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Muhammad Ali biography essay
Muhammad Ali biography essay
Muhammad Ali biography essay
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Muhammad Ali ( Cassius Marcellus Clay)
Muhammad Ali whose real name was Cassius Marcellus Clay, was born on January 17, 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky to Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr. who painted billboards and signs, and his mother, Odessa Grady Clay, who was a household domestic. Although Clay Sr. was a Methodist, he allowed Odessa to bring up both Clay boys as Baptists. He started boxing in junior high, when he learned boxing from a policeman at a local gym. By the time that Ali had reached high school, he already intended to be a prizefighter and hoped to box in the Olympics. Ali dropped out of Louisville Central High, a local basketball power, finishing 369th of 391 seniors in the class of 1960, and often traveling to fight on weekends. As an amateur boxer, Ali attracted notice in 1960 by winning the Amateur Athletic Union light heavyweight and Golden Gloves heavyweight championships. At the Rome Olympics in 1960, Ali crushed his opponents to win a gold medal in the light heavyweight division.
After turning pro, Ali defeated his first opponents. Then on February 25th 1964, he fought, and knocked out, Sonny Liston in seven rounds, thus becoming the new heavyweight world champion. Ali defended his title nine times from 1965 to 1967 and became universally recognized as world heavyweight champion after knocking out World Boxing Association (WBA) champion Ernie Terrell in fifteen rounds on February 6th 1967. Ali often showed of his greatness by saying, "I am the greatest!"
Soon after becoming heavyweight champion, Ali decided to change his religion and joined the Nation of Islam (Black Muslims), taking the Muslim name "Muhammad Ali." The Vietnam War then interrupted Ali's career. In 1967, he was chosen to go into the military, but he refused to serve, saying his religious beliefs forbade him to fight. While some Americans praised Ali for risking prison to stand up for his beliefs, others called him a draft dodger and traitor. The government charged him with violating the Selective Service Act; his titles were taken from him; and he was not allowed to box.
After a long court battle, Ali was convicted of draft evasion and sentenced to five years in jail and fined $10,000, but in another lawsuit in 1970, a judge ruled that Ali could still box professionally. The new heavyweight champion was Joe Frazier, and a match was scheduled et for 8 March 1971.
What they did not know was the self proclaimed greatest in the world was planning the one of the greatest changes in his life. Behind the scenes Cassius was studying Islam, he became good friends with Malcolm X and studied under Elijah Muhammad. Cassius took the name Muhammad Ali, saying he did not want to be called by a slave name any longer. He took Muhammed from the first prophet of Islam with the name meaning worthy of being praised, and the last name Ali which meaning is to be elevated. During a time where racial tensions were high people had a hard time accepting his new name. Often times the media would continue to call him Cassius, one didn't famed ABC sports reporter Howard Cosell, he respected Ali, because he too had changed his name from Cohen a Jewish name to Cosell, because in those time it was also a disadvantage to be Jewish. In 1965 Ai was scheduled to fight Floyd Patterson, who insisted on calling him Cassius, Patterson paid a big price for that, there is documentary footage which shows Ali giving Patterson the beating of a lifetime, making sure not to knock him out taking him through all 12 rounds repeating “now what’s my name
In Jim Naughton’s book Taking To The Air, the main character is Michael Jordan. The book is Jordan’s life and talents. Michael Jeffrey Jordan was born February 17, 1963, in Brooklyn, New York. He was the fourth child and the youngest of three boys. Michael Jordan is by any measure, the most popular athlete in America and perhaps the best-known figure in the world. I have chosen to use Maslow’s Theory of Hierarchy of Need to analysis Jordan’s personality. I will do my analysis by focusing on Jordan’s healthy personality, which is marked by his continued personal growth.
In the late 1980’s Muhammad changed his life around. He and his wife had separated, he converted to Islam, and he joined the U.S. Army (Biography, par 4). He later changed his name to Muhammad (Death, par 2). He was stationed in Washington State. There he married Mildred Green. They ended up having three children. Being in the army was good for Muhammad. He served in Germany and the Middle East and was skilled in marksman (Biography, par 4, 5).
Clay's fancy footwork and dizzying combinations baffled the suddenly plodding and slow-footed Liston for six rounds. At one point, Clay recalled, "I hit him with eight punches in a row until he doubled up. I remember thinking something like, Yeah, you old sucker! You try to be all big and bad!' He was gone.
In 1966 Muhammad Ali was arrested for refusing to be drafted to the war. His boxing license was stripped from him and his boxing
history in the 1950's and 1960's by hitting the society. Ali was a great boxer who was very confident in his boxing game. Ali wanted to make a change in society by trying to get rid of the racial discrimination in America. Ali was also against the war in Vietnam. Ali said “Unless you have a very good reason to kill, war is wrong.” Ali sent messages of hope to the African American community by telling them to have pride. Ali said “Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people while so called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs?” Ali said “The Vietnamese had nothing against him” (Schwartz).When he was drafted to fight in the war, a lieutenant called Ali by his real name, Cassius Clay, and he said, “Sir that isn't my name, my name is “MUHAMMAD ALI!” Ali said, again “Sir that is a slave name my name is “MUHAMMAD ALI” (Muhammad Ali [HH:MM:SS]). After that, Ali refused to serve in the Vietnam War. This lead Ali to the Supreme Court, and he was five years in imprisonment. Ali was precluded from the athletic commissions for fighting in the United States for three and a half years. Even though Ali was released from his five year sentence, he still had a jail sentence of four years, which was overturned by the Supreme Court (Schwartz). Ali was also stripped of the heavyweight boxing title because he refused to serve in the draft Following his suspension, Ali reclaimed
In Louisville on October 29, 1960 Cassius Clay won his first professional fight. He won a six-round decision over Tunney Hunsaker, who was the police chief of Fayetteville, West Virginia. From 1960 to 1963, the young fighter amassed a record of 19-0 with 15 knockouts. He defeated such boxers as Tony Esperti, Jim Robinson, Donnie Fleeman, Duke Sabedong, Alonzo Johnson, George Logan, Willi Besmanoff, and Lamar Clark (who had won his previous 40 bouts by knockout). Among Clay's more impressive victories were against Sonny Banks (who knocked him down earlier in the bout), Alejandro Lavorante, and Archie Moore (a boxing legend who had won over 200 previous fights). Cassius became the number one contender for Sonny Liston's title. Liston was greatly feared, and some have said that he was the Mike Tyson of his era. Almost no one gave the young boxer a chance of beating Liston. The date was fixed for February 25, 1964; during the weigh-in, the boisterous Ali declared that he...
Ali proved to be a strong-willed individual that did leave a huge impact on America, but what impact had increased as time continued and his faults have been somewhat forgotten. Those believing that Muhammad was more of a hero than Jackie Robinson most likely feel that Ali’s action of standing up against the United States government, when he was drafted, was an act of courage and bravery. The main reason why Ali didn 't wish to go to war in Vietnam was because he believed he shouldn 't be fighting for a country that ultimately didn 't support his own people within its own borders. Ali has developed into a figure of courage after the time that his happened. In the 1960s when this originally happened, Ali had more enemies as a result of his religious and social views and ideas than fans. Today we see that what he did may be considered heroic, but back when it actually occurred, Ali was seen as a nuisance to America. He was spreading word and influencing people to act against their own country in a time of war. Since Muhammad Ali’s retirement from boxing the course of time has faded criticism of Ali and left mostly just the positive parts of his life and career. As a society we’ve buried the controversial side of Ali’s existence in our minds and history simply remembers his greatness as an athlete. Robinson had an impact on
At first, Muhammad Ali had no intension of boxing. After his bike was stolen, in the month of October 1954, when he was twelve, his whole life was set. Upon finding out that there was a police officer in the basement of a gym, Ali went down to the officer in a shocked state of mind demanding a "state wide bike hunt" for hsi stolen bicycle. But all the cop told him to do was to learn to fight. and that
Muhammad Ali is an example of an athlete who used politics in sports to advocate for the Civil Rights movement and protest the war. As an Olympic gold medalist, heavy weight titlist, and many other victories, he used the fame for humanitarian efforts. Ali refused to serve in Vietnam due to his religion and as a result, he was stripped of his 1967 title. He retired in 1981 with an incredible 59 wins and five losses, but he will always known as symbol of courage, will power and strength, not for his career milestones, but for breaking racial barriers.
Shortly after winning the Gold Medal, Ali started looking for better opportunities by saying, “that was my last amateur fight, I’m turning pro, but I don’t know exactly how. I want a good contract with a good manager.” Ali felt that he was on top of the world after winning in the Olympics and felt confident that people of the U.S. would be proud of his accomplishment as he brought home the “Gold”. What Ali would return to find wasn’t anything like he had expected.
Muhammad Ali was a man made to box. He had a great career before him since he made his first professional fight under President Eisenhower presidency. His Professional Career was really impressive. His had a great balance and was able to move his hands and feet in great speed and coordination. Ali was said to dance in the ring while destroying his opponents. Ali started fighting at a very short age, and his first teacher was Joe Martin (Hauser 18). Through hard work and discipline, he became a professional fighter and eventually the Heavyweight champion of the world. Although he lost the title twice, he regained it three times, putting him in the history books. His boxing career was put to an end when he started suffering from Parkinson's disease. This was the end of his boxing, but his greatness will never die.
He traveled to Rome, Italy to compete. He was the center of attention standing 6 foot 3 inches. Clay was well known for his beautiful footwork and stinging powerful jabs, which go with one of his famous quotes ‘Float like a butterfly, Sting like a bee.” He won all of his fights including defeating Zbigniew Pietrzkowski from Poland for the gold medal. Clay was an American hero after his Olympic victory. He turned professional with the Louisville Sponsor Group. In the 1960s, Clay was an unstoppable force that nobody could stop. He won majority of his fights by the ruling of knockout. He knocked out the British Heavyweight Champion Henry Cooper in 1963 and in the next year he knocked out Sonny Liston to become heavyweight champion of the world. Clay always referred to himself as "the greatest," He was not afraid to praise himself. He talked about his skills before a fight and he had colorful descriptions and phrases. Especially, his famous quote “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee
He discovered that he has a disease called Parkinson and started an organization to help other people like him according to Biography.com. Ali started to also travel different places to help people deal with the disease. In 1998, Muhammad Ali was selected to become a Messenger of Peace for the United Nations for the work that he had done with other Countries. According to History.com; Muhammad Ali was awarded the ‘Presidential Medal of Freedom’ from our forty-third President, George W. Bush during his time in office. During this same year Ali opened a center for youth in his hometown so they could have a chance to become something great and have mentor’s that were willing to teach them how to become just that. Ali wanted to instill positive behavior and let the youths within his community know that someone that cared about them, just like someone had shown him back when he was young
Muhammad Ali is an example of an athlete who voiced his political ideologies in sports to advocate for the Civil Rights Movement and protest the War. As an Olympic gold medalist, heavy weight titlist, and many other victories, he used the fame to project his humanitarian efforts. Ali refused to serve in Vietnam due to his religion and as a result, he was stripped of his 1967 title . He retired in 1981 with an incredible 59 wins and five losses, but he will always known as symbol of courage, will power and strength, not for his career milestones, but for breaking racia...