Sports History of Boxing Great Muhammad Ali
Uploaded by spootyhead on Apr 18, 2007
Sports History of Boxing Great Muhammad Ali
“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee!” These were the famous words said by Muhammad Ali after his first title fight against Sonny Liston ( Rummel 57 ). Muhammad Ali was one of the greatest boxers known today. Although Ali was a great boxer, he had to overcome many obstacles to get to where he wanted to be, like segregation, racism, the selective service, and being a Muslim.
Cassius clay was born on January 17, 1942 in a working class family in Louisville, Kentucky. His father, Cassius Clay Sr worked as a sign painter and his mother, Odessa Clay was a house cleaner ( Tessitore 62 ). The black workers were never paid very much, but his father always kept food on the table. The extended Clay family was a big one, and at family gatherings Cassius was the beautiful child, always laughing, making jokes, demanding, and winning everyone’s attention ( Remnick 34 ). “ He always was a talker,” Odessa Clay said. “ He tried to talk so hard when he was a baby. He would talk so fast like lightning.”
As a child Cassius grew up where segregation was a big and important issue ( Remnick 45). Everywhere he went he saw bus drivers, drugstore men, and grocery store cashiers were al white, and he was confused of this. He would often ask his mother why there were so many white people running the businesses, and not any blacks.
On an afternoon in 1954, when Cassius was only twelve, Cassius had been riding his bicycle, which had been given to him by his father for Christmas ( Rummel 37 ). Cassius stopped at the Columbine auditorium, there had been a show going on and he went in to watch. When he went to leave he noticed that his bike had been stolen. He looked for his bike, but could not find it, and that’s when he ran into a policeman named Joe Martin, who ran a boxing program. He told the cop what happened and said he was going to beat up whoever took it. The cop told young Cassius he had to learn to fight before he started going out and beating up people. Cassius later sign up at...