Introduction
Sports activities form an important part of humanity’s culture and development. Evidently, they have a strong impact on a person’s physique, but they also contribute to mentality and emotional maturity. While many people do exercises and workouts on an amateur level, others dedicate their entire lives to sports. Boxing is one such activity, which engages an array of physical and mental processes. In professional sports, examining the lives of prominent athletes may be instrumental in understanding the positive and adverse implications of these activities. As such, Muhammad Ali is one the most important figures in the history of professional boxing.
The Sport of Boxing
Boxing as a sport involves the act of offense and defense using fists. It involves two athletes who follow the rules of the sport in a square ring and are supervised by an unimpaired referee. It dates back to Ancient Greece, where rules were established, and boxing was made an Olympic game in 688 BC. Years later, Romans and other ancient cultures included boxing as their sport, modifying it by the year.
Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee
Muhammad Ali became one of the most significant and renowned personalities of the century in the ’90s, one of the most eminent fighters of all time (Johnston, 2019). He was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky, and was raised there. Ali’s contribution to the field of professional boxing and sports, in general, has made him an idol for millions of people across the globe.
The Beginning and the Early Years
At the age of 12, Muhammad Ali started training as an amateur boxer under a police officer in Louisville, Joe Martin.
When he was eighteen years old, at the Summer Olympics in 1960, Muhammad Ali attained a gold medal in the lightweight division. Later that year, he became a professional fighter under the mentorship of a Louisville sponsoring group.
He changed his religion to Islam after his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1961(Johnston, 2019).
When he was twenty-two years old, Muhammad Ali emerged and won in a fight with Sonny Liston, a mighty player, and became the world heavyweight champion, in a significant match on February 25, 1964.
On March 6, 1964, he declared that he had officially converted to Islam, stating that he would be called Mohammad Ali and not Cassius Clay
For the following three years, Ali remained unstoppable in all his matches, regardless of who his opponents were.
The Controversy and The Exile
In 1966, due to his Islamic and ethical beliefs, Muhammad Ali declined the recruitment into the military for the Vietnam War. He was then accused and charged guilty of draft evasion, leading to a five-year term in prison (Johnston, 2019). All boxing titles he had achieved were nullified, and he was ruled out from fighting for three and a half years in the United States of America. Muhammed Ali, however, remained out of prison on bail while he appealed to the Supreme Court over the decisions made during his sentence. As a diligent objector to the Vietnam War, Ali’s actions made him an image to be admired by the more significant counterculture generation. He became a high-profile personality of racial pride for African Americans during the human rights protests.
In 1971 Muhammed’s conviction was overturned but he had naturally lost a peak performance period as an athlete since he had not fought for four years (Johnston, 2019).
The Comeback
Ali was given back his fighting rights in October 1970. He participated in various remarkable boxing matches, most popularly, the ones with Joe Frazier; The famous, ‘the Fight of the Century,’ which was then named “the biggest boxing event of all time,” was one historical event in boxing that he played after his exile, and he lost.
After this loss to Joe Frazier, Ali won ten consecutive matches, building his name as previously known.
Two years later, he fought a second round with Joe, then a third round (the Thrilla in Manila), and came out victorious in both matches. This match is historically termed as Ali’s best performance after the exile.
In 1974, in his contest with George Foreman (the heavyweight champion of that time) named, “The Rumble in the Jungle,” which was practically watched by one billion people becoming the world’s most-watched live television broadcast(Johnston, 2019).
In one of his last match games, he lost, sadly, to a novice Olympic gold medal holder, Leon Spinks. Months later, he redeemed himself in a rematch winning his championship title back, and retired from boxing as a career.
Conclusions
He defied the boxing logic; In the early years of Ali’s professional career, he used unique and self-made skills, which proved to be most reliable, intimidating, and simultaneously impressing his opponents. However, in “the rumble in the jungle,” he employed a skill used by Archie Moor, the maneuver “the turtle.” A strategy of leaning into the ring to avoid heavy blows and renamed it “rope-a-dope.”
Muhammad Ali was a source of inspiration for many people, especially the African American community; Being a heroic character, his refusal to go to the war in Vietnam gave young black men a voice. He became the youngest boxer to attain the heavyweight title, at twenty-two years, and the first boxer to obtain the heavyweight championship thrice in his career.
Ali was a human rights activist and humanitarian after retirement; Muhammad contributed to the research of Parkinson’s disease in terms of funding and awareness. He also participated in a peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan and North Korea in 2002.
He was known as the greatest boxer of his time and was a courageous player throughout his career. Ali had fifty-six wins by the time he was retiring and only five losses.
He succumbed to a medical condition, which resembled Parkinson’s disease, caused by the blows he incurred during his career, on June 3, 2016, at 74.
Reference
Johnston, A. W. (2019). What you want me to be: Documenting Muhammad Ali, 1970 to the present. 23 (2), pp. 106-121.