On June 3, 2016, we said goodbye to Muhammad Ali, former boxing heavyweight champion and civil rights activist. After being hospitalized on June 2 for a seemingly mild respiratory illness, Ali’s condition quickly deteriorated and he died the next day from septic shock.
Muhammad Ali burst onto the boxing scene when he finished Sonny Liston twice in a row to win the WBA, WBC, and The Ring heavyweight titles. Perhaps the most well-known image of Ali was taken after he knocked out Sonny Liston in just one round and shows him standing over Liston, yelling in triumph. After those stunning victories, he would go on to defend his heavyweight titles for three years before being suspended from the sport for draft evasion. Ali would return to reclaim his heavyweight titles and defend them twice before losing by unanimous decision to his greatest rival, Joe Frazier.
Ali’s rivalry with Frazier is one of boxing’s greatest, ending with a trilogy of fights. Their animosity would inspire bad blood in boxing for years to come, but future boxing rivalries such as Roberto Duran v. Sugar Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson v. Evander Holyfield, Arturo Gatti v. Micky Ward, and more recently, Juan Manuel-Marquez v. Manny Pacquiao, would pale in comparison to the Frazier v. Ali matchup. After Frazier handed Ali his first professional loss in 1971, Ali would return to beat Frazier by unanimous decision in 1974 and by TKO in 1975.
Despite Ali’s illustrious boxing career filled with title defenses and knockouts, however, his impact on the civil rights movement stands out as one of his most impressive achievements.
When Ali turned 18 in 1962, he signed up for the draft, but he was classified as Class 1-Y due to his low level of spelling and writing ability, meaning he would only be drafted in times of national emergency. When the Vietnam War began in 1964, the U.S. military lowered its standards and Ali became eligible to be drafted. After being notified of the situation, Ali publicly stated that he would not fight in Vietnam, citing his belief in Islam and that he should not fight in any wars unless it was declared by Allah or the Messenger. He added that it would be nonsensical to fight the North Vietnamese while African-Americans were being discriminated against in his own country. Ali famously said, “Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?” When Ali was supposed to be inducted to the U.S. military, he refused to step forward. As a result, he was stripped of all boxing titles and his boxing license, and was arrested and imprisoned for five years.
For standing up for what he believed in and advocating rights and equality for African-Americans, Ali was punished severely. To boxers and athletes all over the world, Muhammad Ali remains a great inspiration and role model for his athletic achievements, but his stand against systemic racism and a war that he believed was unjust motivated many others to take a stand and strive towards equality. Thank you Muhammad Ali; you will not be forgotten.