Muhammad Ali facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Muhammad Ali
Ali in 1967
Born	Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. (1942-01-17)January 17, 1942 Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
Died	June 3, 2016(2016-06-03) (aged 74) Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S.
Resting place	Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville
Monuments	Muhammad Ali Center Muhammad Ali Mural, Los Angeles
Education	Central High School (1958)
Spouse(s)	Sonji Roi ​ ​ (m. 1964; div. 1966)​ Belinda Boyd ​ ​ (m. 1967; div. 1977)​ Veronica Porché Ali ​ ​ (m. 1977; div. 1986)​ Yolanda Williams ​ ​ (m. 1986)​
Children	9, including Laila
Parent(s)	Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr. Odessa Grady Clay
Relatives	Rahman Ali (brother) Archer Alexander (great-great-great grandfather) Nico Ali Walsh (grandson)
Awards	Muhammad Ali § Notes
Muhammad Ali Statistics Nickname(s) The Greatest The People's Champion The Louisville Lip Rated at Heavyweight Height 6 ft 3 in Reach 78 in Stance Orthodox Boxing record Total fights 61 Wins 56 Wins by KO 37 Losses 5
Signature

Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American boxer. He became one of the most famous boxers in the world with his "rope-a-dope" technique. He was also well known for his clever rhymes. In 1999, Ali was named "Sportsman of the Century" by Sports Illustrated magazine. He won the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship three times. Ali also won an Olympic gold medal for boxing during the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy. Ali was also known as “The Greatest.”

Early life

Cassius Clay and his trainer Joe E. Martin (1960)

Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. He had one brother. He was named after his father, a billboard painter. His mother, Odessa O'Grady Clay (1917–1994), was a domestic helper. Cassius Jr. attended Central High School in Louisville. He was dyslexic, which caused him to have trouble in school and for much of his life. He grew up during the time of racial segregation.

When Ali was 12 years old, a thief stole his bicycle. Police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin saw him upset about the theft. Martin encouraged him to learn how to box.

Amatuer career

After seeing amateur boxers on a local television boxing program called Tomorrow's Champions, Clay was interested in the possibility of fighting. He then began to work with trainer Fred Stoner. For the last four years of Clay's amateur career, he was trained by Chuck Bodak.

1960 Olympians: Clay won gold against Zbigniew Pietrzykowski.

Clay's first fight was against Ronnie O'Keefe in 1954. He won by split decision. Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses. During his amateur career, he won the light heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.

Early professional boxing career

On-site poster for Cassius Clay's fifth professional bout

Clay's first professional fight was on October 29, 1960. He fought and beat Tunney Hunsaker. From then until the end of 1963, Clay's boxing record was 19–0 (nineteen wins and zero losses) with 15 wins by knockout. He defeated boxers including Tony Esperti, Jim Robinson, Donnie Fleeman, Alonzo Johnson, George Logan, Willi Besmanoff, LaMar Clark, Doug Jones, and Henry Cooper. Clay also beat his former trainer and veteran boxer Archie Moore in a 1962 match.

At age 22, Clay fought heavyweight champion Sonny Liston. He won the fight and became the heavyweight champion of the world. Clay defended his title against former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson on November 22, 1965.

Name changes

Soon after the Liston fight, Clay changed his name to Cassius X. He later changed his name again to Muhammad Ali when he converted to Islam and joined with the Nation of Islam.

Main Bout and resistance to the draft

After the Patterson fight, Ali founded his own promotion company, Main Bout. The company mainly handled Ali's boxing promotions and pay-per-view closed-circuit television broadcasts. The company's stockholders were mainly fellow Nation of Islam members and several others, including Bob Arum.

After Ali defeated Zora Folley to keep his heavyweight title on March 22, he was stripped of his title because he refused to be drafted to army service. The state of New York also suspended his boxing license. He was convicted of draft evasion on June 20 and sentenced to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. He paid a bond and remained free while the judgment was being appealed.

On June 28, 1971, the Supreme Court of the United States in Clay v. United States overturned Ali's conviction by a unanimous 8–0 decision. (Justice Thurgood Marshall recused himself, as he had been the U.S. Solicitor General at the time of Ali's conviction).

Return to prizefighting

On August 11, 1970, with his case still in appeal, Ali was granted a license to box by the City of Atlanta Athletic Commission. In November, a victory in federal court forced the New York State Boxing Commission to reinstate Ali's license. Ali began fighting again and became a top contender against heavyweight champion Joe Frazier.

First and second fights against Joe Frazier

Ali and Frazier's first fight was held at Madison Square Garden on March 8, 1971. It was nicknamed the "Fight of the Century" because the public was excited to see two undefeated fighters box each other. The fight was broadcast in 36 countries, and 760 members of the press were allowed to enter the building. Although Ali was not knocked out, he lost by unanimous decision. It was his first professional defeat.

Between Ali's first and second fights with Joe Frazier, he won six fights in 1972. In 1973, Ken Norton gave Ali the second loss of his career. Ali considered retiring, but fought Norton again and won. This led to a rematch with Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden on January 28, 1974; Frazier had recently lost his title to George Foreman.

Ali vs. Frazier, promotional photo

During Ali and Frazier's second fight, the judges unanimously awarded the win to Ali. Ali's defeat of Frazier set the stage for a title fight against heavyweight champion George Foreman.

World heavyweight champion (second reign)

The Rumble in the Jungle

The fight against Foreman took place in Kinshasa, Zaire, on October 30, 1974. It was nicknamed The Rumble in the Jungle. Foreman was considered one of the hardest punchers in heavyweight history. Many thought Ali did not have a chance to win against Foreman. During the fight, Ali introduced his "rope-a-dope" strategy. He leaned against the ropes and took punches, hoping to tire Foreman. The fight was watched by a record estimated television audience of 1 billion viewers worldwide. It was the world's most-watched live television broadcast at the time. Ali won the fight and regained the title of Heavyweight Champion of the World.

Third fight against Joe Frazier

Ali then agreed to a third match with Joe Frazier in Manila. The bout, known as the "Thrilla in Manila," was held on October 1, 1975, in temperatures approaching 100 °F (38 °C). Ali won the fight. He admitted afterward that Frazier was "the greatest fighter of all times next to me."

Later career

Ali being interviewed by WBAL-TV's Curt Anderson, 1978, Baltimore, Maryland

Following the Manila bout, Ali fought Jean-Pierre Coopman, Jimmy Young, and Richard Dunn, winning the last by knockout. He fought a few more times between 1976 and 1980, winning some and losing some fights. In 1979, Ali announced his retirement but came out of retirement shortly afterward because he needed money. Ali fought for the last time on December 11, 1981, in Nassau, Bahamas, against Trevor Berbick, losing a ten-round decision.

Entertainment career

Acting

Ali had a cameo role in the 1962 film version of Requiem for a Heavyweight. While he was not allowed to box, he starred in the 1968 Broadway musical Buck White. He rode a horse and a bull in the 1972 documentary film Black Rodeo.

Ali, with the help of Richard Durham, published his autobiography The Greatest: My Own Story in 1975. The book was made into a film called The Greatest. Ali starred as himself. In 1978, Ali starred in the film Freedom Road. He played a former slave and Union (American Civil War) soldier in 1870s Virginia who gets elected to the U.S. Senate.

Spoken word poetry and rap music

Ali often used rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry, both in and out of boxing. According to The Guardian, Some have argued that Ali was "the first rapper."

In 1963, Ali released an album of spoken word music on Columbia Records titled, I Am the Greatest, which sold 500,000 copies. People identify it as an early example of rap music and an introduction to hip hop.

Professional wrestling

Ali was involved with professional wrestling at different times in his career. On March 31, 1985, Ali was the special guest referee for the main event of the inaugural WrestleMania event.

In 1995, Ali led a group of Japanese and American professional wrestlers on a sports diplomacy mission to North Korea. Ali was guest of honor at the record-breaking Collision in Korea, a wrestling event with the largest attendance of all time.

Personal life

Muhammad Ali was married four times. He had seven daughters (including Laila Ali) and two sons. One of his sons was adopted.

Ali's daughter Laila was a professional boxer from 1999 until 2007, despite her father's previous opposition to women's boxing. Ali still attended a number of his daughter's fights and later admitted to Laila he was wrong. Ali's daughter Hana is married to Bellator middleweight fighter Kevin Casey. Hana wrote about her father, "His love for people was extraordinary. I would get home from school to find homeless families sleeping in our guest room. He'd see them on the street, pile them into his Rolls-Royce and bring them home. He'd buy them clothes, take them to hotels and pay the bills for months in advance." She also said celebrities like Michael Jackson and Clint Eastwood would often visit Ali.

Ali was known to be a very generous and humorous person who loved being the center of attention. He never rejected signing an autograph, partially because he remembered how he'd felt as a youth when he was denied an autograph from his idol, Sugar Ray Robinson. His best success outside the ring came as a philanthropist and activist as he always wanted to use his popularity to help people.

Health Issues

Ali began struggling with vocal stutters and trembling hands in 1979. In the early 1980s, it was found out that Ali had Parkinson's syndrome. In 1984, he made public his diagnosis of Parkinson's disease. Many blame the disease on boxing-related injuries, though he and some specialist doctors disagreed with 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.

On June 3, 2016, Ali died at a Scottsdale, Arizona hospital at age 74.

Muhammad Ali quotes

• "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. His hands can't hit what his eyes can't see. Now you see me, now you don't. George thinks he will, but I know he won't."
• "Don’t count the days; make the days count."
• "I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'"
• "We can’t be brave without fear."

Interesting facts about Muhammad Ali

• Muhammed Ali and his father were named after a white farmer and abolitionist, Cassius Marcellus Clay.
• Ali's great-grandfather Abe Grady was an Irishman who emigrated to the United States and settled in Kentucky in the 1860s.
• Ali won 56 of the 61 professional fights of his career.
• He was the first boxer to win the world heavyweight title 3 times.
• He fought one of his most famous bouts , Rumble in the Jungle, at 4 a.m.
• In 2014, fifty years after Ali won the heavyweight title from Sonny Liston, someone purchased the gloves he wore in that fight for $836,000. Ali earned ($5,944,442 in 2025) for the fight itself.
• He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at age 42.
• Will Smith plays Ali in the movie Ali.

Professional boxing record

Images for kids

• 

  President Jimmy Carter greets Ali at a White House dinner, 1977

• 

  Ali (seen in background) at an address by Elijah Muhammad in 1964

• 

  Ali's headstone, with an inscription of his quote: "Service to others is the rent you pay for your room in heaven"

• 

  President George W. Bush embraces Ali after presenting him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005, during ceremonies at the White House

• 

  The Muhammad Ali Center, alongside Interstate 64 on Louisville, Kentucky's riverfront

• 

  Muhammad Ali pop art painting by John Stango

See also

In Spanish: Muhammad Ali para niños