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Last month, we lost another legend. Mohamad Ali has been part of my life for as long as I can remember! Here are a few facts you might not have known about this amazing sportsman!
Born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky.
He was a descendant of pre-Civil War era American slaves in the American South, and was predominantly of African-American descent, with Irish and English heritage.
He was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming over a thief taking his bicycle. He told the officer he was going to “whup” the thief. The officer told him he better learn how to box first.
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 claimed in his 1975 autobiography that shortly after his return from the Rome Olympics he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after he and a friend were refused service at a “whites-only” restaurant and fought with a white gang.
Cay became at age 22 the youngest boxer to take the title from a reigning heavyweight champion, though Floyd Patterson was the youngest to win the heavyweight championship at 21, during an elimination bout following Rocky Marciano’s retirement.
Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali upon converting to Islam and affiliating with the Nation of Islam.
Muhammad Ali had a highly unorthodox boxing style for a heavyweight, epitomized by his catchphrase “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee“. Which of course inspired the song by Derrick Morgan. Early in his career Ali relied on his superior hand speed, superb reflexes and constant movement, dancing and circling opponents for most of the fight, holding his hands low and lashing out with a quick, cutting left jab that he threw from unpredictable angles. His footwork was so strong that it was extremely difficult for opponents to cut down the ring and corner Ali against the ropes.
Muhammad Ali refused to be inducted into the armed forces, stating publicly, “No Vietcong ever called me nigger”.
Ali inspired Martin Luther King, Jr., who had been reluctant to address the Vietnam War for fear of alienating the Johnson Administration and its support of the civil rights agenda. Now, King began to voice his own opposition to the war for the first time.
Muhammad Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s syndrome in 1984, a disease that commonly results from head trauma from activities such as boxing
Muhammad Ali was married four times and had seven daughters and two sons. Ali met his first wife, cocktail waitress Sonji Roi, approximately one month before they married on August 14, 1964.
Ali has appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated on 37 different occasions, second only to Michael Jordan.
Muhammad Ali's theme song
"Black Superman Catch Me If You Can"
by
Derrick Morgan