Muhammed Ali

Some people claim to be “the greatest” at different things like sports, games and music, but few of them really reach that goal. One person who did become “the greatest” was a boxer named Muhammed Ali. He was legendary, not only in the boxing ring, but he was a great role model in many ways.

Born in Louisville, Kentucky on January 17, 1942, his parents named him Cassius Clay Jr. He started boxing when he was 12 after his bike was stolen. He told the police officer who showed up he was going to “whoop” the thief. The officer was also a boxing coach. He told the boy that he should learn how to fight before he found and “whooped” anybody and took him into his gym to teach him to box. That was the day Cassius Clay started down the road to greatness. While he was just 18, he started proving the claim that he was the greatest when he won a gold medal in the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, Italy. It didn’t matter that the young man was a champion because just like other black people in the United States of America, at that time, he was treated differently.

Laws called Jim Crow laws made it illegal for black people to use the same water fountains, swimming pools or parks as other people. They even had separate public schools. This racism made him want to join the movement to change those laws. He was so angry about segregation that he threw his Olympic gold medal Ohio River! He became a respected Civil Rights Leader along with other athletes, asa well as Martin Luther King, Jr, and Malcom X. That is when he announced that he was joining the religious group named the Nation of Islam and changed his name to Muhammed Ali.

Just before a fight against Sonny Liston in 1964, he was quoted as saying, "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. His hands can't hit what his eyes can't see". He was that fast in the boxing ring and he knew it. He moved around his opponents like he was dancing and that made his fights exciting. That night, he won his first heavyweight championship. Ali won a lot of fights that people predicted he would lose. Soon he became known as “the greatest boxer of all time.”

In 1984, Muhammad Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. This disease attacks the central nervous system that makes it hard to talk and walk. That didn’t change the fact that he was loved by people around the world. In 1996 at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, he was given a gold medal to replace the one he threw into the river. He even lit the Olympic flame. He died as a true champion in and out of the ring in 2016.