Remembering Muhammad Ali

Cassius Clay Jr. was a young light heavyweight who won the Olympic gold Medal in 1960. By 1964, he was a heavyweight and boxed with a style of speed and movement that had not been seen before at the heavyweight level. He went on to defeat the heavyweight champion, Sonny Liston, twice and then carved out one of the most remarkable careers in sporting history. After converting to the Black Muslim faith and changing his name to Muhammad Ali, he was convicted of draft evasion and lost three and a half of his best years as a fighter. When his conviction was overturned he returned to the ring, as a civil rights activist, fought in the greatest heavyweight fight of the postwar generation against Joe Frazier in 1971. He lost that fight although he later beat Frazier in two close fights. He regained the heavyweight crown form George Foreman in Zaire in 1974 and won the title one more time before retiring. Although one of his strengths as a boxer was managing to avoid punches, he suffered boxing related brain damage by the end of his career, especially from the last fight with Frazier. He lit the Olympic flame in Atlanta in 1996 and for the last four decades of his life, he was perhaps the most recognizable celebrity in the world. There may never be another quite like him.