– Rocky road to stardom –
The rise of Ali – born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr in Louisville, Kentucky on January 17, 1942 – to the status of sports icon was not a smooth one.
His conversion to Islam in 1964, announced when he was fresh from victory over Sonny Liston for his first heavyweight world title, deeply disturbed white America.
His decision to change his name from what he called his “slave name” of Cassius Clay was derided.
But that was nothing compared to the outrage that greeted his refusal to join the armed forces in 1967 on the grounds that he was a Muslim minister.
Only 25 years old, he was convicted of draft dodging, stripped of his title and banished from boxing.
He was allowed to resume his career in 1970, but feelings were slow to heal. An unidentified man interviewed on camera in 1971 spoke for many when he called Ali’s impending title fight with Joe Frazier “a disgrace.”
“I have no interest in this fight at all,” the man said. “In fact, the reason is this fellow they call Clay, or Muhammad Ali, or whatever he wants to call himself, is a disgrace to the nation.”
Ali suffered his first professional defeat in that fight, on March 8, 1971 at Madison Square Garden.
On the same day, the US military was ordering investigations into charges that American soldiers had murdered Vietnamese civilians at My Lai.
A few months later, on June 28 of that year, the Supreme Court voted 8-0 to overturn Ali’s draft dodging conviction.
“They did what they thought was right, and I did what I thought was right,” Ali said of the government’s long struggle to imprison him.
That battle left its mark on Ali both inside and outside the ring.
In the 1960s, Ali relied on speed and reflexes, taking risks that other fighters would have paid dearly for.
After his enforced absence, he was a slower, craftier fighter, but one who still flouted the rule book and got away with it.
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