudice against Clay blinded them to his ability.” Twelve years later, on Face The Nation, Ali said “We don’t have Black Muslims, that’s a press word. We have white brothers, we have brown, red, and yellow, all colors can be Muslims.… I’m looking for peace one day with all people.” Cassius Clay, Jr., was given the name Muhammad Ali by Muslim patriarch Elijah Muhammad; it was not just a name, but a title meaning “beloved of Allah,” deity of the Muslim faith.

Ali retained his world heavyweight champion title in June of 1965 by again knocking out Sonny Liston, this time with a stunning right-hand punch to the side of the head. The knock-out blow was thrown with the astounding speed that separated Ali from other heavyweights; it had sufficient force to lift Liston’s left foot—upon which most of his weight was resting—clear off the canvas.

As a Muslim and thus, a conscientious objector, Muhammad Ali refused to even consider going to Vietnam in 1966; a tremendous public outcry erupted against him. According to Jack Olsen in Sports Illustrated, “The governor of Illinois found Clay ‘disgusting,’ and the governor of Maine said Clay ‘should be held in utter contempt by every patriotic American.’ An American Legion post in Miami asked people to ‘join in condemnation of this unpatriotic, loudmouthed, bombastic individual.’ The Chicago Tribune waged a choleric campaign against holding the next Clay fight in Chicago.… The noise became a din, the drumbeats of a holy war. TV and radio commentators, little old ladies … bookmakers, and parish priests, armchair strategists at the Pentagon and politicians all over the place joined in a crescendo of get-Cassius clamor.”

Stripped of Title

Although Ali had not been charged or arrested for violating the Selective Service Act—much less convicted—the New York State Athletic Commission and World Boxing Association suspended his boxing license and stripped him of his heavyweight title in May of 1967, minutes after he officially announced that he would not submit to induction. Ali said to Sports Illustrated contributor Edwin Shrake, “I’m giving up my title, my wealth, maybe my future. Many great men have been tested for their religious beliefs. If I pass this test, I’ll come out stronger than ever.” Eventually Ali was sentenced to five years in prison, released on appeal, and his conviction overturned three years later.

In November of 1970 Ali fought Jerry Quarry in Atlanta. His victory was a symbol of release and freedom to the 5,000 people watching the fight; Ali had personally survived his vilification by much of the American public, but more, he had reclaimed his professional reputation and prominence. Four months later Ali had the world as his audience when he went up against Joe Frazier in Manila. There he fell from invincibility; suddenly Frazier reigned as heavyweight champ. “Man, I hit him with punches that’d bring down the walls of a city,” Frazier said to Mark Kram in Sports Illustrated. Ali responded, “It was like death. Closest thing to dyin’ that I know of.” On September 10, 1973, Frazier won a rematch with Ken Norton and continued to reign as heavyweight champion. Returning with a vengeance, however, Ali fought Frazier again in 1974, won the match, and replaced his competitor as the world heavweight champion. Ali fought Frazier once again in October of 1975, won that match, and secured his title. Taking time to reflect on the tumult of his fifteen-year boxing career, Ali co-wrote his autobiography—characteristically titled The Greatest —My Own Story —in 1975.

In 1982 Dr. Dennis Cope, director of the Medical Ambulatory Care Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, began treating Ali for Parkinson’s syndrome; Cope and colleague Dr. Stanley Fahn later theorized in the Chicago Tribune that Ali was suffering, more precisely, from Pugilistic Parkinsonism, brought on by repetitive trauma to the head—and that only an autopsy could confirm their suspicions. After losing a 1980 title bout to Larry Holmes, Ali exhibited sluggishness and was misdiagnosed as having a thyroid condition; he was given a thyroid hormone. When Dr. Cope made the connection between Ali’s decreasing motor skills and Parkinson’s disease, he prescribed Sinemet (L-dopa). Ali was shortly restored to his previous level of energy and awareness; as long as he took his medication regularly, he was able to keep the disease in check. In 1988 Ali tld New York Times Magazine contributor Peter Tauber: “I’ve got Parkinson’s syndrome. I’m in no pain.… If I was in perfect health—if I had won my last two fights—if I had no problem, people would be afraid of me. Now they feel sorry for me. They thought I was Superman. Now they can say ‘He’s human, like us. He has problems.”’

Ignored Warnings About Neurological Damage

In 1984 another of Ali’s medical confidantes, Dr. Martin D. Ecker, ventured in the Boston Globe that Ali should have quit boxing long before he finally did—for the second and final time—in 1981 after losing to Trevor Berbick. His bout with Berbick was his 61st and final fight. By then Ali had been showing signs of neurological damage for over a year. Ali’s former doctor, Dr. Ferdie Pacheco, told the fighter to quit in 1977 when he first saw signs of Ali’s reflexes slowing down. Seven years later, Pacheco, a consultant and boxing commentator for NBC-TV, explained to Betsy Lehman in the Boston Globe why he feels Ali didn’t quit boxing in 1977: “The most virulent infection in the human race is the standing ovation. Once you’ve seen that, you can’t get off the stage. Once you feel that recognition … the roar of 50,000 people, you just don’t want to give it up.” When Ali initially surrendered his title in 1979, he was paid $250,000 to quit, but he eventually returned to his sport, perhaps as Pacheco suggested, because the recognition had become habit-forming.

Toward the end of Ali’s boxing career, and afterward, his ambitions took a decided turn toward statesmanship. In 1980 he cast his lot with the Democratic Party, supporting then-Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter. In August of that year, while in intense training for the Holmes fight, he found time to work the floor of the Democratic National Convention in New York City. He also functioned as something of a diplomat in February of 1985 when he attempted to secure the release of four kidnapped Americans in Lebanon; unfortunately, he and his three advisers were not successful.

During his career in the ring Ali made more than $50 million, two-thirds of which went to managerial expenses and taxes. He said to New York Times Magazine contributor Tauber in 1988, “I never talk about boxing. It just served its purpose. I was only about 11 or 12 years old when I said ‘I’m gonna get famous so I can help my people.”’ Indicating his continuing desire to help people, in 1990 Ali visited Our Children’s Foundation, Inc., on Manhattan’s 125th Street. According to Bill Gallo in the New York Daily News, he addressed the children there, saying, “The sun has a purpose. The moon has a purpose. The snow has a purpose. Cows have a purpose. You were born for a purpose. You have to find your purpose. Go to school. Learn to read and write.… What is your purpose, your occupation? Find your purpose.… What do you have to find?” “Purpose!,” they shouted gleefully in unison. True to form, one of Ali’s favored inscriptions when signing autographs is “Love is the net where hearts are caught like fish.”

Selected writings

(With Richard Durham) The Greatest: My Own Story, Random House, 1975.

Sources

Atlanta Journal and Constitution, December 13, 1988.

Boston Globe, October 1, 1984.

Chicago Tribune, October 9, 1984.

Ebony, April 1969.

Face the Nation (transcript of CBS-TV program), May 2, 1976.

Newsweek, June 22, 1987.

New York Daily News, February 2, 1989.

New York Post, July 14, 1987.

New York Times Magazine, July 17, 1988.

Philadelphia Inquirer, August 12, 1990.

Spin, October 1991.

Sports Illustrated, December 20, 1976; April 25, 1988; January 13, 1992.

Washington Post, June 9, 1991.

—B. Kimberly Taylor

Muhammad Ali 1942–

Professional boxer

At a Glance…

“Float Like a Butterfly…”

Inspired by Religion

Stripped of Title

Ignored Warnings About Neurological Damage

Life After Boxing

Selected writings

Sources

Three-time world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, known for his lyrical charm and boasts as much as for his powerful fists, has moved far beyond the boxing ring in both influence and purpose. Ali won an Olympic gold medal and later tossed it into a river because he was disgusted by racism in America. As a young man he was recruited by Malcolm X to join the Nation of Islam. He refused to serve in Vietnam—a professional fighter willing to serve time in jail for his pacifist ideals. He has contributed to countless, diverse charities and causes. And his later years have found him interested in world politics as he has battled to keep Parkinson’s disease at bay.

Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., on January 17, 1942, and was raised in a clapboard house at 3302 Grand Avenue in middle-class Louisville, Kentucky. He began boxing at the age of 12. A white Louisville patrolman named Joe Martin, who had an early television show called “Tomorrow’s Champions,” started Ali working out in Louisville’s Columbia Gym, but it was a black trainer named Fred Stoner who taught Ali the science of boxing. Stoner taught him to move with the grace of a dancer, and impressed upon him the subtle skills necessary to move beyond good and into the realm of great.

After winning an Olympic gold medal at 18, Ali signed the most lucrative contract—a 50-50 split—negotiated by a beginning professional in the history of boxing, with a 12-member group of millionaires called the Louisville Sponsoring Group. Later, he worked his way into contention for the coveted heavyweight title shot by boasting and creating media interest at a time when, by his own admission, he was only ranked number nine on the list of contenders. Even from the beginning, it was clear that Ali was his own man-quick, strong-willed, original, and witty. In 1961 he told Sports Illustrated’s Gilbert Rogin, “Boxing is dying because everybody’s so quiet…. What boxing needs is more… Clays.” Ali knew that his rhymes and press-grabbing claims would infuse more interest and more money into the sport of boxing, and he was his own best public relations man. In February of 1964 he told readers of Sports Illustrated, “If I were like a lot of… heavy weight boxers… you wouldn’t be reading this story right now. If you wonder what the difference between them and me is, I’ll break the news: you never heard of them. I’m not saying they’re not good boxers. Most of

At a Glance…

Born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.; name changed to Muhammad Ali, 1963; born January, 17, 1942, in Louisville, KY; son of Cassius (a piano player) and Odessa Clay (both deceased); first wife, Belinda; second wife Aaisha; third wife, Veronica Porche; fourth (and current) wife, Yolanda Williams, married in 1986; children: nine (one with Yolanda); Religion: Muslim.

Former world heavyweight boxing champion. Began professional career, 1960; initially became heavyweight champ, 1964; stripped of title and boxing license over refusal to participate in the Vietnam War, 1966; retired from boxing, 1981 Appeared in film The Greatest, 1976, and television film Freedom Road

Selected honors and awards; Olympic Gold Medal in boxing, 1960; six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles; National Golden Gloves titles, 1959-60; World Heavyweight Championship, 1964-67, 1974-78, 1978-79; U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, inductee, 1983; Named the greatest heavyweight champion of all time, Ring Magazine, 1987; International Boxing Hall of Fame, inductee, 1990; Jim Thorpe Pro Sports Award, Lifetime Achievement, 1992; Muhammad Ali Museum, Louisville Galleria, opened 1995; Essence Award, 1997.

Addresses: Home—P.O. Box 187, Berrien Springs, Ml 59103.

them… can fight almost as good as I can. I’m just saying you never heard of them. And the reason for that is because they cannot throw the jive. Cassius Clay is a boxer who can throw the jive better than anybody.”

“Float Like a Butterfly…”

The following month Ali—then still Cassius Clay—fought Sonny Liston in a match of classic contenders for the heavyweight championship of the world. The Miami fight almost single-handedly restored intelligence and balance to boxing. Cassius Clay had been chanting the war cry “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” for weeks; he beat Liston in a display of beautiful, controlled boxing. Liston could hit with deadly power, but Ali utilized his skills and courage with forethought and aplomb. He won the fight to become heavyweight champion of the world. At the tender age of 22 Ali knew that he was something above and beyond a great boxer: He had marketing sense, political finesse, and a feeling of noble purpose.

Throughout his career and life, Ali has always professed to want to help other black Americans—and he has, time and time again. When he returned from Italy, having just won an Olympic gold medal, he was so proud of his trophy that he wore it day and night and showed it to everyone, whether they wanted to see it or not. In the Philadelphia Inquirer Ali’s first wife remembered him saying “I was young, black Cassius Marcellus Clay, who had won a gold medal for his country. I went to downtown Louisville to a five-and-dime store that had a soda fountain. I sat down at the counter to order a burger and soda pop. The waitress looked at me…. ‘Sorry, we don’t serve coloreds,’ she said. I was furious. I went all the way to Italy to represent my country, won a gold medal, and now I come back to America and can’t even get served at a five-and-dime store. I went to a bridge, tore the medal off my neck and threw it into the river. That gold medal didn’t mean a thing to me if my black brothers and sisters were treated wrong in a country I was supposed to represent.”

Inspired by Religion

While in Miami, at the age of 21, Ali was inspired by human rights activist Malcolm X to become a member of the Muslim faith. The following year Malcolm X said of Ali, as was quoted by Houston Horn in Sports Illustrated, “[He] will mean more to his people than any athlete before him. He is more than [first black major-league baseball player] Jackie Robinson was, because Robinson is the white man’s hero. But Cassius is the black man’s hero. Do you know why? Because the white press wanted him to lose [his heavyweight championship bout]… because he is a Muslim. You notice nobody cares about the religion of other athletes. But their prejudice against Clay blinded them to his ability.” Twelve years later, on Face The Nation, Ali said “We don’t have Black Muslims, that’s a press word. We have white brothers, we have brown, red, and yellow, all colors can be Muslims…. I’m looking for peace one day with all people.” Cassius Clay, Jr., was given the name Muhammad Ali by Muslim patriarch Elijah Muhammad; it was not just a name, but a title meaning “beloved of Allah,” deity of the Muslim faith.

Ali retained his world heavyweight champion title in June of 1965 by again knocking out Sonny Liston, this time with a stunning right-hand punch to the side of the head. The knock-out blow was thrown with the astounding speed that separated Ali from other heavyweights; it had sufficient force to lift Liston’s left foot—upon which most of his weight was resting—clear off the canvas.

As a Muslim and thus, a conscientious objector, Muhammad Ali refused to even consider going to Vietnam in 1966; a tremendous public outcry erupted against him. According to Jack Olsen in Sports Illustrated. “The governor of Illinois found Clay ‘disgusting,’ and the governor of Maine said Clay ’should be held in utter contempt by every patriotic American.’ An American Legion post in Miami asked people to ‘join in condemnation of this unpatriotic, loudmouthed, bombastic individual.’ The Chicago Tribune waged a choleric campaign against holding the next Clay fight in Chicago…. The noise became a din, the drumbeats of a holy war. TV and radio commentators, little old ladies… bookmakers, and parish priests, armchair strategists at the Pentagon and politicians all over the place joined in a crescendo of get-Cassius clamor.”

Stripped of Title

Although Ali had not been charged or arrested for violating the Selective Service Act—much less convicted—the New York State Athletic Commission and World Boxing Association suspended his boxing license and stripped him of his heavyweight title in May of 1967, minutes after he officially announced that he would not submit to induction. Ali said to Sports Illustrated contributor Edwin Shrake, “I’m giving up my title, my wealth, maybe my future. Many great men have been tested for their religious beliefs. If I pass this test, I’ll come out stronger than ever.” Eventually Ali was sentenced to five years in prison, released on appeal, and his conviction overturned three years later.

In November of 1970 Ali fought Jerry Quarry in Atlanta. His victory was a symbol of release and freedom to the 5,000 people watching the fight; Ali had personally survived his vilification by much of the American public, but more, he had reclaimed his professional reputation and prominence. Four months later Ali had the world as his audience when he went up against Joe Frazier in Manila. There he fell from invincibility; suddenly Frazier reigned as heavyweight champ. “Man, I hit him with punches that’d bring down the walls of a city,” Frazier said to Mark Kram in Sports Illustrated Ali responded, “It was like death. Closest thing to dyin’ that I know of.” On September 10, 1973, Frazier won a rematch with Ken Norton and continued to reign as heavyweight champion. Returning with a vengeance, however, Ali fought Frazier again in 1974, won the match, and replaced his competitor as the world heavweight champion. Ali fought Frazier once again in October of 1975, won that match, and secured his title. Taking time to reflect on the tumult of his fifteen-year boxing career, Ali co-wrote his autobiography—characteristically titled The Greatest —My Own Story —in 1975.

In 1982 Dr. Dennis Cope, director of the Medical Ambulatory Care Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, began treating Ali for Parkinson’s syndrome; Cope and colleague Dr. Stanley Fahn later theorized in the Chicago Tribune that Ali was suffering, more precisely, from Pugilistic Parkinsonism, brought on by repetitive trauma to the head—and that only an autopsy could confirm their suspicions. After losing a 1980 title bout to Larry Holmes, Ali had exhibited sluggishness and was misdiagnosed as having a thyroid condition; he was given a thyroid hormone. When Dr. Cope made the connection between Ali’s decreasing motor skills and Parkinson’s disease, he prescribed Sinemet (L-dopa). Ali was shortly restored to his previous level of energy and awareness; as long as he took his medication regularly, he was able to keep the disease in check. In 1988 Ali told New York Times Magazine contributor Peter Tauber: “I’ve got Parkinson’s syndrome. I’m in no pain…. If I was in perfect health—if I had won my last two fights—if I had no problem, people would be afraid of me. Now they feel sorry for me. They thought I was Superman. Now they can say ‘He’s human, like us. He has problems.”’

Ignored Warnings About Neurological Damage

In 1984 another of Ali’s medical confidantes, Dr. Martin D. Ecker, ventured in the Boston Globe that Ali should have quit boxing long before he finally did—for the second and final time—in 1981 after losing to Trevor Berbick. His bout with Berbick was his 61st and final fight. By then Ali had been showing signs of neurological damage for over a year. Ali’s former doctor, Dr. Ferdie Pacheco, told the fighter to quit in 1977 when he first saw signs of Ali’s reflexes slowing down. Seven years later, Pacheco, a consultant and boxing commentator for NBC-TV, explained to Betsy Lehman in the Boston Globe why he feels Ali didn’t quit boxing in 1977: “The most virulent infection in the human race is the standing ovation. Once you’ve seen that, you can’t get off the stage. Once you feel that recognition… the roar of 50,000 people, you just don’t want to give it up.” When Ali initially surrendered his title in 1979, he was paid $250,000 to quit, but he eventually returned to his sport, perhaps as Pacheco suggested, because the recognition had become habit-forming.

Toward the end of Ali’s boxing career, and afterward, his ambitions took a decided turn toward statesmanship. In 1980 he cast his lot with the Democratic Party, supporting then-Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter. In August of that year, while in intense training for the Holmes fight, he found time to work the floor of the Democratic National Convention in New York City. He also functioned as something of a diplomat in February of 1985 when he attempted to secure the release of four kidnapped Americans in Lebanon; unfortunately, he and his three advisers were not successful.

During his career in the ring Ali made more than $50 million, two thirds of which went to managerial expenses and taxes. He said to New York Times Magazine contributor Tauber in 1988, “I never talk about boxing. It just served its purpose. I was only about 11 or 12 years old when I said I’m gonna get famous so I can help my people.’” Indicating his continuing desire to help people, in 1990 Ali visited Our Children’s Foundation, Inc., on Manhattan’s 125th Street. According to Bill Gallo in the New York Daily News, he addressed the children there, saying, “The sun has a purpose. The moon has a purpose. The snow has a purpose. Cows have a purpose. You were born for a purpose. You have to find your purpose. Go to school. Learn to read and write…. What is your purpose, your occupation? Find your purpose…. What do you have to find?” “Purpose!,” they shouted gleefully in unison. True to form, one of Ali’s favored inscriptions when signing autographs is “Love is the net where hearts are caught like fish.”

Life After Boxing

Although Parkinson’s syndrome has slowed Ali down, he still remain active—raising money for the Muhammad Ali Foundation and frequently appearing at sports tributes and fund-raisers. Muhammad’s wife Lonnie believes “Muhammad knows he has this illness for a reason. It’s not by chance. Parkinson’s disease has made him a more spiritual person. Muhammad believes God gave it to him to bring him to another level, to create another destiny.” she stated in People.

During the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, 3.5 billion people watched on television as three-time heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali slowly ascended the stadium steps with trembling hands to ignite the Olympic Flame. Everyone was deeply touched, however, No one was more moved than Ali himself. “He kept turning it [the torch] in his hands and looking at it. He knows now that people won’t slight his message because of his impairment.” said his wife Lonnie in People.

Muhammad has been blessed to meet with important dignitaries, including with President Clinton, Queen Elizabeth II, Nelson Mandela, and Pope John Paul II. His travels are his main source of income—charging as much as $200,000 for appearances. He usually travels 275 days out of the year. Although he enjoys his missionary work and public appearances, Ali’s greatest pleasure is when he is at home in Berrien Springs, Michigan with his family—wife Yolanda and his adopted son Asaad Amin.

In Berrien Springs, he lives a modest life in a house at the end of the road on an old farm. He has a pool and a pond and a security gate with an intercom. According to Kim Forburger, Ali’s assistant, “He’s the only man I know where the kids come to the gate and say ’Can Muhammad come out and play?’

When asked if he has any regrets?, Ali responds, “My children, I never got to raise them because I was always boxing and because of divorce,” he said in People. When asked is he sorry he ever got into the ring?, he responded, “If I wasn’t a boxer, I wouldn’t be famous. If I wasn’t famous, I wouldn’t be able to do what I’m doing now.”

Selected writings

(With Richard Durham) The Greatest: My Own Story, Random House, 1975.

Sources

Atlanta Journal and Constitution, December 13, 1988.

Boston Globe, October 1, 1984.

Chicago Tribune, October 9, 1984.

Ebony, April 1969.

Face the Nation (transcript of CBS-TV program), May 2, 1976.

Newsweek, June 22, 1987.

New York Daily News, February 2, 1989.

New York Post, July 14, 1987.

New York Times Magazine, July 17, 1988.

People, Jan 13, 1997, p. 40.

Philadelphia Inquirer, August 12, 1990.

Spin, October 1991.

Sports Illustrated, December 20, 1976; April 25, 1988.

Washington Post, June 9, 1991.

Who’s Who among African Americans, 10th edition, Gale Research, 1997.

—B. Kimberly Taylor

Muhammad Ali

1942-

American boxer

His nickname, "The Greatest," almost says it all. The fact that it was self-anointed says the rest. Today, Muhammad Ali is the universally admired three-time heavyweight champion, lauded by boxing fans and civil rights leaders, both in America and throughout the world. He is remembered respectfully as the man of principle who threw away his Olympic medal in disgust at racism and who almost threw away his career when he refused to fight an unjust war in Vietnam. He is remembered fondly for his prowess in the ring and his consummate showmanship before the matches. He is an authentic American hero, struggling valiantly in his greatest battle, against Parkinson's Disease. When he was in his prime, he sparked as much controversy as affection. He was an angry Black Muslim and student of the radical Malcolm X, who was almost sent to jail for his views. The transformation of Ali is a remarkable testament to the man and his inner strength.

A Stolen Bicycle

Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Marcellus Clay on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. Unlike most future champions, his parents, Cassius and Odessa (Grady) Clay, were middle-class and he lived in the respectable part of town. His father was a sign and mural painter, and his mother was a domestic. Sundays, the family, including younger brother Rudolph (now Rahaman Ali), would troop to the Mount Zion Baptist Church, and weekdays he attended DuValle Junior High School, and then Central High School. Ali was never a good student, and he confessed in later years that he has always been a slow reader.

At the age of 12, a curious incident set young Cassius Clay on a new path. On an October afternoon he rode his new bike to the Columbia Auditorium. Later, when he went back to get it, it had been stolen. Someone told him there was a police officer in the basement, so Clay went down there. The basement turned out to be a boxing gym—the officer, Joe Martin, was a boxing enthusiast with his own gym. After listening to his volley of threats against whoever stole the bike, Martin invited him to come around to his gym and learn something about boxing.

Six weeks after he started training with Joe Martin, Clay fought and won his first bout. Over the next few years of his training, Martin became more and more impressed, not only with Clay's speed and strength, but even more by his mental quickness and his ability to take a punch without the twin dangers of getting mad or going into a panic. In high school, Clay became a very successful amateur boxer, winning six Kentucky Golden Gloves Championships and two nationals. By the time he graduated, he had 100 wins and only 8 losses. Throughout the 1950s, he also appeared on a local television program Tomorrow's Champions. He was paid four dollars for each televised match. Then, shortly after graduation, he won a gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics in light-heavy-weight boxing. He decided to turn pro.

The Louisville Lip

Almost immediately, Clay signed one of the most lucrative contracts in boxing history, which guaranteed a 50/50 split in his earnings with eleven Kentucky millionaires

known as the Louisville Sponsoring Group. He hired Angelo Dundee as his first professional trainer, and easily dispatched his opponent, Tunney Hunsacker, in his first professional match, on October 29, 1960. The purse was $2,000. Over the next 4 years he fought and won 19 professional matches, but it wasn't this alone that made him a heavyweight contender.

Early on, Cassius Clay mastered the fine art of publicity. At the Olympics he began inventing rhymes that predicted how he would do in a match, and he brought this skill home with him. Before long he was something of a media darling, dismissed by some as "The Louisville Lip," but always good for sports copy. He understood the value of that attention, and as he told Sports Illustrated in 1964, "If you wonder what the difference between [other boxers] and me is, I'll break the news: you never heard of them. I'm not saying they're not good boxers.… I'm just saying you never heard of them." Before long, people were clamoring for a Cassius Clay shot at the heavyweight title.

Before long, Sonny Liston bowed to the pressure and agreed to fight Clay in Miami. In the weeks leading up to the match, Clay turned up the volume on the traditional hype, rhyming and hurling insults at Liston. About this time, he began using the chant "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." And on February 25, 1964, backed up his talk by defeating the "unbeatable" Sonny Liston. At 22, Cassius Clay was the World Heavyweight Champion

A Controversial Champ

Something else happened in Miami in 1964. Inspired by Malcolm X, Cassius Clay joined the Nation of Islam, and renounced his "slave name" in favor of Muhammad Ali, "Beloved of Allah." The name had been personally bestowed upon him by Elijah Muhammad, founder of the Nation of Islam. Realizing how this would affect people's view of him, he kept his conversion secret before the match, fearing the news might cost him his shot at the title. But soon after the fight, he went public with the news.

For many Americans this seemed like some kind of betrayal. Black Muslims were often feared and hated, as radicals, as dangerous, as un-American. And now the heavyweight champ, the beloved Cassius Clay was one of them. Or rather Muhammad Ali, a name that sounded foreign, maybe subversive, to Americans in the 1960s. And then Muhammad Ali came out against the Vietnam War, refusing to even consider going over there if he was drafted.

Ali's remarks caused a national uproar. In April of 1967, when he refused induction into the U.S. Army, on religious grounds, politicians and veterans groups called for his imprisonment. In fact, he was arrested and ultimately sentenced to five years in prison, but he was freed pending appeal. Then boxing officialdom stepped in. The World Boxing Association stripped him of his heavyweight title, and the New York State Athletic Commission banned him from boxing. Every other state commission soon joined them. Muhammad Ali was suddenly out of a title and out of a job.

In and Out of the Wilderness

For three-and-a-half years, Muhammad Ali endured the public outcry and the loss of his livelihood, and numerous death threats, while his case wound through the courts. He managed to support himself by public speaking engagements on college campuses. Finally, in June of 1970, the Supreme Court reversed his draft-dodging conviction on a technicality. In September of that same year the NAACP successfully sued the New York State Athletic Commission for the restoration of Ali's boxing license.

Chronology

Awards and Accomplishments

It was a heady victory, and the beginning of a long climb that would make Muhammad Ali a national hero once again. In November, 1970, in Atlanta, he fought his first professional match in almost four years, knocking out Jerry Quarry in the third round. In March of 1971,

he returned to New York to fight Joe Frazier , who had risen to the world heavyweight championship in Ali's absence. The fight between the two "champions" was long anticipated, and both were promised an unprecedented $2.5 million. After a long and bruising battle, Joe Frazier knocked Muhammad Ali down in the fifteenth round. Ali managed to get up from the staggering blow, but he lost the match on points. It was Ali's first defeat as a professional boxer.

On January 28, 1974, Ali returned to Madison Square Garden for a rematch with Joe Frazier. By this time, Frazier had lost the crown and Ali had been beaten once again, by Ken Norton. But the fight was highly anticipated by boxing fans. Again, it was a grueling match, with both men taking a lot of punishment. But this time the decision went to Muhammad Ali, who had earned his shot against the new champion, George Foreman .

In one of the biggest spectacles in boxing history, Muhammad Ali and George Foreman met in Kinshasha, Zaire, for the "Rumble in the Jungle." The very air of Africa seemed to give Ali a lift, and wherever he went, enthusiastic crowds followed him. The setting had the opposite effect on George Foreman, in those days known as "the surly champ." The fight took place on October 30, 1974, before 60,000 spectators and millions of payper-view customers. Most experts expected Ali to fall to the legendary Foreman punch, but after absorbing blows for six rounds, Muhammad Ali sent an exhausted George Foreman to the mat in the eighth round. Muhammad Ali was back on top.

The next year, in September of 1975, after easily besting such lesser lights as the "Bayonne Bleeder," Ali met Frazier one last time, for the "Thrilla in Manilla." Many look back on this as the finest boxing match in history. As Gerald Suster wrote in Champions of the Ring, "In the first five rounds, Ali did enough to stop or even kill any strong heavyweight. In the succeeding five rounds, Frazier broke through Ali's guard to pound him to the body and whack him to the head, in turn doing enough to stop or even kill any strong heavyweight." Finally, in the 11th round, Frazier's trainer, Eddie Futch, threw in the towel. Afterwards, a number of fans signed a petition asking that these two never fight each other again, so brutal had it been.

Later Years

Although this moment might have been a good time to retire, Ali soldiered on. In 1978 Leon Spinks took the title away, but later that year Ali reclaimed it, making him a three-times champion. Finally, on June 26, 1979, Ali retired from professional boxing at the age of 37. His retirement did not last long. Ali had grown used to a very lavish and lifestyle and within a few years his fortune had dwindled. So in 1980 Ali returned to the ring, battling Larry Holmes for the World Boxing Council title with a guaranteed purse of $8 million. Holmes won a technical knockout in the eleventh round. A year later, Ali lost to Trevor Burdick. This time he retired for good, at the age of 40.

By this time, Ali was suffering from Parkinson's Disease. After the Holmes fight, people had noticed a change in Ali's health. At first he'd been misdiagnosed with a thyroid condition, but in 1982, the Parkinson's diagnosis was confirmed by medical tests. Doctors speculated that he might have contracted the illness from too many blows to the head. It was a sad revelation for Ali, but he was grateful that the disease was not contagious, so he could continue to have contact with his many fans throughout the world.

Ali's other interests have included painting, originally inspired by his father, and in 1979 he put on a oneman show of his works. He has also been called upon to perform diplomatic missions—in 1980, he toured Africa in an attempt to drum up support for President Carter's boycott of the Moscow Olympics. In 1985 he traveled to Lebanon in an unsuccessful attempt to secure the release of U.S. hostages, and in 1990 he traveled to Baghdad, Iraq, on a similar mission, this time successfully. In 1996, he was chosen to light the torch at the Atlanta Olympics, after carrying it for the last lap.

With so much focus on his boxing career and the pressures of his public life, Ali has not always had the calmest private life. He has been divorced three times, and he currently lives with his fourth wife, Lonnie. Much to her father's displeasure, his daughter Leila has followed Ali's footsteps into the boxing ring.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Address: P.O. Box 187, Berrien Springs, MI 59103.

Where Is He Now?

Today, Muhammad Ali is a world-renowned celebrity, who has weathered the storms of terrible controversies and emerged as a national icon. Even the greatest modern boxers live in his shadow. At the same time, he stands as a symbol of principle in the face of adversity, a crusader for civil rights who risked everything to maintain his religious freedom and his right to dissent from U.S. government policy. Even while struggling against Parkinson's Disease, which plays havoc with his speech and coordination, he continues to travel around the world, most recently as a UN peace envoy to Afghanistan. He has also worked at establishing the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, a non-private community center, which is scheduled to open in 2003.

SELECTED WRITINGS BY ALI:

(With Richard Durham) The Greatest: My Own Story, New York: Random House, 1975.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Books

Ali, Muhammad and Richard Durham. The Greatest: My Own Story. New York: Random House, 1975.

Cottrell, John. The Story of Muhammad Ali, Who Once Was Cassius Clay. London: Muller, 1967.

Hauser, Thomas. Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992.

Olsen, Jack. Black is Best: The Riddle of Cassius Clay. New York: Putnam, 1967.

Remnick, David. King of the World. New York: Random House, 1998.

Suster, Gerald. Champions of the Ring. London: Robson Books, 1994.

Sketch by Robert Winters

Ali, Muhammad 1942–

(Cassius Clay, Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.)

PERSONAL: Original name, Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.; born January 17, 1942, in Louisville, KY; son of Cassius Marcellus, Sr. (a sign and mural painter) and Odessa (a domestic servant; maiden name, Grady) Clay; married Sonji Roi (divorced, 1966); married Kalilah Tolona (original name, Belinda Boyd), April 18, 1967 (divorced, 1977); married Veronica Porche, 1977 (divorced); married Yolanda "Lonnie" Williams, November 19, 1986; children: (second marriage) Maryum, Rasheeda, Jamillah, Muhammad, Jr.; (third marriage) Miya, Khalilah, Hana Yasmeen, Laila; (fourth marriage) Asaad. Religion: Sunni Muslim.

ADDRESSES: Home—Ali Estate, Berrien Springs, MI 49103. Agent—Crawford Literary Agency, 198 Evans Rd., Barnstead, NH 03218.

CAREER: Professional boxer, 1960–81; political activist, lecturer, entrepreneur, actor, and philanthropist. Actor in the Broadway musical Buck White, 1969. Appeared in the films Requiem for a Heavyweight, Columbia, 1962; The Greatest, Columbia, 1977; Body and Soul, Cannon, 1981; Doin' Time, Warner Bros., 1985; and When We Were Kings: The True Story of the Rumble in the Jungle, Gramercy Pictures, 1996. Appeared on television programs, including the series Tomorrow's Champions, [Louisville, KY], 1950s; the miniseries Freedom Road, National Broadcasting Co., 1979; and the television documentary special Muhammad Ali: The Whole Story, Turner Network Television, c. 1996; voice for the animated series Muhammad Ali, syndicated, beginning 1977. Also worked as a janitor.

AWARDS, HONORS: Winner of six Golden Glove titles in Kentucky, 1950s; National Golden Gloves Championship, light heavyweight champion, 1959, heavyweight champion, 1960; light heavyweight champion, American Athletic Union, 1959 and 1960; light heavyweight division gold medal, Olympic Games, 1960; Ring magazine, named world heavyweight champion, 1964–70 and 1974–78, inducted into Boxing Hall of Fame, 1987; world heavyweight champion, World Boxing Association, 1964–67, 1974–78, 1978–79; heavyweight champion, North American Boxing Federation, 1971 and 1973; Associated Press Sports Award, male athlete of the year, 1974; named sportsman of the year, Sports Illustrated, 1974; named S. Rae Hickok Professional Athlete of the Year, Hickok Manufacturing Co., 1974; inducted into U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, United States Olympic Committee, 1983; Meritorious Service Award, BWA, 1985; Freedom Award, Indiana Black Expo, 1987; Jim Thorpe Pro Sports Award, lifetime achievement, 1992; Kahlil Gibran Spirit of Humanity Award, Arab American Institute Foundation, 2004.

WRITINGS:

I Am the Greatest (sound recording), Sony, 1963, reissued, 1999.

(With Richard Durham) The Greatest: My Own Story, Random House (New York, NY), 1975.

The Greatest (sound recording), music composed by Michael Masser, Arista (New York, NY), 1977.

Ali! Ali!: The Words of Muhammad Ali, edited by Sultan Karim, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (New York, NY), 1979.

(With Thomas Hauser) Healing, Collins Publishers San Francisco (San Francisco, CA), 1996.

I Am the Greatest: The Best Quotations from Muhammed Ali, Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 2002.

(With daughter Hana Yasmeen Ali) The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life's Journey, photographs by Howard Bingham, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2004.

Contributor to books, including The End of Tolerance?, Nicholas Brealey (London, England), 2002; and introduction to Louisville: The Greatest City, Towery Publishers (Memphis, TN), 2000.

SIDELIGHTS: Muhammad Ali and his "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" style of fighting dominated the world of heavyweight boxing for a decade and a half. As a teenager named Cassius Clay, he won the gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Olympic Games. He later earned the title of world heavyweight champion and became internationally famous for his confidence both in and out of the boxing ring. But when Ali lit the flame to open the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, his arm visibly shook as he raised the torch. The former fighter suffers from Parkinson's disease. Throughout his busy and sometimes controversial public life, Ali remains one of the most famous and popular athletes of the twentieth century. A consummate showman, he used to call himself "the Greatest," and many of his fans believe that the nickname fits.

Ali was born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., in 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky. His father made a living painting signs and murals, and his mother worked as a domestic servant. Clay contributed to his family's finances by working as a janitor at a nearby college. He took up boxing when he was twelve years old. When his bicycle was stolen, young Clay reported the theft to Joe Elsby Martin, a Louisville police officer who ran a youth program teaching boys how to box. Martin invited Clay to join the program and soon Clay appeared on Tomorrow's Champions, a local television boxing show.

Clay initially worked under Martin's tutelage for two hours a day. He later trained an additional four hours a day with Fred Stoner, a trainer at Louisville's Grace Community Center. The boxer credited Stoner with helping him develop his style and improve his stamina. Watching the televised bouts of top professional heavyweights such as Floyd Patterson and Archie Moore, Clay believed that he could beat those fighters because they did not move much in the ring. Clay had adopted a technique of evading blows by ducking, leaning away, and sidestepping punches, thus forcing his opponents to waste energy swinging at empty air. This boxing style served Clay well. He won 100 of 108 amateur fights, capturing the Kentucky Golden Gloves championship six times, the national Golden Gloves championship twice, and the American Athletic Union championships twice. Clay's amateur career culminated with his gold medal-winning trip to the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Italy.

After returning from Rome, Clay trained with former boxing champion Archie Moore under the sponsorship of wealthy backers from Louisville. Clay then began training with Angelo Dundee, who was impressed with the young man's discipline. Dundee would remain with Clay throughout his career. As a professional boxer, Clay proceeded to win an unbroken string of matches from 1960 through the end of 1963. During this time he gained notoriety as a showman, bragging before each match and predicting the round his opponent would fall. He would often make these personal assertions and predictions in a rhyming doggerel style that became his trademark: "They'll all fall in the round I call." Of his bout with Archie Moore, whom he defeated after four rounds on November 15, 1962, Clay said, "When you come to the fight, / Don't block the halls, / And don't block the door, / For y'all may go home / After round four."

Clay's theatrics reached a fever pitch during the weigh-in before his February 25, 1964 match with Sonny Liston. He hurled a string of invectives at Liston, calling him a "chump" and "an ugly old bear," and pretended to lunge at the older fighter. He continued taunting Liston in the ring, goading him into making ineffective rushes and answering with a flurry of punches. This punishment took its toll, as Clay won the bout and became the new world heavyweight champion. Drew Brown supposedly coined the phrase "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" to describe Clay's performance during this fight.

After the championship fight, Clay announced that was changing his name to Muhammad Ali. The boxer had joined the Nation of Islam, a group of Muslim African Americans. The 1960s were turbulent years for race relations in the United States—the Civil Rights movement was in full swing—and some white Americans viewed the Nation of Islam as a subversive anti-white group. Ali faced Liston for a rematch on May 25, 1965 and floored the former champion in the first round. Later in 1965 Ali fought Floyd Patterson and defeated him in the twelfth round. Ali dispatched five challengers in 1966 and two more in early 1967. During this period at least two white boxers, Patterson and Ernie Terrell, refused to call Ali by his new name, spurring Ali to fight these opponents more viciously.

Ali's first reign as the heavyweight champion was drawing to a close. The biggest controversy he had ever faced would soon interrupt his career. The war in Vietnam was raging and Ali's draft status was changed from 1-Y to 1-A, making the fighter a prime candidate for military service. Some critics of the decision believed that it was made as a reaction to Ali's joining the Nation of Islam. When the Selective Service board required him to report for the draft, Ali asked for an exemption, claiming he was a conscientious objector on religious grounds. In a widely-publicized statement, Ali announced, "I ain't got no quarrel with those Vietcong, anyway," adding that "they never called me nigger." The Selective Service denied his request and ordered him to report to the United States Army in 1967. Ali refused to go. The World Boxing Association subsequently stripped him of his title and his license to fight. The United States government revoked Ali's passport, preventing Ali from fighting abroad. In 1967 a federal court found Ali guilty of violating the Selective Service Act. He was fined 10,000 dollars and sentenced to five years in jail. Ali never served the jail term due to a series of appeals.

Ali became a favorite of student activists who opposed the hostilities in Vietnam. He spoke at schools, peace rallies, and Muslim gatherings during his exile from the boxing ring. Instead of fading from public view, Ali managed to broaden his fame beyond the boxing arena. He even starred in a short-lived Broadway musical, Buck White, in 1969. Ali's lawyers argued his case before the United States Supreme Court and on June 20, 1970, the court reversed his conviction. Four months later, Ali returned to the ring.

Meanwhile, a new fighter named Joe Frazier had won the heavyweight championship. According to Sports Illustrated contributor William Nack: "During his exile Ali, who had to earn his money on the college lecture circuit, began to knock at Frazier's door, seeking help to get back his license to fight, saying that an Ali-Frazier match would make them both rich." Ali fought two matches in 1970, but he wanted a shot at the heavyweight title again. Frazier and Ali agreed to fight in New York City's Madison Square Garden for a purse of two and a half million dollars each. As he had done to previous opponents, Ali verbally taunted Frazier in the months leading up to the fight, even going so far as to call Frazier an "Uncle Tom," accusing the African-American Frazier of being subservient to whites. Ali said that the verbal pyrotechnics were only for selling tickets, but Frazier told Sports Illustrated contributor Nack that Ali's words had "stunned" and "shocked" him, especially since the boxers had been good friends. Frazier told Nack that he planned to counter Ali's statements by injuring him in the ring. This background helped create one of the most famous rivalries in boxing history—a rivalry that would span three different matches between the two men.

The first Ali-Frazier match, fought on March 8, 1971, lasted fifteen rounds. Although Frazier retained the championship by a unanimous decision, both men fought hard and had to visit the hospital. Ali fought a series of bouts from 1971 through 1973, and Frazier lost his world heavyweight title to George Foreman during this time. Ali faced Frazier for a second time on January 28, 1974, again at Madison Square Garden. Ali won the fight in the twelfth round.

Beating Frazier cleared the way for Ali to fight Foreman for a chance at the world heavyweight title. The match, billed by Ali as "the rumble in the jungle," took place in Kinshasa, Zaire (now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo), on October 30, 1974. A music festival featuring B.B. King, James Brown, and Miriam Makeba added to the festive atmosphere in Kinshasa. Since Foreman was cut in training, the fight was delayed for six weeks, leaving more time for Ali to promote both the bout and himself. Prior to the match, Ali predicted: "If you think the world was surprised when Nixon resigned, wait till I kick Foreman's behind!" Ali and Foreman fought in the same arena that the then-Zairian dictator Mobutu Sese Seko used as a prison and place of execution. Ali knocked out a tired Foreman in the match's eighth round, again becoming the heavyweight champion of the world. Film director Leon Gast went along to document the spectacle in Kinshasa, producing the Academy Award-winning documentary When We Were Kings: The True Story of the Rumble in the Jungle.

Ali had successfully defended his championship in other bouts before fighting Frazier again on October 1, 1975, in the Philippine capital of Manila. As William Nack wrote in Sports Illustrated, Ali crowed at a pre-fight press conference: "All night long, this is what you'll see. Come on, gorilla! We're in Manila! Come on, gorilla, this is a thrilla!" He held up a small rubber gorilla in front of Frazier and beat the toy. These statements infuriated Frazier, who was still smarting from Ali's taunts from their previous matches. Possibly using his opponent's words as a motivational tool, Frazier dominated much of the fight until the eleventh round. Ali later rebounded, and Frazier's trainers called the match in the fifteenth round to spare their fighter further injury.

Ali retained the heavyweight title until he was beaten by Leon Spinks on February 15, 1978. Ali's tactic of outlasting his opponents by tiring them did not work with the young Spinks, who remained fresh throughout the fight. The match went the complete fifteen rounds and Spinks won by a split decision. Ali had once again lost his championship title. Against the advice of his physician, Ali agreed to a rematch with Spinks on September 15, 1978. Ali had used the intervening months to improve his conditioning and was in better shape for the later fight. He used his size advantage and backpedaling ability to keep out of the way of Spinks's most powerful punches. At the end of the fight, neither man had done much damage to the other, but Ali had managed to win and regain the heavyweight title. He retired in 1979. He came out of retirement in 1980 to fight Larry Holmes, but lost. After losing his 1981 bout with Trevor Berbick, Ali retired again.

Ali wrote The Greatest: My Own Story with Richard Durham. Although a Choice contributor observed that The Greatest "is oftentimes in hazard of crossing from autobiography into biography," the reviewer added that Ali possesses "a more balanced understanding of his worth than public statements would betray." Meanwhile, a Booklist contributor called The Greatest a "fine collaboration between writer and boxer." Ali's pronouncements, rhymed taunts, Muslim prayers, and personal views appear in Ali! Ali!: The Words of Muhammad Ali, a volume edited by Sultan Karim. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called the book "thin and nearly aimless," but noted that Ali's "jabs at other fighters show the champ at his best."

The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life's Journey, written in collaboration with Ali's daughter Hana, has been categorized by some people as an autobiography, but others have pointed out that the book is more accurately what the subtitle proclaims it to be: a collection of reflections. The structure of the book seems to follow an autobiographical chronology, linking Ali's musings on universal themes to events in his career and personal life, but it is the themes, not the life, that Ali offers here. Through examples of correspondence, rhymes, and homespun aphorisms, Ali reveals the humility and gentility—the soul of the butterfly—that had no place in the boxing ring. He acknowledges the "bee stings" that peppered his career, apologizing to the victims of his verbal jabs. He also stresses the importance of spiritual values, which Ali himself discovered through the practice of Islam. Jim Burns observed in the Library Journal that The Soul of a Butterfly "affirms the essential decency" of this boxer turned philosopher. "The book has the intensity of a deathbed confessional," suggested a Publishers Weekly contributor, offered in part as a legacy to his beloved children.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Dennis, Felix, and Don Atyeo, Muhammad Ali: The Glory Years, Miramax Books (New York, NY), 2003.

GOAT: A Tribute to Muhammad Ali, Taschen (Cologne, Germany), 2003.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, December 15, 1975, review of The Greatest: My Own Story, p. 539; October 15, 2004, John Green, review of The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life's Journey, p. 362.

Books and Bookman, May, 1976, review of The Greatest, p. 62.

Books, summer, 2000, "Muhammad Ali: My Journey," p. 20.

BooksWest, October, 1977, review of The Greatest, p. 35.

Choice, May, 1976, review of The Greatest, p. 398.

Ebony, November, 2004, review of The Soul of a Butterfly, p. 29.

Economist, March 20, 1976, review of The Greatest, p. 114.

Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 1975, review of The Greatest, p. 1212; March 15, 1979, review of Ali! Ali! The Words of Muhammad Ali, p. 356.

Kliatt, winter, 1977, review of The Greatest, p. 35.

Library Journal, January 15, 1976, review of The Greatest, pp. 353-354; December 1, 2004, Jim Burns, review of The Soul of a Butterfly, p. 129.

Maclean's, March 24, 1997, p. 50.

National Review, March 24, 1997, pp. 56-57.

New York Review of Books, October 30, 1975, review of The Greatest, p. 3.

New York Times, November 5, 1975, review of The Greatest, p. 41.

New York Times Book Review, November 30, 1975, review of The Greatest, p. 6; December 7, 1975, review of The Greatest, p. 55.

Phylon, March, 1976, review of The Greatest, p. 103.

Publishers Weekly, October 20, 1975, review of The Greatest, p. 64; March 5, 1979, review of Ali! Ali!, p. 98; October 25, 2004, review of The Soul of a Butterfly, p. 36.

School Library Journal, January, 1976, review of The Greatest, p. 58; May, 1976, review of The Greatest, p. 36.

Sports Illustrated, September 30, 1996, article by William Nack, pp. 52-63.

Top of the News, April, 1976, review of The Greatest, p. 284.

Village Voice, November 10, 1975, review of The Greatest, p. 55.

Washington Post Book World, August 31, 1975, review of The Greatest, p. 2.

ONLINE

Muhammad Ali Web site, http://www.ali.com (December 30, 2005).

ALI, Muhammad

(b. 17 January 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky), three-time heavyweight boxing champion, and show-man extraordinaire; one of the finest and most controversial athletes of all time.

Ali was born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. His father, Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sr., a sign painter, and his mother, Odessa Lee Grady, had one other son, Rudolph Valentino Clay (later known as Rahaman Ali; he also had a career as a boxer).

Clay took up boxing at the age of twelve under the tutelage of a white Louisville police officer, Joe Martin. Clay, who had little interest in academic or intellectual pursuits—in 1960 he barely graduated from Central High School in Louisville—devoted himself with almost monk-like austerity to learning the art and science of boxing. He became one of the country's most impressive amateurs, winning National Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) championships in 1959 and 1960. He won a gold medal as a light-heavyweight in the 1960 Rome Olympics, where he made a name for himself by reciting poetry, bragging about his abilities, and reassuring the foreign press that the American race problem was being properly handled. While Clay's demeanor enraged fight traditionalists as much as his unorthodox boxing style (he held his hands low, jabbed in retreat, and in general boxed like a heavyweight version of his idol, the middleweight champion Sugar Ray Robinson), many found him refreshing, winning, and utterly charming in a boyish way. Like Motown Records, established in 1959, and students conducting sit-in protests at African-American colleges, Clay represented a new African-American youth culture; these were young men and women who were unwilling to do things as their parents and grandparents had.

Upon his return from Rome to the United States, and under the management of a consortium of white Louisville businessmen, Clay turned professional. Guided by veteran trainer Angelo Dundee, who did little to change his style, Clay accumulated a string of victories largely against mediocre opposition. Tall, rangy, with astonishing hand and foot speed, Clay's constant patter and poetry, predictions of the outcome of his fights, and clowning garnered much attention but also produced a cadre of sports fans who found him insufferable. Most people came to the fights hoping to see him get beaten, although younger fans tended to like him. He also drew many new fans to boxing, purely on the basis of the beauty of his fighting style and the brashness of his personality. On the whole, Clay's influence was good for the sport, which had been in the doldrums for most of the 1950s. It had been diminished by revelations of fixed fights, riddled by the presence of gangsters, investigated by a Senate subcommittee, and fronted by two champions—Floyd Patterson and Sonny Liston—who were skilled boxers but moody and unappealing men. Clay brought a great deal of showmanship and youth appeal to boxing.

In February 1964 Clay won the heavyweight title in Miami by beating the former convict Sonny Liston in an oddly inconclusive fight, when the champion failed to come out for the seventh round. Clay was a seven-to-one underdog; some even thought he would not show up to fight the mighty Liston, who had effortlessly knocked out Floyd Patterson in one round in 1962 and repeated the feat in 1963. Clay stunned the world when he beat Liston, convincing many, despite the strangeness of the fight, of his courage and his enormous skills.

Clay evoked strong feelings but was not perceived as a villain by a large number of whites until after the Liston fight, when he announced his membership in the Nation of Islam, a small but influential religious sect in the African-American community that practiced self-empowerment, avoided politics, and believed that white people were devils and African-American people a superior race. The group denounced racial integration as a political and social goal of the leaders of the civil rights movement. The most impressive spokesperson for the Nation of Islam was the fiery, highly articulate, and logical Malcolm X, who had been in Clay's training camp before the Liston fight. The Nation of Islam was seen by the white press and by some African Americans as a hate group, an extremist group, and Clay was roundly denounced for becoming a member. He further outraged the white American public by taking the name Cassius X, reflecting the group's belief that African-American surnames derive from those of the slaves' white masters. Nearly all the publications in the United States refused to call Clay by his new name. A short time later, the group's leader, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, gave him the name Muhammad Ali. Malcolm X had left the Nation of Islam shortly after the Liston fight to form his own group, and he and others suggested that Elijah Muhammad wished to prevent Clay from leaving as well. To be sure, the Nation of Islam officially did not lionize Clay until after he won the Liston fight of 1964; few in the higher circles of the sect thought that he would win.

A few months later Clay adopted the Muslim name Muhammad Ali and toured Ghana, Nigeria, and the United Arab Republic (UAR; the brief political union of Egypt and Syria). Everywhere he was met by huge numbers of people, many of whom held signs proclaiming him King of the World. Even newspapers of these countries, which gave Ali extraordinary coverage, referred to him by this title, as if he were a form of royalty, an Islamic prince, or a head of state. Ali enjoyed audiences with heads of state such as Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Gamal Abdel Nasser of the UAR, an honor unheard of for a foreign athlete, especially a boxer, with utterly no native connection to the country.

In a sense, the press and the crowds were right. Ali was the king of a certain portion of the world, a large segment of what was referred to as the colored or Bandung world, so called after the site of the famous 1954 Afro-Asian Unity conference. Certainly, no heavyweight champion before Ali had ever had such a following in the Third World. No champion boxer had ever toured these countries before, particularly no American.

But Ali was different, and his rise reflected changing racial politics in the ideologically charged cold war universe, where African and Asian independence and anti-colonial movements found common ground with the American civil rights movement and growing African-American political militancy. Unexpectedly, this young African American from the South, who combined the antics of Dizzy Dean, the Pan-Africanist rhetoric of Malcolm X, the narrow-minded fervor of a cult zealot, the good looks of a Hollywood star, the heart and abilities of a superbly gifted athlete, and the moral sensibilities of Jack Armstrong, the fictional "all-American boy" of radio, came to dominate American sports and personalize dissident American politics.

Malcolm X was assassinated in February 1965, and tension was high between his followers and the Nation of Islam, which allegedly was responsible for the murder. In Lewiston, Maine, on 25 May 1965, Ali knocked out Liston in one round, apparently with a single punch that many, to this day, have been unable to discern. Because of his unpopularity in the United States, Ali defended his title abroad in several fights, including wins over Canadian George Chuvalo, Englishman Henry Cooper, and German Karl Mildenberger.

White public disapproval of Ali intensified when he spoke against the military draft. He had been initially classified as 1-Y, which meant that he was unfit to serve because of his low score on the army intelligence tests. After the Liston fight of 1964 he was retested, failing again, much to his embarrassment. ("I always said I was the greatest. I never said I was the smartest.") But in 1966, as a result of the Gulf of Tonkin incident and the escalation of the Vietnam War (which resulted in a recalibration of the intelligence tests) Ali was reclassified 1-A (fit to serve). In a panic, when told this by reporters, he said that he did not want to go Vietnam and "had no quarrel with those Viet Cong," of whom he never heard until a reporter mentioned them. The public took this as a far more self-consciously political statement than it truly was. Ali fought the draft, but on religious, not political or racial, grounds. (Elijah Muhammad, whom Ali saw as a father figure, had gone to prison for draft dodging and sedition in October 1942, as did his son Wallace D. Muhammad in 1961.)

In 1967 Ali was convicted in federal court of violation of the Selective Service Act and sentenced to five years in prison. He was also stripped of his titles, denied a license to fight in the United States, and denied a passport to fight abroad. He did not fight again until October 1970, when public opinion had turned against the war and public respect for Ali had grown in light of the sincerity, tenacity, and earnestness with which he held his beliefs. Ali eventually won his case on 28 June 1971, when the Supreme Court unanimously reversed Ali's conviction on a technicality.

Although Ali's skills were somewhat diminished by his three-and-a-half-year layoff, he returned to the ring a dominating presence. In the 1970s he proved himself against several highly skilled opponents, including the relentless Joe Frazier, to whom Ali, in the eyes of the public, lost his title in March 1971 on a fifteen-round decision; the awkward Ken Norton, whom he never completely mastered; and the powerful George Foreman, from whom he regained the title in dramatic fashion in Kinshasa, Zaire, in 1974 at the age of thirty-two, when everyone thought he was washed up. In 1964 Ali had promised many Ghanaians and Nigerians that he would build a house in Africa and live there, but he never did so; he never liked Africa very much. He left Zaire immediately after his fight with Foreman, thoroughly wearied by the place.

In the 1970s Ali was worshipped by a huge international audience. He was arguably the most famous man on the planet. He appeared in commercials, in a film about his life (based on an autobiography edited by Toni Morrison), even in a comic book where he beat up Superman. He had a huge entourage and, to support it, continued to fight although he was past his prime. He had difficult, draining fights against Frazier, Norton, Jimmy Young, and Earnie Shavers. He defeated Frazier on 28 January 1974, in ten rounds, and 1 October 1975 in Manila, the Philippines, in thirteen rounds. Ali went on to defeat Norton in their third and final meeting on 28 September 1976, in a close fifteen-round decision.

Ali became almost unbearably egotistical during this period. He had always insulted opponents, sometimes playfully, as when he called Liston "the Bear," and sometimes more viciously, as when he called Patterson a girl, and a rabbit. (Patterson, to some degree, had this coming. He had embarked on a personal crusade to bring the heavyweight title "back to America" when Ali announced his membership in the Nation of Islam. Later in the 1960s, however, Patterson was the only boxer to publicly defend Ali.) In the 1970s, in an attempt to add more political drama and tension to his fights, Ali's insults became shriller, sometimes tasteless.

In the late 1960s and the 1970s certain Nation of Islam mosques became associated with crime and drugs in the African-American community, and Ali, for a time, was associated with a charismatic underworld figure named Major Coxson, who was mysteriously executed along with his entire family. Also, the blood feud between the Nation of Islam and other sects of African American Muslims continued unabated into the 1970s.

On 15 February 1978 a fat, lethargic Ali lost his title to Leon Spinks, an ex-Marine and native of the notorious Pruitt-Igoe housing project in North St. Louis, Missouri, who had had only eight previous professional fights. Ali, however, got himself in shape and won the rematch on 15 September convincingly, becoming the first heavyweight to win the title three times.

In 1979, with his reflexes gone, his taste for competition dulled, and his body battered from numerous ring wars, Ali retired. Unfortunately, like many others, he did not stay retired. Unwisely, he returned to the ring on 2 October 1980 and fought his former sparring partner, and current heavyweight champion, Larry Holmes. Ali was savagely and shockingly beaten over ten rounds. He fought yet again on 11 December 1981 against journeyman heavyweight Trevor Berbick. Again, Ali lost in a ten-round decision. This was Ali's last fight. His final ring record was fifty-six wins (thirty-seven knockouts) and five losses. He was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1987.

Ali's personal life was perennially disordered. He married Sonji Roi on 14 August 1964; they divorced in 1966 and had no children. His second marriage to Belinda Boyd on 17 August 1967 lasted until 1976; they had four children. The following year, on 19 June 1977 he married Veronica Porche; they divorced in 1986 after having had two children, one of whom, a daughter Laila, became a boxer. Later that year, on 19 November, he married Lonnie Williams and they adopted a son. Altogether, Ali had nine children: seven among his four marriages and two by mistresses.

As early as the 1970s, as Ali's skills deteriorated and he absorbed more and more punishment in the ring, many noticed that his speech was becoming progressively more slurred. After his retirement, this slurring became worse, and his body movements became slower. He also began to suffer attacks of palsy. Most doctors diagnosed Ali's condition not as Parkinson's disease but as Parkinson's syndrome, largely induced by the punishment he endured in the ring. Eventually Ali began to move more like an aged man, and he rarely speaks in public. However, he still makes numerous public appearances and loves to be around people. A devout Muslim, Ali now follows Wallace D. Muhammad's more traditional Islamic organization.

Ali, without question, represented a kind of African-American athlete who was strikingly different from previous heroes such as Joe Louis, Jack Johnson, and Jackie Robinson, although he adopted aspects of their demeanor. His inchoate African-American nationalism and Pan-Africanism fashioned him for the times when youth and nationalism were the hallmarks of the African-American political movement in the United States after 1965. To be sure, Ali was virtually the sole inspiration of the Olympic boycott movement of 1968 (the boycott, aimed at getting South Africa removed from international athletic competition because of its apartheid policy, was not actually carried out). Harry Edwards, John Carlos, Tommie Smith, and the new cadre of militant African-American athletes saw Ali as a hero not only for his brilliance as an athlete who met all challengers in the ring, but also because he stood up for his beliefs. Many may not have agreed with his beliefs but they respected them and Ali's right to hold them.

Moreover, Ali arose at the time when sports were emerging as a big media business in the United States. This greatly benefited Ali; in his heyday he was probably the most photographed and the most televised African-American athlete, perhaps African-American person, in the United States. On the other hand, Ali almost single-handedly made televised boxing a marketable enterprise and made closed-circuit matches the bonanza they became.

Finally, Ali emerged in the era of the assertive athlete who would not accept the traditional lines of authority in sports: the coach/trainer/manager as father figure, the owner/promoter as dictator of the athlete's career path and pay. In this context, it is probably useful to compare the careers of Ali and Joe Namath, the stylish NFL quarterback, who also ducked the draft. Ali did not invent the independent athlete as much as he represented it. In retrospect, it is no surprise that it was during the Ali era that free agency came into organized team sports. After all, at least in the public's eye, if probably not in actual fact, Ali seemed so much a free agent himself.

Rarely was an international audience so moved as when the middle-aged Muhammad Ali, palsied and rendered virtually speechless by boxing-induced Parkinson's syndrome, tremblingly lit the flame that officially opened the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. The man who had, many years earlier, been demonized as an African-American racist, an unpatriotic bum, a coward, a fool, and a disgrace to his profession, who was, in effect, unwelcome in his native land, was now the subject of elegiac accolades. Many viewers openly wept at the sight of this proud but injured man. He had become a grand American hero.

Many books discuss Ali as either a primary subject or a significant actor in someone else's story. Muhammad Ali, with Richard Durham, The Greatest: My Own Story (1975); Gerald Early The Muhammad Ali Reader (1998); George Foreman, By George: The Autobiography of George Foreman (2000); Joe Frazier, with Phil Berger, Smokin' Joe: The Autobiography of a Heavyweight Champion of the World (1996); Elliott Gorn, ed., Muhammad Ali: The People's Champ (1995); Thomas Hauser, Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times (1991); Larry Holmes, Larry Holmes: Against the Odds (1998); Ken Norton, with Marshall Terrill and Mike Fitzgerald, Going the Distance: The Ken Norton Story (2000); Mark Kram, The Ghosts of Manila: The Fateful Blood Feud Between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier (2001); Norman Mailer, The Fight (1975); Jack Olsen, Black Is Best: The Riddle of Cassius Clay (1967); George Plimpton, Shadow Box (1977); David Remnick, King ofthe World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of the American Hero (1998); Jeffrey Sammons, Beyond the Ring: The Role of Boxing in American Society (1988); Wilfred Sheed, Muhammad Ali (1975); Jose Torres, Sting Like a Bee: The Muhammad Ali Story (1971); and Nick Tosches, The Devil and Sonny Liston (2000).

Gerald Early