Muhammad Ali Essential Sport

When Muhammad Ali first donned boxing gloves in the late Fifties as Cassius Clay, he could not have imagined the impact he would make, not merely as a sportsman but as a global figure. Anyone alive in the Sixties and Seventies couldn’t help but notice this sportsman who, like a select few, broke through into celebrity status. More than that, his pronouncements were given more weight than many politicians of the time. His ring record speaks for itself: 61 fights, 56 wins, plus Olympic Gold and the WBA, WBC, and NABF World Heavyweight titles. But it was the swaggering, self-confident way he conducted himself in the ring that turned boxing into entertainment. The fact he took on the establishment with his anti-Vietnam views and newly adopted religious beliefs only added spice to the spectacle. Even after his death in 2016, this previous hard-hitting social activist remains an icon and a role model to millions today, all of whom cannot conceive of a world where Muhammad Ali didn’t exist. Even with his well-publicized health problems causing a lessening effect on his heavyweight character, leading up to his passing, he kept himself in the public eye through his promotion of world peace and through his non-profit Muhammad Ali Center in his hometown of Louisville. Ali, a champion in and out of the ring, is still the greatest. This is a tribute to a unique character, the like of which the sporting world will most likely never see again.