What was Muhammad Ali really like? Besides all of the books and movies about him, what do we really know about his life? Those books and movies usually do not go into detail on how his life really was behind his career. All that we know is that he was really good at what he did professionally, and that was to box. He was known as the “Goat- greatest of all time”(Editors, TheFamousPeople). At times he could be cruel, even sometimes humiliating to his opponents by giving them embarrassing nicknames. Although he could be cruel he would sometimes preach over forgiveness upon others. Even though he won a lot of fights and only lost very few, Muhammad Ali was one of the greatest boxers of all time because he rarely lost a fight and won many awards.
Muhammad Ali was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville Kentucky. He was originally born with the name of Cassius Clay(biography.com Editors). He was born with no one knowing that he would grow up and be the greatest athlete of all time. After him, his parents had two more children making him the eldest of his two brothers. His father, Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sr., earned a living only by painting billboards and signs. His mother, Odessa O’Grady, would go find other jobs to help when they were low on money. Ali’s family never had much money, they would all have to sometimes help to get them back up on their feet.
Ali’s journey began when he was just twelve years old when someone had stolen his bicycle. He went to police officer, Joe Martin, and he told him that he wanted to find the robber and fight him. Officer Joe suggested that he learn how to box first before he approached the robber. If It would not have been for that stolen bicycle, the world may have never known Muhammad Ali( Strathmore 13). Officer Joe was Ali’s first coach, teaching him the main steps of boxing. As he grew older and started getting better he got a new coach, Chuck Bodak Cutman. Cutman trained Ali for his last four years as an amateur boxer.
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Muhammad Ali had a bunch of different training routines and diet plans to help keep him in shape, and to help him get stronger. His training was old school style. He once said “ I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” He would do push ups, situps, and pullups, these would help with his upper body strength and his core. He would run while wearing heavy boots, hit tires with sledgehammers, an chop wood. He never really did use weights or anything. He never did have a set routine, for different boxers he would have different trainings and routines. His diet usually consisted of natural healthy, clean foods that were high in protein, such as chicken, rice, steak, vegetables, potatoes, and fruits.
These foods would help keeps his weight balanced along with the training. He never drank or smoked which helped keep him in good health. He highly believed in taking care of his body. He was a strong competitor, and never went down without a fight, During his career he entered the ring sixty-one times with a total of fifty-six wins and thirty-seven knockouts (biography.com Editors). After winning his first nineteen fights, including fifteen knockouts, Ali received his first title on February 25, 1964, against reigning heavyweight champion Sonny Liston. He liked to tell himself that “ I float like a butterfly, and sting like a bee.” He had a bunch of awards, such as The Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year, Presidential Medal of Freedom, Arthur Ashe Courage Award, Sportsman of the Year( Strathmore 374)and many more. Ali was also inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, and also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Ali was married four times in his life. Most of those relationships would be fiesty and would have to fight some of them occasionally. He was only married to his first wife, Soni Roi, for one year. She left because he tried to make her change her religious beliefs and become muslim. She believed that his nation was starting to take over his mind. Just shortly after, he married his second wife, Belinda Boyd, who was willing to change her religion to Islam just to be with him. She later changed her name to Khalilah Camach Ali after they got married. At seventeen years old she had four children with Ali. They named them Maryum, Jamillah, Rasheeda, and Muhammad Ali Jr.
Ali would sometimes tak Rasheeda and Jamillah to train with him, using them in a stroller while running( Strathmore 198) Later on him and Belinda started having problems and divorced. In 1977 he found love again and married his third wife, Veronica Porsche. Veronica was actually a card girl in the ring at one of ali’s fights, turns out while he was with his second wife he was having an affair with Veronica. Together they had two daughters, Hana Yasmeen Ali and laila Ali. Veronica appeared on dancing with the stars with her two daughters. They were married for nine long years and then later divorced. That same year he divorced veronica he married his fourth wife, Yolonda Williams. They only had one son together, Asaad Ali(Editors, TheFamousPeople). Out of all nine of his children they tried to avoid the spotlight they were under.
Muhammad Ali had a lot of different charities he was involved in. Most of them involving in protecting people. The Ali Care Program helps people with diseases who can not afford any of the treatments. Save The Children created change for kids in the US and around the world. Beat Bullying wanted to reduce bullying, such as physical, emotional, verbal, or racist, between young people. Those are just a few, there is many more charities that he was involved in.
In 1984 Ali got diagnosed with a disease that would change his life forever, Parkinson’s disease. He could have got this disease because of the head trauma during his boxing career. As time went on he eventually started losing his physical activity and his speech( Strathmore 374). They eventually put him in the hospital for what they thought was a respiratory problem, and it turned out to be spinal stenosis, which required surgery. They then started physical therapy to help with his movements. After awhile all of his movement and speech was almost completely gone. After a long thirty years of fighting this disease he died on June 3, 2016.
