Muhammad Ali Biography: Cassius Clay was named after his own father Cassius Clay Sr who was a painter who painted billboards and a musician who used to write music. Cassius Clay jr would later change his name to Muhammad Ali after accepting Islam. A DNA test performed in 2018 showed that, through his paternal grandmother, Clay was a descendant of the former slave Archer Alexander.
Table of Contents
Also Read: Chris Hemsworth Biography: Age, Birthday, Early Life, Career, Flims, Wife, Children, Net Worth
Muhammad Ali’s Early Life
Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. Ali started his boxing journey when he was 12 when his bicycle was stolen and he went to the police station to report a complaint about it. Where he met his first coach Joe Elsby Martin.
Martin said in an interview it was a rainy October day when he came with teary eyes to complain about his Bicycle. “He kept talking about how he wanted to ‘whup’ whoever it was who stole his bike,” Martin remembered in a 1980 interview. “I told him before he started talking about whupping somebody, he’d better learn how to fight.”
Thus he took him to the Gym he ran and Ali was mesmerized by the Gym when he went there for the first time. Ali describes that incident as his life-turning point,
He wrote in his autobiography “Most of us can reflect on our own personal history and identify a transformational event in our lives that occurred because of a challenge or some type of adversity.”
Muhammad Ali’s Career
Ali is one of the most influential if not the most of the 20th and 21st centuries. he won his first Gold medal a year before he converted to Islam at the age of 18 in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics and turned professional later that year.
He won his first heavyweight championship by defeating Sonny Liston. Sonny Liston is said to have Hands bigger than human faces, he was the most ferocious boxer of his time and Ali defeated him, and that too allegedly being blinded on February 25, 1964, at age 22. Later the same year he renamed himself Muhammad Ali.
Ali was stripped of his peak years because he didn’t want to fight the Vietnam War owing to his religious beliefs and was charged with f draft evasion and stripped of his boxing titles. Ali has fought several iconic fights including his fight with Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier, and George Foreman.
Also Read: Julien Alfred Biography: Age, Height, Weight, Nationality, Wiki, Career, Parents, Medals
Muhammad Ali’s Personal Life
Ali’s Personal life is messed up, he has a reputation as a casanova. Ali is known for his strong ideologies and his religious beliefs but this aspect of his life was an exception. He married 4 times after getting divorced. He was never faithful in his marriage.
Porché Ali’s second wife said about him said of Ali’s infidelity, “It was too much temptation for him, with women who threw themselves at him. It didn’t mean anything. He didn’t have affairs – he had one-night stands. I knew beyond a doubt there were no feelings involved. It was so obvious, It was easy to forgive him.”
Ali had his children and mistresses suing him because he stopped providing them monetary help but the case was dismissed because statute of limitations and Ali never accepted that he was his child
Muhammad Ali’s legacy
Ali was an inspiration to everyone he stood for what he thought was right despite knowing the bad consequences. He fought for his dignity as a human.
Ali said “I would like to be remembered as a man who won the heavyweight title three times, who was humorous, and who treated everyone right. As a man who never looked down on those who looked up to him, and who helped as many people as he could. As a man who stood up for his beliefs no matter what.
Also Read: Bobby Finke Biography: Early Life, Career, Personal Life
