Hello everyone, welcome to Amolipi channel, where you can learn more interesting info about your
favorite actors and athletes. In today's video, we'll be discussing the iconic professional boxer,
activist, entertainer, poet, and philanthropist Muhammad Ali.
Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr on January 17, 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky
and died of septic shock on June 3, 2016 at the age of 74, in Scottsdale, Arizona. Nicknamed The
Greatest, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated sporting figures of
the 20th century, and is frequently ranked as the best heavyweight boxer and greatest athlete of the
century. Throughout his late career, Muhammad Ali participated in 61 fights and only lost 5 of them.
One of six children, he was named after his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr.
His father painted billboards signs and his mother, Odessa O'Grady Clay,
stayed at home to raise Cassius and his younger brother.
He attended Central High School in Louisville and struggled with a learning disorder throughout
school. Growing up amid racial segregation, Cassius experienced many acts of racial
injustice and prejudice. He was profoundly affected by the 1955 murder of Emmett Till,
which led to him and a friend vandalizing a local railyard in a showing of protest.
Ali was married four times and had seven daughters and two sons.
He married his first wife, cocktail waitress Sonji Roi, in 1964 after meeting each other for
a month. The marriage was childless and they divorced in January 1966.
In 1967 he married his second wife, Belinda Boyd. They had four children:
author and rapper Maryum "May May"; twins Jamillah and Rasheda and Muhammad Ali Jr.
While still married to
Belinda, Ali had two more daughters named Khaliah and Miya from his extramarital relationships.
In 1977, due to his second marriage ended, Ali married actress and model Veronica Porche.
They had two children together: Hana and Laila Ali, who is now a retired professional boxer.
They got divorced in 1986
and Ali married Yolanda Williams, who had been his close friend since 1964.
They adopted a son, Asaad Amin.
Cassius Clay began training as an amateur boxer at age 12,
after his bike was stolen and a police officer on the scene advised him to learn boxing.
As an amateur boxer, his biggest achievement was winning the light heavyweight gold
medal at the 1960 Olympics in Rome. His amateur record was 100 wins and 5 losses.
After the Olympics, Clay returned to Louisville where he began his professional career
and in the next three years won all 19 of his fights, began to build a reputation for himself.
Clay won the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston in a major upset on February 25,
1964, at age 22. In March 1964, he announced that he no longer would be
known as Cassius Clay but as Muhammad Ali. Before his final retirement in 1981,
Ali had total 61 fights, reclaiming the world title twice, whilst losing only five times.
Several were outstanding: the fights with Joe Frazier, such as the Fight of the Century,
which has been called "the biggest boxing event, if not the biggest sporting event, of all time"
and the Thrilla in Manila, and also his fight with George Foreman, known as The Rumble in the
Jungle. However, Ali is most remembered for his speed in the ring, including his speed of punch,
assessed as one of the fastest ever, at any weight; as well as his sometimes controversial
personality, particularly his ability to deliver monologues which rivalled his physical speed.
Muhammad Ali remains the only three-time lineal heavyweight champion. He is the only boxer to
be named The Ring magazine Fighter of the Year six times, and was involved in more Ring "Fight
of the Year" bouts than any other fighter. He has been ranked as the greatest sportsman
of the 20th century by Sports Illustrated and the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC.
Ali was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in its first year.
After retiring from boxing, he focused on religion, philanthropy and activism.
Two controversies in particular were his conversion to Islam,
at which point he also changed his name to Mohammad Ali, claiming that his birth name
was that of a 19th century slave anyway. Then his objection to serving in the US Forces during
the war in Vietnam saw him jailed and stripped of his world boxing champion status in 1967;
the former decision was overturned some years later.
Sadly, Muhammad Ali died of septic shock on June 3, 2016 at the age of 74, in Scottsdale, Arizona.
His memorial was well attended by fellow sports
figures and celebrities and was watched by an estimated 1 billion viewers worldwide.
The late boxer had a net worth of $50 million at the time of his death.
In 1984, he made public his diagnosis of Parkinson's syndrome,
which some reports attribute to boxing-related injuries, though he and his specialist physicians
disputed this. He remained an active public figure globally, but in his later years made
fewer public appearances as his condition worsened, and he was cared for by his family.
Outside the ring, Ali attained success as a spoken word artist, where he received
two Grammy nominations. He also featured as an actor and writer, releasing two autobiographies.
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