Although there have been many fine boxers in history, none have left such an indelible mark as Mohammad Ali (or Cassius Clay as he was known before his conversion to Islam). Not only was he a superb athlete, but he was articulate and intelligent and a great showman. In a country where racism was still a palpable issue when he was fighting, Ali became popular with all Americans, and indeed people all over the world.

He called himself the greatest

Ali was by no means a shrinking violet and would often refer to himself as the greatest. He would always talk long and loud before a fight often get into the minds of his opponent, and would predict which round they would get knocked out or stopped, often in rhyming poetry. Whilst some found it irritating, most considered it amusing and it added to the entertainment factor of an Ali fight.

He beat men thought unbeatable

Ali fought and beat men thought unbeatable at the time. Few thought he had a chance when he went into the ring against Sonny Liston, a man who had become renowned for his vicious demolition of opponents. But not only did he cut Liston for for the first time in his career, but he also so demoralised him that he refused to come out for the seventh round of their championship fight.

At the age of 22 he had become the youngest man to take the title from a reigning heavyweight champion. Then in the rematch, he knocked out Liston in the first round.

Ten years later he regained the title in completely different fashion against the big hitting George Foreman. In a fight named Rumble in the Jungle because it took place in Zaire, Ali used his brains, retreating into the corner, and employed rope a dope tactics, encouraging Foreman to waste his energy by hitting him of his arms and shoulders. Then in the eighth round he sprang into life and knocked out an exhausted opponent.

Dominance

Between his second fight with Liston in early 1967, Ali dominated the heavyweight division like few before him or since. He was unbeatable, with speed, agility, strength, an iron chin and an array of punches that were far too good for anybody prepared to set foot in the same ring as him.

He lost three years of his career

Arguably the world did not get to see Ali at his best because he was banned from the sport for three years for refusing to be drafted into the US armed forces to go and fight in Vietnam.

He was 25 at the time and arguably about to enter the prime years of his career. That he was able to even challenge again for the world title is in itself a considerable achievement, let alone win it, although he was not the fighter he had been in his prime. His reflexes, although still excellent, were not as fast as they had been before his ban, whilst his legs were no longer strong enough to allow him to dance around the ring for 15 rounds.

His trilogy with Frazier

Ali’s trilogy of fights with “Smokin” Joe Frazier are the stuff of legend, because of the sheer brutality and physical toll that it took on both men. During the third fight, Ali said that it was “the closest thing to dying that I know” whilst that bout in Manilla effectively ended Frazier’s career, and he was never the same afterwards.

Frazier won the first, Ali the next two but, in truth, all three fights could have gone either way.

Impact on Civil Rights Movement

Ali’s impact extended far beyond boxing. His refusal to serve in the US armed forces became a lightning rod for dissent and a rally crying for the burgeoning Black Power movement. And it also had wider resonance. When he began his stand the majority of the American people still backed the Vietnam War, but as the casualty figures rose and opposition grew, the fact that a figure such as Ali was prepared to make a stand against it encouraged thousands of others to do the same.

The only man to win the heavyweight title three times

In 1978, Ali beat Leon Spinks in Las Vegas, avenging an earlier defeat by the same man, and, in doing so, at the age of 36, became the first, and to date, only man to win the world heavy weight title three times, nearly 14 years since he had beaten Liston for the first time.