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Muhammad Ali Research Paper

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The sport of boxing is known worldwide; a sport where men and women duke it out with their opponents to prove who is the toughest. Though-out the decades there have been many fighters and many fights, but few known quite as well as Cassius Clay, also known as Muhammad Ali. The fighter that referred to himself as, “the greatest” (biography.com) and a man that could, “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” (about.com). From the beginning of his career, which was started after a police officer told him he might want to learn to fight, he was known as an underdog. He took on the Olympics in 1960 at the age of 18 and won the gold medal. Yet being a gold medalist wouldn’t help persuade the public view of him as a serious contender for the …show more content…

After the end of the sixth round Liston decide he had, had enough and refused to return to the center of the ring for the seventh round. His claim was his shoulder had sustained an injury and couldn’t continue to fight; he left the fight not only with the physical injuries received in the fight but with his pride wounded as he forfeited the title to Clay (history.com). Clay manage to win the fight a round before he had predicted. Clay didn’t stop surprising the world with his upset over the light-heavy weight title and took the world by surprise once again the following day with his announcement. Clay makes the announcement to the world that he has joined the Islam Nation and will no longer go by his “slave” name of Cassius Clay but Muhammad Ali. Many disapproved of his conversion because the Nation of Islam was believe to be racist and against integration calling for separate nation for the blacks. This change would also cause Ali later on to lose the title and be banned from boxing when he refused to report when drafted due to religious beliefs and being charged with draft dodging (about.com). With Ali’s interest in boxing beginning at a young age he set off to not only prove himself to those that doubted his abilities but challenged properly opinion. Throughout out his career Ali would sting the unsuspected with his foot work and speed making a

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