Ali started boxing at 12 when a local police officer introduced him to the sport
Clay seen with his mother, Odessa Grady Clay, April 2, 1963.
Malcolm X and Cassius Clay became quick friends, but a rift in the Nation of Islam forced Muhammad Ali to turn his back on the man who introduced him to faith and black pride.
Clay, the challenger, hitting Liston in the third round of their heavyweight championship fight at Convention Hall in Miami Beach on Feb. 25, 1964. Clay, 22, won in a technical knockout.
Clay riding through Louisville after the 1960 Olympics triumph. “The shy, well-mannered boy who babysat for neighbors and shadow-boxed with the cigar tree in the front yard of his childhood home never lost his bond to the Louisville neighborhood where he grew up.”
Ali wins gold meadl for light heavyweight boxing at 1960 Olympics in Rome, defeating Zbigniew Pietrzykowski of Poland, right, and the joint bronze medalists Giulio Saraudi of Italy and Anthony Madigan of Australia.
Muhammad Ali floors fifty years ago
Muhammad Ali standing over Sonny Liston in 1965 in a rematch. Ali was declared the winner in that fight and he retained the world title.
It was feared Clay would be damaged even killed by the heavy-hitting Sonny Liston. He was a 7-1 favorite to retain his title in Miami Beach, but Clay mocked Liston as the “big ugly bear” and chanted a battle cry: “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, rumble, young man, rumble.” At the end Liston kissed the canvass
In April 1967, Ali refused to be drafted and requested conscientious-objector status. He was immediately stripped of his title by boxing commissions across the country. Several months later he was convicted of draft evasion, a verdict he appealed and later won.
Ali was the underdog when he met George Foreman on Oct 30, 1974 in the Rumble in the Jungle in Zaire, but in the eighth round, with a flurry of punches, he knocked out Foreman to regain the title. Foreman till this day, says that it was a defeat that devastated his life.
In 1981 Ali fought for the last time, losing to the Trevor Berbick in the Bahamas.
Ali lights the Olympic flame at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta.
Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) and Lonnie Williams (later Ali) in Louisville in 1963. Ali was 21 and she was 6 then. Ali later became the love of her life
Calling him the greatest boxer of all time, President George W. Bush presented the Medal of Freedom to Ali in a White House ceremony in 2005. (Lonnie watches with admiration)
President George W. Bush ties the Medal of Freedom around Ali’s neck
Lonnie at a traditional Muslim funeral service for Ali yesterday (Thursday) at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Ky. She will deliver a eulogy at his public funeral today.
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