Muhammad Ali

January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016 · Boxer · United States

“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”

American heavyweight boxer, three-time world champion and civil-rights icon, whose brilliance in the ring and courage outside it made him the most famous athlete of the twentieth century.

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Their story

Born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1942, he took up boxing at twelve after his bicycle was stolen. He won light-heavyweight gold at the 1960 Rome Olympics, and in 1964 stunned the boxing world by defeating Sonny Liston to become heavyweight champion at 22, announcing afterwards his membership of the Nation of Islam and his new name, Muhammad Ali.

In 1967 he refused induction into the army during the Vietnam War on religious and moral grounds, was stripped of his title and banned from boxing for over three years at the peak of his powers. He returned to reclaim the championship, defeating George Foreman in the 1974 'Rumble in the Jungle' and outlasting Joe Frazier in the 1975 'Thrilla in Manila'.

Diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1984, he devoted his later decades to philanthropy and peace work, and his lighting of the Olympic flame in Atlanta in 1996 became one of sport's most moving images. He died in 2016 of septic shock after years of illness. His legacy joins athletic genius to moral conviction: he remains, simply, The Greatest.

A life in moments

1942
Born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. in Louisville, Kentucky.
1960
Won the light-heavyweight gold medal at the Rome Olympics.
1964
Defeated Sonny Liston to become heavyweight champion and took the name Muhammad Ali.
1967
Refused induction into the US Army and was stripped of his world title.
1974
Regained the championship by beating George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle.
2016
Died in Scottsdale, Arizona, at 74 after a long fight with Parkinson's disease.
Today
Remembered as The Greatest, an athlete whose conscience changed the world beyond sport.