Muhammad Ali’s Life

Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Marcellus Clay, is one of the most famous and recognizable boxers in the history of world boxing: the Champion of the 17th Summer Olympic Games of 1960 in the light heavyweight category, the absolute world heavyweight champion (1964-1966, 1974-1978), the holder of the titles Boxer of the Year (six times – 1963, 1966, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1978) and Boxer of the Decade (1970s) by The Ring; he became the 2nd boxer in history awarded the Sportsman of the Year according to Sports Illustrated (1974), and Sportsman of the Century according to several sports ratings. At the end of his career, he was included in the Boxing Hall of Fame (1987) and the International Boxing Hall of Fame (1990) (Hauser 22-25; Ali).

Throughout his career, Ali was known as a controversial, and yet inspiring personality both in his professional and social life. In this paper, we aim at discussing Muhammad Ali’s unique path, as well as his image and its perception.

Muhammad Ali’s life and career

Cassius Marcellus Clay was born January 17, 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky, in the family of a housewife Odessa Clay and a signboard and poster artist Cassius Clay; two years later, his only brother, Rudolph, was born, who later changed his name to Rahman Ali (Hauser 14). As Ali (37) state himself, the childhood and youth of the future champion were far from cloudless. The early 1950s Louisville was functioning in the atmosphere of racial inequality that strongly influenced the formation of 10-year-old Cassius’ personality. Later he remembered that he cried every night before falling asleep, because he simply could not understand why blacks were considered second-class people in the American society (Ali 42). Already at that age, he dreamed of being respected and changing the system.

Clay started his boxing lessons the age of 12, right after he was stolen by a bicycle he bought for the money he earned himself (Ali 51). From the very beginning, he was a difficult young man to train; Clay constantly bullied other guys, announcing he was the best boxer and would become the world champion. Overall, with the exception of Fred Stoner, who taught the young boxer to perform the jab correctly, early career trainers did not see any particular potential in Cassius (Hauser 44-49). However, six weeks after the first visit to the training hall, his debut amateur fight took place and was broadcast on television in “Future Champions”. After his amazing win over a more experienced young boxer, Clay began to shout at the camera that he would become the greatest boxer of all times (Ali 73). From that moment he worked hard every day on his boxing technique and endurance, did not drink alcohol, did not smoke and did not use drugs, having become a fanatic of a healthy diet. He also was not giving enough attention and time to studying, and his performance at school was so poor that he once had to repeat the grade, and in the end, he graduated the school having received only a certificate of attendance, but not a diploma; all of his efforts were focused on doing sports (Ali; Hauser).

As a result, over the next two years, Clay held about one fight every three weeks gaining one victory after another. In 1956, he won the first tournament in his career, the “Golden Gloves”, as well as two tournaments of the Athletic Amateur Union of 1959 and 1960 (Ali 89). During this period, Cassius started to invent his own unique style of fighting: he was “dancing” around the opponent on his toes with his hands down, provoking the boxer to a sweeping blow, which he confidently evaded. This weird manner caused many negative reviews among coaches and veteran boxers, but by the end of the school Clay earned 100 victories on the amateur ring, having suffered only 8 defeats (Hauser; Ali). Therefore, the decision to try for the Olympic Games came naturally.

Indeed, due to the victory in the Athletic Amateur Union of 1960, Clay was invited to the qualifying tournament for the Olympic Games held in San Francisco. Before the competition, the local media have issued several controversial materials about Clay, mainly addressing his boastful manner to communicate, and eventually the audience booed him during his fights (Hauser 90-92). In spite of this, Cassius confidently won over all his rivals, and not only in San Francisco, but also in Rome. Until flying to the US, wherever he went, Cassius appeared everywhere with his Light Heavyweight gold medal; he did not take it off even during sleep (Ali 123).

Clay’s debut in professional boxing took place on October 29, 1960; his rival was Tanni Hanseker. Between February and July 1962, Clay won five wins with all fights ending in knockouts no later than the sixth round, and already at the age of 22, Clay became world heavyweight champion, having won the fight for the title against Sonny Liston (Velin). Same year, Clay announced his affiliation with the Nation of Islam and changed his name to Cassius X, and then later to Muhammad Ali upon converting to Islam (Roberts and Smith 78-82). The reaction of the public was mostly negative: some tried to deprive Ali of his titles; others refused to call him his new name. However, already after the first title defense, Muhammad acquired the status of a star of boxing world and factually had no real rivals. On November 14, 1966, Ali defended the world title for the seventh time, in a battle against Cleveland Williams, and in 1967 his boxing license was suspended by the state of New York due to the obligation to be drafted to army service (Hauser; Ali).

Yet, unique in his social position, Ali refused to be inducted into the US armed forces. Instead, he forced to stop fighting for almost three years, till October 1970, but during these years the opposition to the Vietnam War developed to the extent that Ali’s position gained sympathy (Hauser 232). He publicly spoke at colleges across the country and openly criticizes the Vietnam War, advocating African American racial justice. Eventually, he gloriously returned to the ring in 1970. The victory over Oscar Bonavena left Ali as a top contender against heavyweight champion Joe Frazier (Hauser; Ali).

Held at the Garden on March 8, 1971, Ali and Frazier’s first fight is often called the “Fight of the Century”, due to the sensational excitement surrounding two undefeated fighters, each worthy to claim the heavyweight champion title. In early rounds, Ali played to the crowd, used his rope-a-dope strategy for the first time, and shook his head “no” every time he was hit, and finally suffered his first professional defeat (Ali 167; Velin). After the rematch with Norton, the ground was prepared for the second fight against Frazier, who was to return to Madison Square Garden. A few months before the match, Ali began his attacks in the press. Frazier tried to concentrate on training and not respond to his attacks. But during an interview on the ABC channel, Joe lost the temper, and he grappled with Muhammad right on the air (Gorsevski and Butterworth 54). On the day of the fight, Madison Square Garden was sold out; the hall was filled with celebrities including John Kennedy Jr. and the current world champion George Foreman to see Ali’s victory. And that was the classic example of Ali to draw attention to everything he was doing.

After that, Ali won over George Foreman, Jean-Pierre Coopman, Jimmy Young, Richard Dunn, and Leon Spinks, and then entered a two-year vacation (Velin). During his career he generally earned about $50 million, but only a small part was invested in business, the rest was spent on Muhammad’s surrounding (Hauser 305). Therefore, already in 1980, Ali felt the need for money, which made him hold a new duel. By that time, Muhammad had no great desire to enter the ring again; he was put against the current world champion in one’s prime, Larry Holmes. The fight took place on October 2, 1980, and by that time, Muhammad was 38 years old, he was overweight, and looked obviously slow. The champion respected Ali and tried not to injure the veteran, but, nevertheless, inflicted numerous injuries during the match (Velin). This was the first fight in which Muhammad lost before the end. The camera captured people in the hall, many of whom were crying.

For his last fight Ali earned about $8 million, which significantly improved his financial situation (Hauser 328). This time, he disposed of money wisely, investing them in business and real estate. However, despite material success, Muhammad again decided to enter the ring and was surprised to find that none of the leading boxers wanted to fight with him, and also that the athletic commissions of most states were not eager to give him a license to fight because of the state of his health (Ali 278-80). Despite all the difficulties, Ali managed to get the permission to fight in the Bahamas with a Canadian heavyweight, Trevor Berbick (Velin). Muhammad looked much better than in the fight with Holmes, and even dominated the fifth round. However, despite this, Ali lost by unanimous decision in the 10-round match. After this fight, he finally announced his retirement and never again stepped into the professional ring.

In later years, Ali suffered from the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, but his mind remained clear for a long time, and he decided to devote himself to serving Islam (Ali 311-23). Ali traveled extensively, became UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, and he visited many countries in Africa and Asia. On June 2, 2016, Muhammad Ali was hospitalized due to deterioration in his health caused by lung problems, and died June 3, 2016, on the 75th year of his glorious life. During his career, Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) held 61 battles, scoring 56 wins with 37 of them by knockout (Ali; Hauser; Velin).

Muhammad Ali’s public image and its perception

Before Ali there also were boxers who were real megastars not only in boxing, but in sports in general: John L. Sullivan, Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano – in the heavies, Ray Robinson, Henry Armstrong, Billy Conn, Garry Greb – in other weights. Their stardom was natural, but limited to sports. In his turn, Ali became the first not only in boxing, but, perhaps, in sports overall, who went beyond becoming a pop icon in the broadest sense of the word. And as Marqusee (14) rightly marks, he did it himself by gathering a team of like-minded people, creating the image of a loud boaster, shouting about his greatness at every corner, and making the whole world believe in this image.

The Nation of Islam, the refusal to serve in Vietnam, the demand to mount a star on the Walk of Fame into the wall and not into the pavement, so that it was not stepped on by those who did not respect him, as well as his unique way to portray himself as the “people’s champion” fighting against the tool of the white establishment – all these are only milestones, individual manifestations of the integral personality of Ali and his perception of the surrounding reality (Marqusee; Gorsevski and Butterworth; Van Lange; Saeed).

The result of the self-promotion, as well as the promotion of boxing and the development of television technologies, was the race of fees that unfolded especially zealously after Ali’s return to boxing. Having become a megastar and starting to make cash, Ali became the main reason for the sharp rise in fees in the mid-1970s, as Marqusee (18) reasonably admits. This increase has become a trend, and later the only possible direction of development for professional boxing. Meanwhile, for only one fight with George Foreman Ali received $5.5 million, which was more than Dempsey, Marciano and Luis in their entire careers (Saeed 125).

Meanwhile, Ali is often said to have destroyed a whole generation of boxers trying to imitate his style and adapt (or rather copy) it for their interests (Saeed; Marqusee; Van Lange). But one can copy something only from one’s level of development, and Ali at some point was for a long time much ahead of his contemporaries in the level of his boxing talent. At the same time, which to a greater extent emphasizes Ali’s greatness as an athlete, he was able to change, and this is the highest art, Van Lange (690) notes. In the 1960s, he could afford to float like a butterfly. However, after the return, his unique style fell apart: his legs refused to be as fast as his hands, and the hands slowed down. But Muhammad found an antidote to this concentrating on the development of defensive skills and the new tactics rope-a-dope. In general, if one could draw up the canons of holding a boxing match, Ali violated almost every one of them.

Always being a polarizing figure, he was also often called “danger to society”, and found himself under the risk to lose his title for his political ties and beliefs (Roberts and Smith; Gorsevski and Butterworth). Indeed, he was scaring conservative people by being a radical fighter for the rights of the black population from an early age, he also was a close friend of the radical activist Malcolm X, together with him proving that the white man was the devil, and the white power over black was a crime (Roberts and Smith). He also accepted solidarity with the Islamic world, as a symbolic gesture changed the name Cassius Clay given at birth to the Islamic Muhammad Ali, and continued to advocate for the rights of not only the black but also the Islamic population, which was unprecedented at that level of publicity. And yet, he did so that every time pronouncing his name, everyone from sports commentators to news broadcasters, remember and reproduce his radical political gesture.

As controversial as he could be, Ali is the legend, and he made his name a legend, so that everyone speaking about him, spoke about his beliefs and his unique personality. Because it is for these beliefs he fought no less violently than for the title against Liston or Fraser throughout all his life; and that was his freedom to be who he wanted.

Works Cited:

Ali, Muhammad. The Greatest: My Own Story. Graymalkin Media, 2015.

Gorsevski, Ellen, and Michael Butterworth. “Muhammad Ali’s Fighting Words: The Paradox of Violence in Nonviolent Rhetoric,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 97.1 (2011): 50-73.

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

Marqusee, Mike. “Sport and stereotype: from role model to Muhammad Ali,” Race & Class 36.4 (1995): 1-29.

Roberts, Randy, and Johnny Smith. Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship Between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X. Basic Books, 2016.

Saeed, Amir. “’Worthy of all praises’: Muhammad Ali and the politics of identity,” Soundings 47.8 (2011): 123-129.

Van Lange, Paul A. M. “Being Better but Not Smarter than Others: The Muhammad Ali Effect at Work in Interpersonal Situations,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 17.6 (1991): 689-693.

Velin, Bob. “Fight by fight: Muhammad Ali’s legendary career,” USA Today, June 4 (2016). Accessed from https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2016/06/04/muhammad-ali-fight-by-fight-career/85341622/.

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

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"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
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[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

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"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]
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