Muhammad Ali Autographed "Is Jesus Really God?" Pamphlet - Muslim CC

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Muhammad Ali Autographed "Is Jesus Really God?" Pamphlet - Muslim CC
Muhammad Ali
(
/
ɑː
ˈ
l
iː
/
;
[3]
born
Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.
;
[4]
January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer, activist, entertainer and
philanthropist
. Nicknamed
The Greatest
, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated figures of the 20th century and as one of the greatest boxers of all time.
Ali was born and raised in
Louisville, Kentucky
. He began training as an amateur boxer at age 12. At 18, he won a gold medal in the
light heavyweight
division at the
1960 Summer Olympics
and turned professional later that year. He became a
Muslim
after 1961. He won the world
heavyweight
championship from
Sonny Liston
in
a major upset
on February 25, 1964, at age 22. On March 6, 1964, he announced that he no longer would be known as
Cassius Clay
but as Muhammad Ali. In 1966, Ali refused to be drafted into the military, citing his religious beliefs and ethical opposition to the
Vietnam War
.
[5]
[6]
He was found guilty of draft evasion so he faced 5 years in prison and was stripped of his boxing titles. He stayed out of prison as he appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, which
overturned his conviction in 1971
, but he had not fought for nearly four years and lost a period of peak performance as an athlete.
[7]
Ali's actions as a
conscientious objector
to the Vietnam War made him an icon for the larger
counterculture
generation,
[8]
[9]
and he was a very high-profile figure of racial pride for
African Americans
during the
civil rights movement
and throughout his career.
[5]
[10]
As a Muslim, Ali was initially affiliated with
Elijah Muhammad
's
Nation of Islam
(NOI). He later disavowed the NOI, adhering to
Sunni Islam
, and supporting
racial integration
like his former mentor
Malcolm X
.
He was involved in several historic boxing matches and feuds, most notably his fights with
Joe Frazier
, such as the
Fight of the Century
, which has been called "the biggest boxing event, if not the biggest sporting event, of all time"
[11]
and the
Thrilla in Manila
, and also his fight with
George Foreman
, known as
The Rumble in the Jungle
,
[12]
[13]
which was watched by a record estimated television audience of 1 billion viewers worldwide,
[14]
[15]
becoming the world's
most-watched live television broadcast
at the time. Ali thrived in the spotlight at a time when many fighters let their managers do the talking, and he was often provocative and outlandish.
[16]
[17]
[18]
He was known for trash-talking, and often free-styled with rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry, anticipating elements of hip hop.
[19]
[20]
[21]
Ali was a leading heavyweight boxer of the 20th century, and he remains the only three-time
lineal champion
of that division. His joint records of beating 21 boxers for the world heavyweight title and winning 14 unified title bouts stood for 35 years.He is the only fighter to have been ranked as the world's best heavyweight by
BoxRec
twelve times. He has been ranked among BoxRec's ten best heavyweights seventeen times, the third most in history.
[25]
He won 9 fights that were rated by BoxRec as 5-Star, the most in the history of the heavyweight division.
[note 3]
Ali is the only boxer to be named
The Ring
magazine Fighter of the Year
six times. He has been ranked the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time,
[26]
and as the greatest athlete of the 20th century by
Sports Illustrated
, the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC, and the third greatest athlete of the 20th century by ESPN
SportsCentury
.
[27]
[28]
Outside the ring, Ali attained success as a musician, where he received two Grammy nominations.
[21]
He also featured as an actor and writer, releasing two autobiographies. Ali retired from boxing in 1981 and focused on religion, philanthropinism and activism. In 1984, he made public his diagnosis of
Parkinson's syndrome
, which some reports attribute to boxing-related injuries,
[29]
though he and his specialist physicians disputed this.
[30]
He remained an active public figure globally, but in his later years made fewer public appearances as his condition worsened, and he was cared for by his family. Ali died on June 3, 2016.