The victor ran around the ring, yelling at the incredulous journalists: "Who is the greatest? Eat your words! I shook up the world!"
But the happiness didn’t last long. There had been rumors before the bout that Cassius Clay had joined the Nation Of Islam, a popular black organization whose leader Elijah Muhammad preached that integration be the wrong way for blacks. The blacks should claim their own territory in the US instead. Clay had been seen a lot in public with Malcolm X and other leading personalities of the Black Muslims as the members of the Nation were commonly called.
After the Liston bout, speculation became fact. It was revealed that Clay had joined Muslim meetings through the back door for three years. Clay's joining the Nation Of Islam and changing his name to Cassius X and then Muhammad Ali didn’t please America’s white establisment. 'Clay' had been the name given to the family by their slave owner generations before.
The putting down of their slave names was a common feature among Black Muslims at that time. However, most of the journalists kept calling the champ by his old name.
All these things made a "good lad Cassius Clay" in the eyes of many Americans change into a "bad sect member Muhammad Ali". There were also changes concerning Ali's private. In August of 1964 he married Sonji Roi who he had been knowing for merely a month.
On May 25, 1965 took place. Ali won by a so-called "phantom punch", knocking Liston out in the first round and defending his title for the first time.
Twenty-nine days after this bout and less than a year after he married Sonji, Ali filed for divorce that was executed on January 10, 1966. Ali complained - amongst other things - about her refusing to follow rules that were proper for Muslim women, like wearing long skirts or not using make-up.
Ali’s next opponent was Floyd Patterson who opined that "the Black Muslims' scourge [had to be] removed from boxing" (Thomas Hauser, Muhammad Ali: His life and times, p. 139) and was without a chance in a twelve round slaughter.
In 1966, Ali successfully faced five opponents: George Chuvalo in Canada, Henry Cooper and Brian London in England, Germany’s champion Karl Mildenberger in Frankfurt, Germany, and Cleveland Williams in Houston.
Meanwhile, a far more important fight for Ali had started - outside the ring. It would strip Ali of everything he had worked so hard for all of his life. The first act had been staged in 1964 when Ali failed the mental aptitude test at a military induction center in Florida and was classified 1-Y (not qualified). In early 1966, the required level was lowered because the US needed more soldiers for the Vietnam War. All of a sudden, Ali was 1-A. When he was asked by journalists about his opinion of the Viet Cong, he just replied: "I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong."
This statement is probably the most famous that ever passed Ali’s lips. The media called him a "draft dodger" and demanded him to serve for his country as Joe Louis had done during World War II. Ali, however, insisted on his appeal for conscientious objector status because his religion didn’t allow him to fight in any war.
Then, in autumn 1966, another incident enraged many whites; Herbert Muhammad, Elijah Muhammad’s son, became Ali’s new manager because the contract with the Louisville Sponsoring Group had expired.
Despite his trouble with the army, Ali fought "the octopus" Ernie Terrell on February 6, 1967. Terrell had been undefeated for five years and held the WBA's version of the title that had been taken from Ali. Before the fight, Terrell had refused to call the champ by his new name. As a result, Ali kept yelling "What’s my name, Uncle Tom!" during the whole fight while delivering a huge amount of blows to Terrell. Many spectators later blamed Ali for "carrying" Terrell to punish him worse. "Carrying" means to intentionally not knock out a weaker opponent.
One and a half month later, Ali defeated Zora Folley in New York. It was to be his last fight for long. On April 28, 1967, Ali refused the obligatory step into the US armed forces and thus was sentenced with five years' imprisonment and a 10,000 fine. Plus, he was stripped of his title, his boxing license and his passport. Ali couldn't leave the USA and didn't know whether he would ever be allowed to fight again.
Despite various offers that he could go to Vietnam without ever coming near a battle field but merely entertain the troops while boxing, Ali didn’t change his opinion that said he was against any form of war but holy war against enemies of the Islam. Plus, he opined a stay in Vietnam would prevent him from practising his religion because he was an Islamic preacher.
In August, 1967, Ali married his second wife, 17-year-old Muslim Belinda Boyd who he had first met when he visited her school in 1961.
Because he wasn’t allowed to box, Ali had to look for other ways to earn his living. Soon after he was banned from boxing, he started to write speeches he held at colleges and universities all over the USA in which he explained his point of view on the war and the segregation of blacks in the US. Ali impressed his chiefly white audiences with his self-written speeches that were critical, political, religious, and often funny at the same time.
With his innate eloquence and charisma he convinced many of them of the values he believed in - justice and peace.
While the trial USA versus Cassius Clay was still not decided, the defendant was sentenced to ten days imprisonment - not because of his claiming for conscientious objector status but for driving without a valid license.
The income of Ali‘s college lectures was not enough to pay his attorneys. A documentation of his life, a computer bout between Rocky Marciano and Ali, the leading part in the Broadway Musical Buck White and various public appearences provided financial support for the "people’s champ" as Ali used to call himself.
As the years passed, the tide of public opinion turned. The Vietnam War was seen critically by more and more Americans. Also, Ali's image changed as more and more people began to realize he had been treated unjustly. Finally, after three-and-a-half years of futile trying, Ali’s management got him a boxing license although the US Supreme Court had not judged yet whether Ali was guilty or not. Ali’s first fight after his exile was to be against Jerry Quarry in Atlanta on October 26, 1970.
In 1970, when Ali returned to the ring, Joe Frazier was the undisputed heavyweight champion. He had won the WBA title in a unification bout against Jimmy Ellis.
Still in exile, Ali had been contacting Frazier and the two men had almost battled in a Philadelphia park.
Frazier’s management were the first to offer Ali a fight. He was supposed to box Frazier in his first post-exile bout. However, when Ali got a license in autumn of 1970, they drew back. So Ali boxed Jerry Quarry, a strong fighter with a good stamina. It was Ali's first fight in three-and-a-half years. He had just six weeks time to prepare for this fight.
In the first round of Ali vs. Quarry the audience saw a "floating" Ali who hit Quarry whenever he wanted. Quarry got better in the second round and landed some blows. After round three referee Perez ended the bout because of a huge cut above Quarry’s eye that was heavily bleeding.
After this not-convincing comeback, Ali faced Oscar Bonavena, a strong boxer from Argentina who Jose Torres describes in his book "Sting like a bee" as a 'stubborn donkey' because, after he had been hit, Bonavena would get even wilder and angrier and show not the least sign of weakness.
Ali ended a mediocre fight with an impressing last round knockout but with this couldn’t mislead the spectators that he lacked the speed that had provided for his successes before the layoff.
Then, at last, a championship bout VS Joe Frazier was to take place. It was declared the "fight of the century". Ali lost a dramatic fifteen round battle on points and was defeated for the first time as a professional. The fight had a visible impact on the health of the two men. Both Ali and Frazier had to be x-rayed at hospital where some of Ali’s ribs showed contusions as a result of Frazier’s punches to the belly.
After this stunning defeat, Ali could book a very important victory. On June 28, 1971, his conviction of refusing to be inducted into the army was reversed and he got his passport and license back. The belt he had been stripped of could of course not be returned to him by the judges. Ali had to win it back on his own.
In the following 18 months, Ali won ten fights in a row with just one goal in mind: a rematch against Joe Frazier. His opponents were his friend Jimmy Ellis, Buster Mathis and the German Jurgen Blin in 1971, Mac Foster, again George Chuvalo and Jerry Quarry, Al Lewis, Floyd Patterson and Bob Foster one year later, and in 1973 Joe Bugner in Las Vegas.
Ali didn’t get more than § 500,000 for any of these bouts. His next opponent was to be Ken Norton, an absolute no-name. Ali didn’t take the fight too seriously and trained just three weeks.
This arrogance led to Norton breaking Ali’s jaw in the second round and winning the fight on points. It was incredible that Ali continued for ten rounds with a broken jaw but in the end it proved to be a fruitless effort. Ali was ahead by one point on the scorecards before the last round, but Norton won the last round and the fight.
After this defeat that had been even more painful than the one against Frazier, Ali was down on the floor and not many people thought that he could ever rise again.
Muhammad Ali, however, did not think about quitting. After his jaw was healed, he resumed training and prepared for the rematch against Ken Norton.
The rematch against Ken Norton took place on September 10, 1973 in Los Angeles. Ali had trained longer and harder for this fight than for their first encounter. Nonetheless, it was a very close bout again. After round eleven the judges saw it even and the winner of the last round was to be the overall winner. This time, Ali won and took revenge successfully.
After an unimportant victory against Rudi Lubbers in Jakarta, Ali faced his steady rival Joe Frazier the second time. Frazier, however, wasn’t champ anymore. He had been dethroned in Jamaica in 1973 by a young, unknown fighter who had knocked the champion down six times in two rounds before the referee stopped the bout. The name of the newcomer: George Foreman who proved his immense strength one year later by also knocking out Ken Norton in two.
It was not about more than Ali’s honor that he wanted to restore when he fought Frazier in 1974. As before their first fight. both boxers - especially Ali - tried to make each other nervous in the weeks leading to the fight. Five days before the bout, the situation escalated when an appearance at a TV show almost turned into disaster. Ali had called Frazier ignorant after had made a remark about Ali having to check into hospital after the first fight, and they were not far from getting it on in the studio. The bout itself was not as brutal as the first one and Ali won an unanimous decision.
Thus, a fight Ali VS Foreman was unavoidable. It was to be held in Zaire, a country in the "heart of darkness", in central Africa. Zaire had been a Belgian colony for long, and was trying to get international attention, now that it was freed. Zaire’s dictator Mobutu provided for five million dollars for each fighter which was twice as much Ali and Frazier had gotten for their first fight.
While Ali was feeling well in the land of his ancestors and collected sympathies from the Africans whenever he could, Foreman couldn’t show his disrespect more obviously. He lived in the Kinshasa Inter-Continental and always had German shepherd police dogs around to prevent strangers from coming closer. At press conferences, Ali was funny, witty and smart in opposite to the mute Foreman.
When the two heavyweights entered the ring on October 30, out of sixty thousand African throats came the slogan "Ali, boma ye!", meaning "Ali, kill him!". Foreman held little to no sympathies.
The strategy Ali used that night was the exact opposite to the one he had won the title with against Sonny Liston ten years before. Back then, it had been Ali’s goal to prevent from being hit by moving all the time. In Kinshasa, from the second round on, Ali didn’t show any footwork at all and intentionally took all the haymakers Foreman delivered with his savage strength. Ali leaned way back out of the ring, protecting his face with the gloves, his kidneys and belly with his arms and elbows. Foreman pounded on Ali's body as hard as he could. Ali didn’t go down.
He took the bombs like a living heavy bag and then, at the end of each round, made a furious comeback by hitting Foreman with stinging combinations that got the champion closer and closer to a knockout. In the last thirty seconds of the eighth round, Foreman was ready. Ali attacked with all the strength he had left and provided for Foreman’s first career knockout. The audience went crazy.
Muhammad Ali was the first boxer after Floyd Patterson to break the rule „They never come back" and win back the heavyweight title that had been taken from him seven years before.
Ali’s next opponent was 35-year-old Chuck Wepner who held out against Ali’s attacks for almost fifteen rounds until the fight was stopped. Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky movies are based on Wepner’s courageous fighting.
After Wepner, Ali defeated Ron Lyle in Las Vegas by knockout and seven weeks later Joe Bugner in Malaysia on points. There were people of Ali’s camp who wanted him to quit but Ali couldn’t yet give up the sport that had been the center of his life for more than twenty years.
Instead, the third fight against Joe Frazier was coming up. It was to be the third and last time the two rivals would face each other in the ring. This last fight was far more brutal and dramatic than the first two Frazier fights and is one of the three big fights of Muhammad Ali’s career together with Liston I and the Rumble in the Jungle.
Before the fight, Ali mocked his opponent by calling him gorilla. He always had a plastic gorilla in his pocket that he would take out and punch. Ali also imitated Frazier’s ghetto slang which led to Frazier seriously hating Ali.
Ali VS Frazier III took place on October 1, 1975 in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. 25,000 spectators see a dominating Ali in the early rounds. Then he tires and Frazier takes the lead in the middle rounds. Round twelve and thirteen are all Ali again who in six minutes delivers 43 (!) punches to Frazier’s head "Smokin' Joe" doesn’t fall, though. Round fourteen is the same, Frazier staggers but stays on his feet. After round fourteen, Frazier’s face is one huge swelling, his left eye is completely shut and he can hardly see. Frazier’s coach Eddie Futch stops the fight.
Shortly after his victory was announced, Ali fainted in his corner. He would later say that this fight had been the closest to dying he knew of. Maybe the illness Ali suffers from today would be less heavy if Ali had retired after the Thrilla in Manila but one can’t tell.
Ali, however, continued his career and fought three times in the first half of 1976 - against Jean-Pierre Coopman (k.o. in round five), Jimmy Young who he defeated although he weighed 230 pounds and England’s Richard Dunn (k.o. 5).
Then, one of the most embarrassing events of Ali’s career took place. For two million dollars he fought the Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki in Tokyo. What was planned to be a show event, almost turned into tragedy. The referee announced a draw after fifteen rounds - Inoki had tried to kick Ali’s legs the whole time while Ali had thrown just six punches.
But the boring fight had consequences on Ali’s health. Inoki had ruptured blood vessels in Ali’s legs with his constant kicks. Because he didn’t treat it right, Ali almost had to end his career.
On September 9, 1976, Ali fought Ken Norton for the third time. Despite being in pretty good shape, he won only because of a mistake in Norton’s corner. Before the last round, the fight was scored even but Norton’s coaches advised him to stay away from Ali because they thought Norton had a comfortable lead. Norton did as he was told and gave away the victory although he could have easily won the last round. Ali admitted after the fight that he felt he had lost.
Seven months later, although not much of Ali's "magic" was left which helped him win against Foreman and Frazier, Ali entered the ring again and defeated the Spaniard Alfredo Evangelista.
In the meantime, Ali’s second marriage came to an end. He had had a relationship with Veronica Porche since the Foreman-bout. She was one of four poster girls who had promoted the Rumble in the Jungle. This relationship led to Belinda filing for divorce in 1976. One year later, Ali married Veronica.
In September 1977, Ali defended his title against Earnie Shavers at sold-out Madison Square Garden. After being in heavy trouble in the second round, Ali recovered and won the fight. One week after this fight, Ali’s long-time doctor Ferdie Pacheco wasn’t willing to be responsible for Ali’s deteriorating health any more and left the champ’s entourage.
Ali’s next opponent was Leon Spinks, a no-name with a record of seven professional bouts. There were no doubts that the great Ali would easily defeat him.
Ali trained less than ever for the fight against Leon Spinks that was to take place in Las Vegas on February 15, 1978. He started training at 242 pounds and sparred less than twenty rounds.
This attitude would take his toll. Ali once again tried to be successful with his "rope-a-dope"-strategy but this time it didn’t work. Spinks didn’t tire and kept punching on Ali’s arms and belly. When Ali went off the ropes to attack, his body refused obedience. The judges scored 2:1 for Spinks and Muhammad Ali had lost the title in the ring for the first and only time.
In Thomas Hauser's biography, Ali comments on his defeat: "Of all the fights I lost in boxing, losing to Spinks hurt the most. That’s because it was my own fault. Leon fought clean; he did the best he could. But it was emberassing that someone with so little fighting skills could beat me."
After this loss, Ali was determined to win the title back. A rematch was scheduled although the WBC stripped Spinks of their version of the title because he didn’t fight Ken Norton - the WBA version remained.
While Spinks enjoyed the advantages of being champion - he was, for example, caught with cocain - Ali struggled to get into good shape again.
Ali announced before the fight that he would not "rope-a-dope" again but try to keep Spinks in distance. This worked pretty good - Spinks also couldn’t cope with Ali holding most of the time. Still, it was a pretty boring fight. Ali who dominated most of the rounds won an unanimous decision and became the first boxer in the history of the heavyweight division to win the title three times.
After this bout, Ali retired from boxing.
After his retirement, Ali traveled around the world. He was hosted by heads of states and important politicians all over the world. He also visited Russia where he met Leonid Brezhnev. In February 1980, Ali was entrusted by president Carter to promote the boycott of the Moscow Olympics. However, Ali was not successful.
After his unfortunate negotiations, Ali despite qualms of his entourage (including his mother) planned to return to professional boxing. Beside his need for money, Ali's longing for pugilistic immortality was liable for this decision. His foe was to be Larry Holmes, a former sparring partner of Ali who had become champion in the meantime. Despite being "only" challenger, Ali was paid eight million dollars, four times as much as Holmes.
Because of various concerns about his health, Ali checked into the Mayo clinic in Minnesota to undergo a medical examination. Ali was granted a license by the physicians although they had spotted a hole in a brain membrane. The fact that Ali also had problems to touch his nose with closed eyes and had told the doctors that he had been speaking inarticulately every now and then, didn’t change their opinion that he was able to fight Holmes. The doctors didn’t realize that these symptoms were signs of a commencing, severe disease that could be worsened by punches to the head.
Ali weighed 254 pounds when he started to train for this bout but soon started to lose weight rapidly. It seemed that Ali was in the best condition he had been for years. But the cause of his slimming was not hard training or a special diet but a drug that had been incorrectly prescribed by Herbert Muhammad’s personal physician to cure a hypothyroid condition Ali simply didn’t have. This drug interfered Ali’s metabolism. As a result, Ali lost pound after pound but was increasingly exhausted after slight exertions.
Ali finally weighed 216 pounds when he entered the ring against Holmes. However, he was not in the constitution to fight a professional 15-round bout. His body was dehydrated and the faintest movements made him short of breath. After a few rounds it became obvious that Ali had no chance. Again and again, Holmes signaled the referee to stop the uneven fight because he didn’t want to hurt the man that he still admired. After round ten, Angelo Dundee did what he doubtlessly should have done much earlier - he liberated his protege from his torture - against vehement protests of Bundini. "It was not a fight; it was an execution", Thomas Hauser later wrote and one can’t contradict him. Ferdie Pacheco said that Ali was lucky to survive this fight. It indeed seems incredible that the Ali-Holmes fight took place at all.
But the ones who thought this painful defeat made Ali realize that he should not box any more, were taught better. In autumn of 1981, Ali - almost 40 years old - entered the ring one more time to fight Trevor Berbick on the Bahamas because no site in the USA had been found.
It was not an honorable ending for a career that had been that great. At least Ali was not knocked out in his last fight but that is about the only positive aspect one can think of.
The loss against Trevor Berbick was the last of 61 professional fights in Muhamad Ali’s unique career that had lasted for 21 years.
After having retired from professional boxing, Muhammad Ali went through difficult times. His health was cause of serious concerns among his fans and family. Fatigue, lack of concentration, and an occasionally occurring slurred speech finally led to Ali undergoing a series of medical checks in New York.
After the eight day examination, supervised by professor of neurology Stanley Fahn, the public was told that Ali showed "mild symptoms" of Parkinson's Syndrome which is a neurological disorder causing, among other things, a tremor, slowness of movement and rigidity of muscles. It was also said that Ali's life was not in danger due to this disease that possibly could be treated successfully.
The following years brought changes in Muhammad Ali's private environment. In summer of 1986, his marriage with Veronica broke and Ali married long-time friend Lonnie Williams in the same year. Lonnie, occasionally calling her husband "my baby", had been knowing Ali almost all of her life since their mothers are neighbors and good friends in Louisville. Many intimates of the couple agree that solicitous Lonnie is "the best that could happen to Ali".
Two years later, Ali suffered a heavy loss when Drew "Bundini" Brown, Ali's long time motivator and close friend, died from a stroke. Bundini invented the legendary phrase "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee", he and Ali used to shout out on uncountable occasions, perfectly characterizing the young Ali's fighting style.
Muhammad Ali appeared on global stage in 1990 when he freed fifteen US hostages from the Iraq during the gulf crisis. Negotiations were eased by his being muslim (which however doesn't narrow this success).
Ali was once again the Greatest in 1996 when he lit the Olympic fire in Atlanta. The confident way he presented himself despite trembling heavily impressed millions around the globe. Fifteen years after his retirement and twelve years after his being diagnosed of Parkinson, he celebrated an impressing comeback on the stage of sport.
Muhammad Ali doesn't want people to feel sorry for him because of his physical condition. Ali who prays five times a day takes his fate as God's will: "I had a good life before and I'm having a good life now." According to himself, Ali has become a true believer in Allah after his retirement from boxing and has been one ever since. Ali believes in freedom and brotherhood of all people. He condemned the terrorists of September 11, saying they spoiled the religion of Islam.
Finally, we have reached the end of a remarkable story, the precedentless story of a sportsman who rose from a cocky country boy from Louisville, Kentucky, to a man who was not only more successful in boxing than anyone before and after, but also influenced thousands of people in America and around the globe by courageously standing up for his personal and religious beliefs. The story of a man who today has one of the most recognizable faces on this planet, a man with millions of admirers worldwide whose door is still open for everyone who needs help of any kind.
That’s why I believe Muhammad Ali is the greatest.