SPOTLIGHTS: MUHAMMAD ALI
SPOTLIGHTS: MUHAMMAD ALI
Muhammad Ali was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1942. He started boxing when he was 12 and went on to win light-heavyweight gold at the 1960 Olympics in Rome. He was born Cassius Marcellus Clay but changed his name after converting to the religion of Islam.
He called himself “The Greatest”, and beat Sonny Liston in 1964 to win his first professional World Title.
The boxer became the first to win The World Heavyweight Title three times, winning his first at the age of 22. He retired in 1981 after winning 56 of 61 fights.
The boxer wowed crowds with his personality, the way he boxed and his humour.
Some of the most famous things Ali said are still used by many people today: “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”
Ali wasn’t just a boxer; he spoke out against racism in America at a time when black people were not treated equally.
Cassius Clay, as he was originally called, originally changed his name to Cassius X because he wanted to get rid of the surname he felt was a “slave name”. Up until 1865 many black people in America were kept as slaves and owned by white people who gave them their surnames.
*Ali was defeated for the first time by Joe Frazier in the ‘Fight of the Century’ in New York in 1971.
He later re-gained his title after knocking down George Foreman in the 1974 fight that was nicknamed the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’.
He lit the Olympic cauldron at the 1996 Games in Atlanta in America, and carried the Olympic flag at the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Muhammad Ali passed away in hospital surrounded by his wife and children
He was asked how he would like to be remembered on many occasions and said: “And if all that’s too much, then I guess I’d settle for being remembered only as a great boxer who became a leader and a champion of his people. And I wouldn’t even mind if folks forgot how pretty I was.”
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