Muhammad Ali Legacy

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“Float like a butterfly; sting like a bee ahhhh! Rumble, young man rumble ahhhh!” Those were the words echoed time and time again from Cassius Clay and his corner man David Brown. Better known as Muhammad Ali, he has a legacy of being the greatest fighter whoever lived. Muhammad Ali has a career record of 56 wins, 5 losses, and 37 knockouts. Just a kid from a southern town of Louisville, Kentucky, raised in a normal middle class family where he and his brother were expected to either work or go to the military; his father was a painter and his mother a housewife. However Cassius Clay would soon become the great Muhammad Ali. This is his story; January 17, 1942 Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was born, to Cassius and Odessa Clay. At the age of …show more content…
Back in those days once a boy turned 18 he was considered a man and had to register for the military draft. Muhammad Ali has always admitted to having trouble with reading and spelling, when he took the mental test given by the US military his IQ was scored as a 78 which was below the military threshold. But the stuttered were changed and allowed someone with a low IQ to qualify for the military. Muhammad was was ordered to report to the military in Houston. He reported however the military had him listed under the name of Clay, which Muhammad had changed even on his boxing license. He also said it was against his religion to fight in a war not ordered by Allah or the messenger that he would not fight in a Christian war and non believers one of his most famous quotes during that time was “I have no quarrels with them Viet Cong, No Viet Cong ever called me no Nigger.” However many white men and women have in his own country he felt how could he go fight for a country he is not truly free in and not even know what he was fighting for. Ali got a lot of backlash for refusing to fight in the war as a result his boxing license was taken first in the state of New York soon followed by 49 other states. The world boxing organization also took his title as the Heavyweight Champion of the World. The world boxing council also followed. As a result of not being able to fight and with little education Ali had no way …show more content…
Many people did not like the way he did not enter the draft even though at this time more Americans were against the war than for it. Ali fought a couple of people one being Jerry Quarry which he knocked out and Oscar bonavena which he won by TKO. However Ali wanted his title back he wanted to fight Joe Frazier the then Heavyweight Champion. Joe Frazier won an Olympic Gold Medal in 1964 Olympic games and never lost a fight. So two undefeated Heavyweight Champions were set to face off in the ring. The date was March 8, 1971. In a documentary it showed most of the fight was even however after being away from boxing for three years Ali started to tire and in the fifteenth round Frazier knocked Ali down. Ali got right back however Frazier won the fight in a technical knockout. It was the first time that Ali had lost a professional fight. Ali vowed there would be a rematch and stayed fighting constantly winning ten straight fights. Then he fought Ken Norton. Norton broke Ali’s jaw and won in a split decision. Six months later Ali fought Norton again, and again it was a split decision this time it was in Ali’s favor. Ali went on to get his rematch with Frazier the fight went on twelve rounds and Muhammad Ali won by unanimous decision. Frazier went on to fight another Olympic Gold Medal winner named George Foreman, who beat him in two rounds. George

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