Boxing Great Muhammad Ali Dead at 74

Boxing Great Muhammad Ali Dead at 74

June 4, 2016 - Boxing champion Muhammad Ali, known as much for his public persona as his prowess in the ring, died Friday, a family spokesman told the media. He was 74.

Noting Ali’s “singular DNA pattern of beauty, grace and bravado,” Time magazine, in 2001, described Ali as “perhaps the most idolized, vilified and complex public figure of the 20th century."

Ali, who had long suffered from Parkinson’s disease, had been hospitalized in recent days for what media reports said was breathing difficulties.

He was born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, KY. He started training as a boxer at age 12 and fought more than 100 bouts before he turned pro in 1960. Earlier that year, he had brought home a gold medal from the Olympic Games in Rome. Less than four years later, in 1964, he beat Sonny Liston to become the heavyweight champion of the world. It was a title he would hold for the next three years.

In 1964, controversy and criticism erupted over his conversion to the Nation of Islam and his name change, first to Cassius X and then to Muhammad Ali. In 1967, Ali, a vociferous champion of civil rights, refused to serve in Vietnam, having the previous year declared himself a conscientious objector based on his new faith and position in the Nation of Islam.

As a result, he was stripped of his boxing title by the New York State Athletic Commission and the World Boxing Association and sentenced to five years in prison for draft evasion. The conviction, which Ali appealed, was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971. He returned to the ring in 1970. The story of his legal battle was told in the 2013 documentary The Trials of Muhammad Ali.

In 1974, he regained the heavyweight crown following his defeat of George Foreman in Zaire, the fight dubbed the “Rumble in the Jungle.” The following year saw a rematch between Ali and Joe Frazier, who had knocked out Ali after 15 rounds in 1971. Fought in the Philippines, the “Thrilla in Manila” is considered to be one of the greatest fights in boxing history. Ali emerged victorious.

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