Muhammad Ali - Biography, Achievements and Quotes

Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., January 17, 1942) is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist. Considered a cultural icon, Ali has both been idolized and vilified. Originally known as Cassius Clay, at the age of 22 he won the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston.
Ali changed his name after joining the Nation of Islam in 1964, subsequently converting to Sunni Islam in 1975. In 1967, three years after Ali had won the heavyweight championship, he was publicly vilified for his refusal to be conscripted into the U.S. military, based on his religious beliefs and opposition to the Vietnam War. Ali was eventually arrested and found guilty on draft evasion charges; he was stripped of his boxing title, and his boxing license was suspended.
He was not imprisoned, but did not fight again for nearly four years while his appeal worked its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it was eventually successful.
Ali would go on to become the first and only three-time lineal World Heavyweight Champion.
Muhammad Ali was born as Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.; on January 17, 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, is a former American boxer and three-time World Heavyweight Champion, who is widely considered one of the greatest heavyweight championship boxers. As an amateur, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. After turning professional, he went on to become the first boxer to win the lineal heavyweight championship three times.
Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., the younger of two boys, he was named after his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sr., who was named for the 19th century abolitionist and politician of the same name. His father painted billboards and signs, and his mother, Odessa Grady Clay, was a household domestic. Although Cassius Sr. was a Methodist, he allowed Odessa to bring up both Cassius and his elder brother Rudolph “Rudy” Clay (later renamed Rahman Ali) as Baptists. He is a descendant of pre-Civil War era American slaves in the American South, and is predominantly of African-American descent, with some Irish and English ancestry.
Clay was first directed toward boxing by the white Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming over the theft of his bicycle.
However, without Martin’s knowledge, Clay also began training with Fred Stoner, an African-American trainer working at the local community center. In this way, Clay could make $4 a week on Tomorrow’s Champions, a local, weekly TV show that Martin hosted, while benefiting from the coaching of the more experienced Stoner, who continued working with Clay throughout his amateur career.

Achievements & Facts about Muhammad Ali

• Ali has been nicknamed the "Greatest."  
• He has been involved in a number of historic boxing matches.  He had three historic boxing matches with Joe Frazier, one of his major rivals at the time, as well as one with George Foreman.  
• In the match with Foreman, Ali won with a knockout in order to win the heavyweight title again.  In his career, he had only five losses, four of which were decisions, and one by retirement.  
• He had no draws, but he did have 56 wins.  Thirty-seven of those wins were through knockouts, and nineteen were from decisions.  He had a famous quote that he used to describe his boxing style, "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." 
•  He is also well known for his rope a dope strategy, which is one in which a boxer assumes a protected stance, such as Ali's, in which he lies against the ropes and lets his opponent hit him, hoping that the opponent will become tired and make mistakes so that he can counterattack. 
•  Ali was also famous for his trash talking, which he did both on television and in person before the match, sometimes with rhymes.  Muhammad Ali became a cultural icon. 
• Later in his lifetime, Muhammad Ali developed Parkinson's Disease, which is due to some of the injuries he received because of his career.  Those who have had severe head trauma are more likely to develop Parkinson's Disease.  Ali continues to be an active figure in the public.  
• Ali has received a Spirit of America Award which called him the most recognized of Americans in the world.  He also was the one responsible for lighting the flame at the 1996 Summer Olympics that took place in Atlanta, Georgia.  Ali was voted the Sports Personality of the Century Award by the BBC.  
• In 2001, a film, Ali, was created.  It is a biographical film and starred Will Smith as Ali.  On January 8, 2005, President George W. Bush awarded him with the Presidential Citizens Medal. 
•  He was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 9, 2005.  He was also given the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold of the United Nations Association of Germany from Berlin for his work in support of the civil rights movement.  
• Following his retirement from boxing, Muhammad Ali has been involved in humanitarian work around the world, and this includes an estimated 22 million meals provided to feed the hungry.  
• Ali travels around 200 days a year at minimum, and lends his name to support relief from poverty and hunger, support education, and promote adoption. 
• Under Stoner’s guidance, Cassius Clay won six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union National Title, and the Light Heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Clay’s amateur record was 100 wins with five losses.
• Ali states that he threw his Olympic gold medal into the Ohio River after being refused service at a ‘whites-only’ restaurant, and fighting with a white gang. Whether this is true is still debated, although he was given a replacement medal at a basketball intermission during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he lit the torch to start the games.
• Ali changed his name after joining the Nation of Islam in 1964, subsequently converting to Sunni Islam in 1975 and more recently toSufism. In 1967, Ali refused to be conscripted into the U.S. military, based on his religious beliefs and opposition to the Vietnam War. 
• He was arrested and found guilty on draft evasion charges, stripped of his boxing title, and his boxing license was suspended. He was not imprisoned, but did not fight again for nearly four years while his appeal worked its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it was successful.
• Young Cassius Clay won a gold medal as a light heavyweight at the 1960 Olympics in Rome. Later, upon returning to the United States, Clay was refused service at a small diner because of his race. 
• Clay walked out of the diner and threw his gold medal (which he wore all the time) off a bridge and into the Ohio River. He claimed he didn't want to wear a medal in a country where he couldn't be served. 
• Ali was well known for his unorthodox fighting style, which he described as “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”, and employing techniques such as the rope-a-dope. 
• He was also known for his pre-match hype, where he would “trash talk” opponents on television and in person some time before the match, often with rhymes. These personality quips and idioms, along with an unorthodox fighting technique, made him a cultural icon. In later life, Ali developed Parkinson’s disease.
•  In 1999, Ali was crowned “Sportsman of the Century” by Sports Illustrated and “Sports Personality of the Century” by the BBC.
• After his Olympic triumph, Clay returned to Louisville to begin his professional career. There, on October 29, 1960, he won his first professional fight, a six-round decision over Tunney Hunsaker, who was the police chief of Fayetteville, West Virginia.
• Muhammad Ali has been married four times and has seven daughters and two sons. Ali met his first wife, cocktail waitress Sonji Roi, approximately one month before they married on August 14, 1964. Roi’s objections to certain Muslim customs in regard to dress for women contributed to the breakup of their marriage. They divorced on January 10, 1966.
• On August 17, 1967, Ali married 17-year old Belinda Boyd. After the wedding, she converted to Islam and changed her name to Khalilah Ali, though she was still called Belinda by old friends and family. They had four children: Maryum, Jamillah and Liban, and Muhammad Ali Jr..
• Ali has starred as himself in four motion pictures. In December of 1969, he had the lead in a Broadway show called Buck White. A 21-year-old Cassius Clay was actually interviewed by Jerry Lewis on the biggest flop of Lewis' career, the ill-fated talk show The Jerry Lewis Show in 1963. 
• The Lewis-Clay interview is a fairly solemn, unfunny affair, especially considering the two such colorful personalities. The Jerry Lewis Show was cancelled after a handful of episodes shortly after Clay's appearance.
• In 1975, Ali began an affair with Veronica Porsche, an actress and model. By the summer of 1977, Ali’s second marriage was over and he had married Veronica. 
• At the time of their marriage, they had a baby girl, Hana, and Veronica was pregnant with their second child. Their second daughter, Laila, was born in December 1977. By 1986, Ali and Veronica were divorced.
• On November 19, 1986, Ali married Yolanda Ali. They had been friends since 1964 in Louisville. They have one adopted son, Asaad Amin, who they adopted when Amin was five.
• Ali has two other daughters, Miya and Khaliah, from extramarital relationships.
•  In 1999, Ali was crowned “Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated and  Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC.
• Ali was a gold-medal winner at the 1960 Olympics, in Rome.
• Ali was inducted in the International Box Hall of Fame in 1990.

Some Superb Quotes of Muhammad Ali

• Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It's not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything. 
• Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing. 
• If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it - then I can achieve it. 
• I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion'. 
• Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong. 
• Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have the skill, and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill. 
• Don't count the days, make the days count. 
• Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. 
• Live everyday as if it were your last because someday you're going to be right. 
• I'm a fighter. I believe in the eye-for-an-eye business. I'm no cheek turner. I got no respect for a man who won't hit back. You kill my dog, you better hide your cat. 
• The man with no imagination has no wings.