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By Khrukreihrii A.
By Khrukreihrii A.
“If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it — then I can achieve it.” – Muhammad Ali
“Can you do the Ali shuffle?” my friend asked. He shifted his feet awkwardly; a weird mix between a moonwalk and a back and forth motion of the feet.
“You gotta do it faster than that,” I jokingly said.
Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Clay in 1942, grew up in the US. At the age of 12, Clay discovered his talent for boxing through an odd way. After he got his bicycle stolen, he approached a police officer, namely Joe Martin, and told him that I want to beat up the guy that stole my bike.
To which he replied, “Well, you better learn how to fight before you start challenging people.”
Apart from being a police officer, Martin also trained young boxers at a local gym. This started the boxing career of Cassius Clay.
He went on to win several amateur fights and tournaments of the light heavyweight division. In the year 1960, due to his incredible boxing skills, Cassius Clay found himself a spot in the US Olympic Boxing team and traveled to Italy to compete. He won his first three bouts and then defeated a Polish boxer named Zbigniew Pietrzkowsk to win the light heavyweight class Olympic Gold Medal.
Ali defeats Sonny Liston in their 2nd bout in Round 7, in 1965.
In 1964, Clay fought Sonny Liston and gained the title of World Heavyweight Champion. The same year, Clay converted to Islam, and changed his official name to Muhammad Ali. He would be drafted into the military in 1967 for the Vietnam War, but Ali refused, as it would be against his religion to fight in a war. He was stripped of his boxing license and wasn’t allowed to box for three and a half years.
He returned to the ring in 1970 with a win over Jerry Quarry and went on to fight bouts with opponents such as Joe Frazier and George Foreman. In 1980, Ali fought Trevor Berbick and it ended anticlimactically, with the Jamaican boxer beating the former champion in the last three rounds. This was Ali’s last fight.
After his retirement in 1980, he started doing charity work and worked generously with the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Special Olympics. He often visited soup kitchens and hospitals. Growing up in the segregated South, Ali faced discrimination throughout his childhood. This motivated him to fight for humanitarian causes, improve people’s lives, reduce suffering and recognize human dignity.
“Muhammad Ali knew he had a job to do on this planet – inspire people,” stated The Guardian editor, Gary Younge following Ali’s death in 2016.
For his roles in fighting for humanitarian causes, he was awarded the Liberty Medal and recognized as the “Champion of Freedom” in 2012. Muhammad Ali is not only known as ‘the Greatest’ for his athleticism and sportsmanship, but also for being a prominent figure in the fight for social justice. All throughout his life, Ali believed that anything could be possible if you put your mind and heart to it. He was, and still is an inspiration and a light of hope for many, especially in times of crisis.
Muhammad Ali surrounded by children of the school during a visit to the Beijing No. 1 Experimental Primary School in Beijing, China, 1993.
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