Muhammad Ali, 74, died Friday of a respiratory condition related to his Parkinson’s disease in an Arizona hospital, surrounded by family, according to a family spokesperson. He leaves behind several children and a boxing legacy that’s tough to lay a glove on.
Ali called himself “the greatest” and in many ways he was. He had learned to fight from a young age, reportedly starting boxing training when he was 12 to “whup” a boy who stole his bike. He went 100 and 5 in his amateur career.
He had 61 fights in his professional career: 56 wins and 5 losses. His record would be even better if he took his doctor’s advice and retired in 1977 after he barely managed to defend his heavyweight title against Ernie Shavers’ pummeling.
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Muhammad Ali PrettyFamous
Ali was a controversial figure in and out of the arena, for a host of reasons. Born Cassius Clay, Jr., he changed his name when he entered the Nation of Islam in 1964. He called “Clay” his slave name, but that was a stretch. It was his father’s name and before that the name of a famous abolitionist politician.
Growing up in Kentucky, Ali experienced a fair share of prejudice. He hit back with words and fists. “Boxing,” he said, “is a lot of white men watching two black men beating each other up.” In the late 1960s, he was refused conscientious objector status for the Vietnam War, arrested, and convicted of draft dodging.
He explained his objections to the war in both high-minded and more incendiary terms. He put the religious objection like so: “We are not supposed to take part in no wars unless declared by Allah or The Messenger. We don’t take part in Christian wars or wars of any unbelievers.” And then this: “No Viet Cong ever called me nigger.”
At no point did Ali budge and the Supreme Court eventually found in his favor, but he did pay a price. No state would license him for almost three years while the case wound its way through the legal system, denying him the chance to earn money by fighting.
As the years wore on, Ali moderated some of his more hard-edged beliefs, converting from the more racialist Nation of Islam to Sunni Islam and lately to an even more moderate form of Suffism.
Many Americans responded well to this. He became a frequent White House guest over several administrations and received an outpouring of public support after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1984.
Parkinson’s Disease Overview HealthGrove
“No matter what your age or political persuasion,” wrote ESPN’s Tim Keown on Ali’s 70 birthday, “a proud American moment [came with] Ali lighting the Olympic cauldron before the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.”
