Muhammad Ali
Early life
Cassius Clay Jr. was born on January 17, 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky. His dad, Cassius Clay Sr. was an artist and his mom, Odessa cleaned houses. Clay’s parents wanted him to do very well in school. Clay was born a champion. At the age of one he loosened one of Odessa’s teeth. His strength surprised his parents!
At the age of 12, Clay was riding his bike to a yearly fair. When he came back out, his bike was missing. He ran up and down the streets looking for it. Someone said go to the gym and ask for Joe Martin, an off-duty policeman. They thought Martin could help. Joe Martin was also the boxing teacher at Columbia gym. When Clay walked in he told Martin the story. Martin told him he would give him boxing lessons with his parents permission. Clay got permission from his parents and started boxing lessons with Martin twice a week. Clay wanted to be able to handle the criminal who took his bike. At first he was not very good but he started getting better.The problem was that his grades weren’t very good. They were suffering because of boxing. His parents were not happy. He had to figure out how to juggle both activities.
When he was 18, he was selected to the 1960 U.S. Olympic boxing team for the Summer Olympics in Rome. In his first match he beat a Belgian pretty comfortably. In his second match he boxed a Russian. Clay won that match, too. In his third fight, he beat an Australian. He then faced a Polish boxer named Ziggy Petrzkowski in the finals. Ziggy’s southpaw style confused Clay in the first two rounds, but he fought back and won on decision. That means the match is even and the referee decides the victor. Clay won gold at the Olympics. Clay wanted to go pro but Martin told him to stay amateur. Clay went on to win over 100 amauteur fights with only 8 losses. He had already won two Golden Gloves by the age of 18. He then turned pro.
Struggles
Ali had a lot of struggles, one of them was his skin color. He once was at the mall and was thirsty and wasn’t Allowed to have water because he was black. He had different beliefs so people didn’t like him. He joined the nation of Islam. Most whites in the U.S. didn’t like that. Nation of islam’s goal was to create an entirely different nation for blacks only. Ali also believed racism was a part of american culture in the U.S.. People didn’t like what Ali’s beliefs were because he was black. African Americans were suppose to be quiet, kind and humble but, Ali was freely spoken.
Another struggle was that he didn’t believe in the U.S. fighting in Vietnam. During the time that he fought the U.S. were fighting in Vietnam and Ali didn’t know why. He spoke a lot about that. At first he got a lot of hate but, as the war went on people started agreeing once the war kept on going.
A third struggle Ali had was when he was young was he was pretty pour. His mom cleaned hoU.S.es for $4 a day. His dad was an artist but didn’t get payed much. They lived in a old small house And spent their money wisely.
Legacy
Cassius Clay was known for his boxing. Clay’s first bout was against Tunny Hunsaker. Clay won that fight. He went on to win a couple before facing lightweight champion Archie Moore. Before the match he wrote a poem, “When you come to fight don’t block the door cause you’ll all go home after round four.” Clay beat Moore in the fourth round. He went around the octagon chanting, “I’m not the greatest, I’m the double greatest, not only do I knock ‘em out, I pick my round.” He went on to become the lightweight champion.
He defended his title a ton of times and then faced Sonny Liston. Before the match he said, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee round eight to prove i’m great, bring that ugly bear on.” Liston had never lost a match. Clay beat Liston in the seventh round and said, “I am the greatest, Ain’t nobody gonna stop me.”After that fight Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali because Cassius Clay was a slave name passed down by his family. He wanted to separate himself from that legacy. He went on to win the title of lightweight champion 3 times.
Adult Years
Ali wasn’t just known for boxing he was also known for how he spoke. He spoke in a poetry and rhyming way. That made it easier to understand him. After Ali won the lightweight championship,on April 28, 1967, he was in Houston, Texas at the induction of who goes to Vietnam to fight and they called Ali’s name. He was suppose to go up to the stage, but instead he stood there.In june of that same year a jury found him guilty of draft law.
He got stripped of his title. His passport got taken away. He got 5 years in jail. He also got a $10,000 fine. He got out of jail on bail, while his lawyers appealed. He wasn’t aloud to box for three years. Later that year he won the appeal but still couldn’t box. During the three years he spoke at churches. When he came back people didn’t think he would be the same. They were wrong Ali won his title back and kept defending it.
Ali retired in 1981.In 1990 Ali was inducted in the hall of fame. He was then diagnosed with Parkinson disease. Parkinson disease makes you shake so when he walked he would shake. He lit the torch at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Ali died in 2016 on June 3rd. He will always be known as a legendary boxer.