Muhammad Ali, ‘Greatest’ Boxer Who Riveted World, Dies at 74

One of the most entertaining figures in sports history
His three bouts with Joe Frazier included ‘Thrilla in Manila’
Muhammad Ali, the brash, fleet-footed heavyweight
boxing champion whose charisma transcended sports
and made him a global symbol of social change, has
died, according to a statement released by his family.
He was 74.

Ali was hospitalized in the Phoenix area with
respiratory problems earlier this week, the Associated
Press reported. He suffered from Parkinson’s disease, a
neurological affliction that some doctors attributed to
the head blows he took during two decades as a boxer.
“The three-time World Heavyweight Champion boxer
died this evening,” Bob Gunnell, a spokesman for the
family, said in an e-mailed statement. “The Ali family
would like to thank everyone for their thoughts,
prayers, and support and asks for privacy at this time.”
Ali’s illness prematurely silenced one of the great self-
promoters, agitators and entertainers in sports history.
He delighted sportswriters with his poetic putdowns of
opponents and was outspoken as well on race, religion
and war. He managed to emerge from his firebrand
years as something of a statesman, saluted during the
opening ceremonies of the 1996 and 2012 Summer
Olympics.

He defended his religion in December after Donald
Trump’s proposed call for a ban on Muslim
immigration to the United States, saying in a statement
to NBC News that “Muslims have to stand up to those
who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda.”
In the ring, Ali pulled off some of boxing’s biggest
upsets. He first won the heavyweight title in 1964 by
defeating the fearsome Sonny Liston. Exiled from
boxing for more than three years for refusing military
induction during the Vietnam War, Ali returned to the
ring and reclaimed the heavyweight belt by handing
George Foreman his first defeat in the 1974 “Rumble in
the Jungle.”


Fighting Spinks

He lost the title to Leon Spinks in 1978, then beat him
in a rematch to become the first three-time
heavyweight champion in history -- a feat later
surpassed by Evander Holyfield.
His three bouts with Joe Frazier are considered the
greatest trilogy ever, with Frazier handing Ali his first
defeat in their initial fight and Ali winning the next
two, including the “Thrilla in Manilla” -- a contest so
brutal that Ali compared it to death. The Ali-Frazier
rivalry was a personal feud that stemmed from Ali’s
ridicule of Frazier as “a gorilla” and “too ugly to be the
champion.”
“I hated Ali,” Frazier said in “Muhammad Ali: His Life
and Times,” a 1991 biography by Thomas Hauser. “God
might not like me talking that way, but it’s in my
heart.”


Respects Frazier

A frail-looking Ali attended Frazier’s funeral in
November 2011 after his rival’s death from liver
cancer. “I will always remember Joe with respect and
admiration,” Ali said in a statement.
Nicknamed “The Louisville Lip” early in his career
because of his Kentucky hometown and his boasting, Ali
called himself “The Greatest” and wrote poems
predicting in which round his opponent would fall.
His playful public image became more serious when,
days after beating Liston in 1964, he joined the Nation
of Islam and changed his name from Cassius Clay to
Muhammad Ali, as bestowed by the spiritual leader
Elijah Muhammad. While some viewed the move as an
act of black pride, others criticized him for joining
what they considered an extremist group.


‘Most High’

Asked in 1985 how Muhammad Ali differed from
Cassius Clay, Ali answered, according to Ira Berkow of
the New York Times:

“As much difference as night and day. Cassius Clay was
popular in America and Europe; Muhammad Ali has a
billion more fans all over the world. Cassius Clay had
no knowledge of his self. He thought Clay was his
name, but found out it was a slave name. Clay means
dirt, with no ingredients. Cassius -- I don’t know what
that means. But Ali means ‘the most high,’ and
Muhammad means ‘worthy of praise and
praiseworthy.’”

Ali departed from both the “good Negro” image forged
by Floyd Patterson and the “bad Negro” reputation of
Liston, the two black heavyweight champions who
preceded him, David Remnick wrote in “King of the
World,” his 1998 biography of Ali.
“I had to prove you could be a new kind of black man,”
Ali said, according to Remnick. “I had to show that to
the world.”

Diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1984, Ali continued to
travel the world to promote his religion and
international goodwill, but gave few interviews or
speeches.

At the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, he steadied
his trembling hands long enough to light the caldron at
the opening ceremonies.


‘Good Life’

“I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me, because I
had a good life before, and I’m having a good life
now,” Ali said, according to Hauser’s book.
Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was born on Jan. 17, 1942,
the first of two boys raised in Louisville by Cassius Sr.,
a painter of signs and murals, and his wife, the former
Odessa Lee Grady, who cleaned the homes of wealthy
families.

He began boxing at age 12 after his bicycle was stolen
and a local policeman encouraged him to learn how to
fight as a means of self-defense. He became a successful
amateur boxer, winning two national Golden Glove
titles, two Amateur Athletic Union championships and
the light-heavyweight gold medal at the 1960 Summer
Olympics in Rome.


Heavyweight Champ

He turned professional after the Olympics and
compiled a 19-0 record before facing Liston, a feared
puncher who was the heavy favorite in their title
match in Miami Beach, Florida. Liston quit after the
sixth round, making Ali the second-youngest
heavyweight champion, at 22.

Ali won the rematch in 1965 on a first-round knockout
in Lewiston, Maine. He decked Liston with a single
punch that was difficult to see, leading to unproven
accusations that the fight was fixed.
As a young fighter, at 6 feet, 3 inches (191 centimeters),
Ali dazzled fans and opponents with his lightning-fast
punches and fancy footwork, which included a dance-
like move known as the Ali Shuffle.

The style inspired corner man Drew “Bundini” Brown
to coin the saying, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a
bee.”

Following nine successful title defenses, Ali caused a
furor in 1967 by refusing induction into the U.S. Army,
citing his religious beliefs. (“I ain’t got no quarrel with
them Viet Cong,” he had proclaimed the previous year.)
He was stripped of his title by boxing authorities and
banished from the ring in the prime of his career.


Supreme Court

Praised by anti-war protesters and vilified by others,
Ali was convicted of draft evasion and sentenced to five
years in prison. He remained free on bail during his
appeal. His conviction was overturned in 1971 by the
U.S. Supreme Court, clearing the way for his return to
boxing.

Following two warm-up wins over Jerry Quarry and
Oscar Bonavena, Ali met Frazier for the undisputed
heavyweight title on March 8, 1971, at New York’s
Madison Square Garden. Both boxers were undefeated,
and each received a then-record $2.5 million for what
was called the “Fight of the Century.”
Frazier floored Ali with a left hook in the 15th round
and won a unanimous decision, although he looked
even more battered than his opponent after the fight.
Ali won their non-title rematch in 1974 by unanimous
decision to set up a championship fight against
Foreman, who had won the title the previous year by
knocking out Frazier.


Novel Strategy

Using the “rope-a-dope,” a strategy of standing against
the ropes and letting Foreman punch himself into
exhaustion, Ali regained the belt with an eighth-round
knockout in the “Rumble in the Jungle” in Kinshasa,
the capital of Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of
the Congo.

Eleven months later in the Philippines, he beat Frazier
again in one of the most savage title fights in
heavyweight history. With both fighters on the brink of
collapse, Frazier’s trainer refused to let him come out
for the 15th round.

“It was like death,” Ali said at the time. “Closest thing
to dying that I know of.”
Late in his career, Ali was a heavier, slower fighter
who relied more on guile and guts than speed and skill.
Following his rematch victory over Spinks in 1978, Ali
announced his retirement, only to return for two more
fights, losing to champion Larry Holmes in 1980 and
Trevor Berbick in 1981. He left the ring for good with a
career record of 56 wins and five losses. Though
knocked to the canvas four times -- one time each by
Sonny Banks, Henry Cooper, Frazier and Chuck
Wepner -- he always got back to his feet and was never
counted out.


Highest Honor

President George W. Bush awarded Ali the Presidential
Medal of Freedom in November 2005, the highest
civilian honor in the U.S. A few weeks later, former
President Bill Clinton attended the opening of the
Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, an $80 million
museum that chronicles the fighter’s life in and out of
the ring.

Ali had four marriages, the last one to the former
Lonnie Williams, and had a total of nine children. His
youngest daughter, Laila, is a former women’s boxing
champion.

Muhammad Ali’s funeral will take place in his
hometown of Louisville, Gunnell said in the statement.