Muhammad Ali was pronounced dead on late Friday night, June 3, 2016. After decades of suffering from Parkinson’s, he gave up the ghost. And according to his daughter Laila Ali, while his body had given up, his heart was still pumping for about 30 minutes.
The man Muhammad Ali is probably the most famous boxer to have lived, and he was no ordinary boxer. These are some interesting facts about him.
1. Muhammad Ali changed his name thrice. He converted to Islam in 1964, and changed his name from Cassius Clay to Cassius X, before changing it to Muhammad Ali.
2. At the age of 42, in 1984, Muhammad Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. In his later life, he had to use gestures, fingers, his eyes and his facial features to communicate.
3. As the Vietnam war went on in 1967, Ali refused to serve in the military for religious reasons. He was arrested and stripped of his title; his boxing license was suspended and he was convicted of draft evasion. He was sentenced to maximum 5 years in prison and fined $10,000. He never went to prison while his case was under appeal and in 1971 the US Supreme Court overturned the conviction.
4. Ali was also a poet. He created verses where he taunted opponents and praised himself. In 1963, Columbia records released a spoken word album called “I am the greatest” and he performed his poetry before an audience.
5. Muhammad Ali has Irish roots. His great-grandfather was an Irishman who emigrated to the United States and settled in Kentucky in the 1860s.
6. 50 years after Ali defeated Liston to win his first heavyweight championship, an anonymous buyer bought the gloves for $836,000 — $206,000 more than he earned in the fight.
7. As a child, Ali was refused an autograph by his idol, Sugar Ray Robinson. This made him vow to never refuse anyone an autograph — a principle which he lived by.
8. Ali started boxing because of his bicycle which was stolen. After returning from a show at the age of 12, he discovered that his bicycle had been stolen. He was so furious afterwards, and was then trained by a police officer. His bike was never retrieved though.
9. His career record was 56 victories, 37 of them by knockout, and five losses. He held the world championship an unprecedented three different times.
10. The US Army measured Ali’s IQ at 78. In his autobiography he said, “I only said I was the greatest, not the smartest.”
11. In 1990, then 48 years old, Ali flew to Baghdad, Iraq, against President George H. W. Bush’s wishes. Ali, who had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease for six years at the time, travelled to Iraq that year in an attempt to free 15 U.S. hostages after the Iraq invasion of Kuwait, which was followed by the Gulf War. To the surprise of many, Ali was able to meet and negotiate with Saddam Hussein to talk about the hostage situation.
12. In an incredible 1981 event, Ali found himself in Los Angeles across the street from a building in which a 21-year-old man was threatening to jump and kill himself. When Ali learned of the unfortunate and tragic possibility, he quickly talked down the troubled young man by confronting and having a conversation with him one window over.
Jake