muhammed ali

Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was born on January 17, 1942. He later changed it to Muhammed Ali because he didn’t want a slave name. When he was growing up in Louisville, Kentucky he got a bike for his birthday. It was a nice schwinn. He went to a place where they were giving away free pop and hot dogs. When he was going to leave he realized his bike had been stolen. He was on his way home to tell his dad and he saw the Columbia Boxing Gym. He watched and he knew that boxing was what he wanted to do. After that he started to box with kids his age. He would beat some of them but he didn’t know much. The other gym had a better trainer but he needed the $4 this gym gave him for being on a local TV boxing show. One of his first fights was going to be against Jimmy Ellis but Jimmy didn’t weigh enough. Later in Ali’s career he knocked jimmy out in a professional boxing match. Cassius signed with the Louisville Sponsoring Group for his first sponsor. They would find him matches and he would box for about $1000 per fight, which isn’t that much in boxing.
He won the Golden Gloves award in 1959. In 1960 he went to the Olympics and won the gold medal for the light-heavyweight division. After awhile he got a title shot against Sonny Liston, an ex-convict. He beat him and won the title. He made around $300,000 each match with the Louisville Sponsoring Group once he was on top. In 1964 he converted to Islam and this didn’t go well with his fellow African Americans. He would pray to Allah before every fight.
In 1964 he married Sonji but it didn’t work out so they divorced in 1965. In 1967 he received a 5 year jail sentence for turning down the army because he did not want to be involved in the war. He married Belinda in 1968. His daughter Maryum was also born in 1968. In 1970 his jail sentence was reversed. His twins Jamillah and Rasheda were born on August 21, 1970. He got his boxing license back and signed with Herbert Muhammed for a sponsor. He started making millions each fight.
He beat Joe Frazier twice and he has beaten George Foreman. He has won the Heavyweight title 3 times. Ali retired. He came back in 1980 to fight but had lost his skill and lost three matches in a row.
Ali has also worked with many charities and has donated millions of dollars to them. Ali later developed parkinsons and even has his own treatment center for it. He has won medals for promoting world peace and was a figure for stopping segregation.