Muhammad Ali, who was Cassius Clay for the first 22 years of his life, was one of the most successful and controversial athletes in the 1960s and 1970s. His struggle against Parkinson's disease diagnosed after his retirement and continuing appreciation of his classic bouts have completed a transformation from a polarizing figure to one admired around the world.
Early Personal Life
Muhammad Ali was born on Jan. 17, 1942. He was shy growing up as Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. in a middle-class Louisville, Ky., neighborhood. His father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr., was a painter. His mother, Odessa Grady Clay, cleaned people's homes. His older brother, Rudolph Clay, also became a boxer. Cassius Clay's shyness went away while he was a teenage boxer on a Louisville television show called "Tomorrow's Champions." Clay was soon known as "The Louisville Lip."
Later Personal Life
Clay became Muhammad Ali in 1964 shortly after winning his first world heavyweight boxing title. He delayed announcing his name change and conversion to the Nation of Islam religion or Black Muslims because he felt the controversy would harm his chances of getting a title fight. In 1975, he converted to the less controversial Sunni branch of Islam. Ali has three ex-wives and has been married to Yolanda Ali since 1986. He has seven daughters and two sons. Daughter Laila Ali won several women's boxing titles before retiring undefeated in 2006.
Boxing Career
As an amateur, Ali won three national boxing titles and the light-heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Olympics. All of his professional fights were as a heavyweight. His professional record was 56 wins and five losses, to Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Leon Spinks, Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick. He won his first world championship by beating heavily favored Sonny Liston via a seventh-round technical knockout and knocked Liston out in the first round of their 1965 rematch. He was stripped of his championship in 1967 because he refused to serve in the Vietnam War. After returning to the ring in 1970, he lost his first opportunity to win his title back in 1971 when Frazier won a unanimous decision. Ali won the title in 1974 by knocking out the favored George Foreman in the eighth round. In 1978, he split two fights with Spinks, losing and then winning the title.
Other Fights
Ali's also fought outside the ring. He fought the U.S. government after he was convicted of refusing to go into the U.S. Army because members of Islam were conscientious objectors. His 1967 decision came during the Vietnam War and was very unpopular. By the time the U.S. Supreme Court overruled his conviction in 1971, the war was less popular, and Ali's stance won greater approval. In 1982, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. His doctors said the disease was caused by repeated trauma to the head. Battling the neurological disease, he was the torchbearer at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
