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- Muhammad Ali
Posted by : Unknown
August 15, 2012
Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.; January 17,
1942) is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist
and social activist. Considered a cultural icon,
Ali has both been idolized and vilified.
Originally known as Cassius Clay, Ali changed his
name after joining the Nation of Islam in 1964, subsequently
converting to Sunni Islam in 1975, and more recently
practicing Sufism.
In 1967, three years after Ali had won the World Heavyweight Championship,
he was publicly vilified for his refusal to be conscripted into the U.S. military,
based on his religious beliefs and opposition to the Vietnam War.
Ali stated, "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong...
No Viet Cong ever called me nigger" – one of the more telling remarks of
the era.
Widespread protests against the Vietnam War
had not yet begun, but with that one phrase, Ali articulated the reason to
oppose the war for a generation of young Americans,
and his words served as a touchstone for the racial and antiwar
upheavals that would rock the 1960s. Ali's example inspired Martin Luther King, Jr. – who had been
reluctant to alienate the Johnson Administration and
its support of the civil rights agenda – to voice his own
opposition to the war for the first time.
Ali was eventually arrested and found guilty on
draft evasion charges; he was stripped of his boxing title, and his boxing
license was suspended. He was not imprisoned, but did not fight again for
nearly four years while his appeal worked its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it was eventually
successful.
Ali would go on to become the first and only
three-time lineal World Heavyweight Champion.
Nicknamed "The Greatest," Ali was
involved in several historic boxing matches.[8]
Notable among these were three with rival Joe Frazier,
which are considered among the greatest in boxing history, and one with George
Foreman, where he finally regained his stripped titles seven years
later. Ali was well known for his unorthodox fighting style, which he described
as "float[ing] like a butterfly, sting[ing] like a bee", and employing
techniques such as the Ali Shuffle and the rope-a-dope.
Ali brought beauty and grace to the most uncompromising of sports and through
the wonderful excesses of skill and character, he became the most famous
athlete
in the world. He was also known for his pre-match hype, where he would "trash talk"
opponents, often with rhymes.