“Float like a butterfly; sting like a bee ahhhh! Rumble, young man rumble ahhhh!” Those were the words echoed time and time again from Cassius Clay and his corner man David Brown. Better known as Muhammad Ali, he has a legacy of being the greatest fighter whoever lived.
January 17, 1942 Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was born, to Cassius and Odessa Clay.
Young Cassius got his start in boxing when someone stole his bike and he told a police officer who was also a boxing coach that he was going to whip whoever stole his bike. The police officer told Cassius that he would first have to learn to fight and that he did. Cassius told a story that his mother said his first words were GG, Cassius said he believed those were his first words because
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What they did not know was the self proclaimed greatest in the world was planning the one of the greatest changes in his life. Behind the scenes Cassius was studying Islam, he became good friends with Malcolm X and studied under Elijah Muhammad. Cassius took the name Muhammad Ali, saying he did not want to be called by a slave name any longer. He took Muhammed from the first prophet of Islam with the name meaning worthy of being praised, and the last name Ali which meaning is to be elevated. During a time where racial tensions were high people had a hard time accepting his new name. Often times the media would continue to call him Cassius, one didn't famed ABC sports reporter Howard Cosell, he respected Ali, because he too had changed his name from Cohen a Jewish name to Cosell, because in those time it was also a disadvantage to be Jewish. In 1965 Ai was scheduled to fight Floyd Patterson, who insisted on calling him Cassius, Patterson paid a big price for that, there is documentary footage which shows Ali giving Patterson the beating of a lifetime, making sure not to knock him out taking him through all 12 rounds repeating “now what’s my name
Remnick goes into some detail about Ali's private live, including his religious conversion, his connection with Malcolm X, and his brief marriage to and divorce from Sonji Roi. He lets us in behind-the-scenes on some sports-writers, as well as on Norman Mailer, Angelo Dundee (Clay/Ali's trainer), and the bout between world champion Floyd Patterson and contender Sonny Liston. His primary focus, however, is on Clay/Ali's fight with Liston after Liston defeated Patterson.
The first reason Muhammad Ali isn't a hero is because he is violent. For almost all of his life he fought in boxing matches that all started when he was a boy because he wanted to beat up the kid who stole his bike. For 14 years, on-and-off, he was heavyweight champion and before that a lightweight champion. To do this, you had to have the rage to hurt your opponent. Muhammad Ali even said, “I believe in the eye-for- an-eye business, I got no respect for a man who won’t hit back. You kill my dog, you better hide your cat” (Myers 36). Now, in his 60’s,...
Ali Khawaja, is a 48-year-old devoted Muslim and has strong Islamic values. He lives in Queensland with his wife and daughters, Aameena 5, Azneem 6 and Amreena 7. He and his young family immigrated from Tehran to Queensland three years ago in hopes of a better life. In Iran, Mr. Khawaja was a cleric for the Guardian Council for five years until he was dismissed.
history in the 1950's and 1960's by hitting the society. Ali was a great boxer who was very confident in his boxing game. Ali wanted to make a change in society by trying to get rid of the racial discrimination in America. Ali was also against the war in Vietnam. Ali said “Unless you have a very good reason to kill, war is wrong.” Ali sent messages of hope to the African American community by telling them to have pride. Ali said “Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people while so called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs?” Ali said “The Vietnamese had nothing against him” (Schwartz).When he was drafted to fight in the war, a lieutenant called Ali by his real name, Cassius Clay, and he said, “Sir that isn't my name, my name is “MUHAMMAD ALI!” Ali said, again “Sir that is a slave name my name is “MUHAMMAD ALI” (Muhammad Ali [HH:MM:SS]). After that, Ali refused to serve in the Vietnam War. This lead Ali to the Supreme Court, and he was five years in imprisonment. Ali was precluded from the athletic commissions for fighting in the United States for three and a half years. Even though Ali was released from his five year sentence, he still had a jail sentence of four years, which was overturned by the Supreme Court (Schwartz). Ali was also stripped of the heavyweight boxing title because he refused to serve in the draft Following his suspension, Ali reclaimed
Muhammad Ali was not always called by that name, born on January 17, 1942 in
Cassius Clay, also known as Muhammad Ali, was devoted to boxing at a very young age, along with school and family. Cassius Clay, Jr. son of Odessa Clay and Cassius Clay Sr., was born on January 17, 1942(cite). Cassius Clay, Jr. was an African-American and a descendant of pre-Civil War American slaves (cite). Clay and his parents lived in Louisville, Kentucky, where his dad had a job as a painter. His family was not wealthy. Clay’s mother made sure that they went to church and Sunday school each week. As a child, Clay attended the Virginia Street Elementary School, and may have suffered from dyslexia (Christopher 12). He started boxing at the age of twelve, weighing 89 pounds. Later in his life, Clay converted his religion to Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali ("Muhammad Ali"). Ali has been married four times and has nine children, two sons and seven daughters. In 1984, Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease (cite).
Boxing is one of the most entertaining kinds of sport. Impressive knockouts, rough demonstration of aggression and power – this is what one anticipates from a fight of a favorite boxer. When it comes to the all-time greatest, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather are surely to be on the list. Many believe that Pac-Man has lost his crown to Mayweather in that notorious “Battle for Greatness”. However, the dry defensive strategy of Mayweather in that match and Pacquiao’s alleged shoulder injury left millions of fans confused. Same as before, there is much space for debate: who is the best?
Ali proved to be a strong-willed individual that did leave a huge impact on America, but what impact had increased as time continued and his faults have been somewhat forgotten. Those believing that Muhammad was more of a hero than Jackie Robinson most likely feel that Ali’s action of standing up against the United States government, when he was drafted, was an act of courage and bravery. The main reason why Ali didn 't wish to go to war in Vietnam was because he believed he shouldn 't be fighting for a country that ultimately didn 't support his own people within its own borders. Ali has developed into a figure of courage after the time that his happened. In the 1960s when this originally happened, Ali had more enemies as a result of his religious and social views and ideas than fans. Today we see that what he did may be considered heroic, but back when it actually occurred, Ali was seen as a nuisance to America. He was spreading word and influencing people to act against their own country in a time of war. Since Muhammad Ali’s retirement from boxing the course of time has faded criticism of Ali and left mostly just the positive parts of his life and career. As a society we’ve buried the controversial side of Ali’s existence in our minds and history simply remembers his greatness as an athlete. Robinson had an impact on
At first, Muhammad Ali had no intension of boxing. After his bike was stolen, in the month of October 1954, when he was twelve, his whole life was set. Upon finding out that there was a police officer in the basement of a gym, Ali went down to the officer in a shocked state of mind demanding a "state wide bike hunt" for hsi stolen bicycle. But all the cop told him to do was to learn to fight. and that
Shaquille O’Neal is one of the biggest and most dominant guys to ever play the game of basketball. He is such a big guys, he wears a size 43 shoes! He is one of the most dominant BigMen to ever play in the NBA. Shaquille O’Neal was an NBA power forward from 1982-2011, his life before, during and after the NBA are pretty fascinating subjects to talk about.
"Pound for pound, the best." The claim has been used to describe many boxers, but it was invented for Sugar Ray Robinson.
Boxer Muhammad Ali, was born as Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., on January 17, 1942, he was the son of Marcellus Clay Sr. and Odessa Grady Clay. He lived in Louisville, Kentucky where he experienced discrimination and racial prejudice towards himself and his family, which led him to his fascination towards boxing. Later in his life, he would win the Olympic gold medal for boxing in 1960 and became the world heavyweight boxing champion in 1964, and was the first fighter to recapture heavyweight champion three times. But Clay was not only a boxer, he was also a philanthropist and social activist with astonishing effrontery, he spoke out against problems such as race, religion, and politics that cause him to become such a controversial figure.
Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. later known as Muhammad Ali, was a black boxer, and was proud of it. Many African Americans were ashamed of their color, but Ali was different. He was the first boxer to win the Heavyweight Championship 3 different times. He had a great personality and was liked by the people. During his life, he made big decisions that changed the course of his life completely. Muhammad Ali's journey through life was a great inspiration for African American people, but Ali himself deserves the admiration of everyone.
Hauser, Thomas. "The Importance of Muhammad Ali." The Glider Lehrman Institute of American History, n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.
Ibn Battuta’s early life. Ibn Battuta, known for his travels, was the only medieval traveler known to have visited the lands of every Muslim ruler of his time. Ibn Battuta traveled for 27 years. Ibn Battuta was born on February 25, 1304 in Tangier, Morocco. His religion was Islam, he was a Muslim.