Muhammad Ali Early Life

“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” were words often said by Muhammad Ali and attributed to his success (“Life as Cassius Clay”). Muhammad Ali started his dream of becoming a world champion boxer at the start of his career. Muhammad had many high and low points as a young fighter trying to reach the top. Today, Muhammad is considered one of the greatest boxers to come. Muhammad Ali’s determination as a child is what led him to a successful career in both his middle life and adulthood.
Growing up nobody would have known what great fighter Muhammad would turn out to be. Born in 1942 as a black child of the middle class Muhammad Ali did not let it affect his dreams (“Life as Cassius Clay”). He went to church every Sunday with his mom
and kept clean. His mother, Odessa Clay said “he was always making jokes, gabbing, demanding, and winning everyone’s attention” (Remnick 83). His father, Clay Sr., was violent when he was drunk, which lead to a period of separation between him and Odessa. One night Odessa called police complaining about him beating her. Clay Sr. would often spend time moving from bar to bar picking up women (Remnick 84). Ali would try to avoid questions about his father and tried to forget them. Much of Ali’s pain comes from his father’s drinking, violence, and harangues (Remnick 85). Muhammad Ali dealt with his pain by boxing, which lead to his career.
Muhammad Ali wanted more in life, he wanted more wins.
He took his passion and set his goal to reach the Olympics. After high school Muhammad decided he wanted to step up his career and try for gold in the 1960 Olympics. He ended up winning the Olympic gold medal of 1960 in Rome (Burchard 19). Soon after winning the Olympics Muhammad signed a contract with Louisville sponsoring group and became a professional (“Life as Cassius Clay”). Throughout 1961 and 1963 Muhammad won many matches and began writing side poems about his victories and opponents (Burchard 29). Sports writers started calling him “Mighty Mouth” and “Louisville Lip”, because of how much bragging he would do (Burchard 30). At age twenty-two Ali’s dream of becoming undefeated as a professional came true (Burchard
33).
Muhammad Ali became a strong believer of the Islamic faith and he was not going to let his beliefs step in the way of him pursuing his dreams. Soon after winning world champion Muhammad Ali was called by his draft board to join the United States army. He refused to go to war in Vietnam because of his beliefs (Burchard 54). He was charged with a crime of refusing military service. The charges came to a fine of ten thousand dollars and a five year sentence. The supreme court voted unanimously that it was in his rights to refuse military services. At age twenty-five, Ali was stripped of his title while his case was being overlooked by the courts (Burchard 57). While all this was happening, he married his first wife Belinda Boyd (Burchard 55).
Knowing it was going to be difficult to win his title back, he was not going to let it stop him. In 1970 Ali regains his boxing license (Walton). It took him almost four years to be allowed back in the ring (Burchard 59). Since then it has been seven years since his title was taken from him by the supreme court (Burchard 83). Ali was determined to win his title back, he spent four months at a secluded training camp, he built for himself (Burchard 70). The fight to win his title back was against twenty-seven year old George Foreman and Ali being thirty-two (Burchard 78). The fight became billed as the Fight of the Century (Burchard 77). Ali’s strategy to win the fight was to fight defensively by ducking and blocking Foreman's punches for a few rounds until Form's arms grew tired (Burchard 83). His plan worked smoothly, by the eight round Foramen was tired and helpless. Formen fell to the ground after a few hard punches from Muhammad (Burchard 84). Seven years had passed since his title was taken from him and now he had it back (Burchard 93).
After winning the title Ali did not realize what troubles he was about to face in the future, even if he would continue to fight. After Ali won back his title he continued to keep fighting, his doctors and training camp discouraged him from it. His health started decreasing rapidly due to his start of Parkinson's disease in 1980 in a fight against Holmes. In 1979 Ali finally retired because of his health status (“Life as Cassius Clay”). After all the fighting for his title back and fighting for his constitutional rights, he finally had it all, he was able to live his dream for a while.
With Parkinson's disease Muhammad still tried to live a successful life by trying to help organizations and communities.
In 1984 he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s syndrome due to repeated blows to the head over his long boxing career. His poor health limited his abilities and efforts to do everyday obstacles. Even though living with Parkinson’s syndrome Ali spent his time donating money to various charities and humanitarian missions across the world. He became a strong advocate for more research money for the disease. In 1969 he was awarded the honor of lighting the Olympic torch in Atlanta Georgia summer games. He was accepted into the international hall of fame in 1990 (“Life as Cassius Clay”). During Muhammad Ali’s struggle with Parkinson’s disease he still tried to remain light hearted and is considered to be the twentieth century's greatest and most influential athletes.
Through all Muhammad's struggles in his childhood and early adult life, he was able to conquer his dreams. Muhammad did not have the best childhood. He made the best of it by letting it out in the ring. After being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, he still had various struggles, but he would look at the positive side. Muhammad was still able to accomplish his goal of becoming one of the greatest boxers. “I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest” (US Sports
Academy).