Muhammed Ali: The Boxing Champ

Muhammad Ali, the boxing champion was born on January 17,1942 in Louisville Kentucky. His father Cassius Marceles Clay painted billboards and his mother Odesa Grady Clay was a domestic servant. Muhammad Ali’s entry into world of boxing marked the golden era of boxing. The Olympic Gold Medalist decided to become boxer when his bicycle was stolen. He went to Louisville police station to report his missing bicycle . Not able to keep his cool, he said that culprit will be severely thrashed by him. He was then asked by the Joe E Martin,the white Louisville police officer and boxing coach to start training in the game. He was just twelve years old when he started his training. Apart from taking lessons from Martin, he also trained with Fred Stoner, an Afro-American, trainer. During his stint with Stoner, he went on to win six Kentucky Golden Glove titles, two National Golden Glove titles,, an Amateur Athletic Union title and Light Heavyweight Gold Medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics which was held in Rome.

He started his professional career against Tunney Hunsaker who was the Police Chief of Fayettville, West Virginia on October 29,1960. He defeated him in a six round decision. His style of boxing was unorthodox. Instead of using the normal style of carrying hands to defend the face, he depended on foot speed to avoid punches and carried his hands low. His style of boxing has been described best by Ali himself. He used to call his boxing style as “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”. He employed techniques like rope -a- dope and usually trashed talk the opponents before the beginning of a match. In the rope – a -dope technique, the boxer usually lie against the ropes permitting his opponent to hit him , unless he becomes tired and commit mistakes enabling the boxer to exploit the situation.

On 25 February, 1964 he became the new Heavyweight Champion of the World by defeating Sonny Liston, who was knocked out an seven rounds.He is the only boxer to win three World Heavyweight Championship titles. After his win over Liston, he declared that he has converted to Nation of Islam and has foregone his previous slave name of Clay and assumed the name of Muhammed Ali.

The Vietnam War interrupted his career and he was stripped of all his titles due to his non-willingness to participate in the war in 1967. However, he resumed boxing in 1971 and was pitted against Joe Frazier, the new heavy weight champion. The fight was dubbed as ” Fight of the century ” by media. He lost the match.

Ali won his title back on 30th October,1974 in the match staged as “The Rumble in the Jungle” against George Foreman.

Ali proved his boxing prowess once again in the match promoted as “Thrilla in the Manila”. He defeated Joe Frazier whom he met for the third time on October 1,1975and proved that he is “The Greatest”.