49 Fun Facts About Muhammad Ali

Which Black leader was a close friend and mentor to the young Ali until Ali broke with him in 1964?

Malcolm X met the fighter in 1962 and was at his side in Miami before the first title fight. Ali sided with Elijah Muhammad when the two men split, and later called turning his back on him one of his biggest regrets.

In which city was Muhammad Ali born and raised?

Louisville, Kentucky, gave him his nickname, the Louisville Lip. A group of the city's businessmen, the Louisville Sponsoring Group, bankrolled his first years as a professional.

What childhood incident led the 12-year-old Ali to policeman Joe Martin's boxing gym?

His bicycle was stolen, and he told Martin he wanted to whup the thief. Martin, who ran a boxing gym, told him he had better learn to fight first.

What did Ali claim he did with his Olympic gold medal after a whites-only restaurant snub?

Threw it into the Ohio River, he said, though friends and sportswriters doubted the tale. He later told a TV executive he had simply lost the medal, and he was given a replacement decades on.

Who was Ali's trainer for almost his entire professional career, from 1960 to 1981?

Angelo Dundee took him on at Miami's Fifth Street Gym after the young fighter failed to get on with his first trainer, Archie Moore. He stayed in the corner for the next 21 years.

Which singer gave Ali a robe reading 'People's Choice' that he wore into the ring in 1973?

Elvis Presley had the robe made for him after the two met in Las Vegas, and Ali wore it for two fights that year. He later called the singer a close personal friend.

How did the first Clay–Liston title fight end?

Liston quit on his stool after six rounds, blaming an injured shoulder, and the 22-year-old underdog was champion. He rushed to the ropes and shouted at the ringside press that he had shaken up the world.

What did the press call the barely visible first-round blow that floored Liston in the 1965 Lewiston rematch?

The phantom punch landed in the first round before only 2,434 fans in Lewiston, Maine. Few at ringside saw it, and doubts about how keen Liston was to get up have followed the fight ever since.

What interim name did the new champion adopt after the first Liston fight, before settling on Muhammad Ali?

Cassius X was the name he took on announcing he had joined the Nation of Islam, which taught that surnames like Clay were slave names. On March 6, 1964, its leader Elijah Muhammad renamed him Muhammad Ali.

Which broadcaster was one of the very few journalists to accept and use the name Muhammad Ali right away?

Howard Cosell of ABC called him Ali from the start and campaigned for his return to the ring during the ban. Their teasing interviews on Wide World of Sports made the two close friends.

Which 1967 opponent did Ali taunt with 'What's my name?' for insisting on calling him Clay?

Ernie Terrell kept calling him Clay before the fight. Ali won a 15-round decision, shouting the question between punches, in a display that many called cruel.

Ali's 1966 fight against Cleveland Williams drew a record indoor crowd of 35,460 at which venue?

The Houston Astrodome, billed as the Eighth Wonder of the World, was staging its first prizefight. Ali showed off his 'Ali shuffle' and stopped Williams in the third round, a display often called his finest.

In 1967 Ali was stripped of his heavyweight title after refusing to do what?

He refused to be drafted into the US Army in April 1967, saying his faith forbade it, and a jury took just 21 minutes to convict him. He stayed out of prison on appeal, but no state would license him to box.

Who threw out Ali's conviction in June 1971?

The US Supreme Court reversed the conviction by eight votes to none, with Justice Thurgood Marshall taking no part. By then Ali had been back in the ring for eight months, but the ban had cost him more than three years of his prime.

Barred from boxing between 1967 and 1970, Ali spent much of his exile giving speeches where?

College campuses heard him speak on race, his faith and the war while no state would license him to fight. He returned in October 1970 in Georgia, which had no state boxing commission to refuse him.

Who beat Ali by unanimous decision in the March 1971 'Fight of the Century'?

Joe Frazier floored him with a left hook in the 15th round to seal Ali's first professional defeat. Both men came in unbeaten, and each was paid a then-record $2.5 million.

Where was Ali's 1971 'Fight of the Century' held?

Madison Square Garden filled with celebrities that night, and Frank Sinatra shot the fight from ringside as a photographer for Life magazine.

Which boxer broke Ali's jaw in their first fight in 1973 and handed him the second loss of his career?

Ken Norton won a 12-round split decision in San Diego in March 1973, and Ali finished the fight with the broken jaw. Ali took their rematch six months later, again on a split decision.

At Ali's training camp in rural Pennsylvania, what did his father paint on the giant boulders?

Names of famous boxers went onto boulders that Ali had trucked in to the log-cabin camp he built in 1972. His father did the lettering himself, because he painted signs for a living.

The Rumble in the Jungle on October 30, 1974, took place in which country?

Zaire's ruler, Mobutu Sese Seko, agreed to host the fight to win publicity for his regime. The country is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

What did Ali call his tactic of covering up and letting George Foreman punch himself out in 1974?

Rope-a-dope was his word for lying back on the ropes and covering up while the unbeaten champion flailed away. By the eighth round Foreman was exhausted, and Ali knocked him out.

Why was the Rumble in the Jungle postponed by five weeks?

Foreman was cut in sparring, over his right eye, eight days before the fight. The music festival booked to build it up, with James Brown and B.B. King on the bill, went ahead in September without it.

Which promoter staged the Rumble in the Jungle, first billed 'From Slaveship to Championship'?

The fight was scheduled for 4 a.m. local time so it could air live at 10 p.m. on the US East Coast.

Which 1996 documentary about the Rumble in the Jungle won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature?

When We Were Kings took director Leon Gast more than two decades to edit and finance. Alongside the fight it shows the soul and blues concert staged to go with it.

Ali's 1975 fight against journeyman Chuck Wepner, 'the Bayonne Bleeder', inspired which film?

Rocky was written by Sylvester Stallone after he watched the rank outsider floor Ali in the ninth round and last until 19 seconds from the final bell. Ali said Wepner had been standing on his foot.

Who stopped the Thrilla in Manila before the 15th and final round could begin?

Frazier's trainer, Eddie Futch, refused to send him out for the last round because his eyes had swollen almost shut. Across the ring an exhausted Ali had just asked his own corner to cut his gloves off.

What insulting nickname did Ali give his opponent before the Thrilla in Manila?

The Gorilla was the taunt, and he took to punching a rubber gorilla in front of reporters. It cut deep, because his rival had been a friend who lent him money during his ban.

Ali fought a 15-round draw under special rules in Tokyo in 1976 against which wrestler?

Antonio Inoki spent most of the bout on his back kicking at Ali's legs, and the blows left the boxer with two blood clots. The fight is now seen as a forerunner of mixed martial arts.

Ali lost his title in February 1978 to which Olympic champion who had only seven professional fights?

Leon Spinks, a gold medallist at the 1976 Olympics, took the title on a split decision. Ali won their rematch seven months later to become the first man to win the heavyweight championship three times.

Which former sparring partner of Ali's beat him in 1980?

Larry Holmes had sparred in Ali's camp in the 1970s and was by now the champion. Ali's own corner stopped the one-sided fight after ten rounds, the only one of his five defeats that did not go the distance.

Who was the last man to fight Muhammad Ali, beating him by decision in the Bahamas in December 1981?

Trevor Berbick won a unanimous ten-round decision over the 39-year-old Ali. Five years later he lost his own world title inside two rounds to a 20-year-old Mike Tyson.

In 1984 Ali made public his diagnosis of which condition?

Parkinson's syndrome was diagnosed three years after his last fight and was possibly linked to the blows he had taken in the ring. He lived with it for 32 years while carrying on his work as a humanitarian.

At which Olympic Games did a trembling Muhammad Ali light the cauldron?

Atlanta 1996 saw him step out of the shadows at the top of the stadium ramp to take the flame from swimmer Janet Evans. At the men's basketball final he was given a new gold medal to replace the one he had lost.

In 1990 Ali met which Middle Eastern leader to negotiate the release of American hostages?

Saddam Hussein let the Americans go after the meeting in Iraq, shortly before the first Gulf War. The trip was one of many goodwill missions Ali made despite his failing health.

Which broadcaster named Ali Sports Personality of the Century in 1999?

The BBC put it to a viewers' vote, and Ali polled more than Pelé, George Best, Don Bradman, Jack Nicklaus and Jesse Owens put together.

Which US president presented Ali with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005?

Bill Clinton had given him the Presidential Citizens Medal in January 2001.

Ali's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is unique in what way?

It is mounted on a wall rather than set in the pavement, the only star on the Walk treated that way. He asked that the name he shared with the Prophet should not be walked upon.

Which of Ali's daughters became a professional boxer, undefeated from 1999 to 2007?

Laila retired unbeaten after 24 fights, 21 of them won by knockout. Her father had said on television that women were not made to be punched, and at first he opposed her career.

Which of Ali's wives had known him since she was six?

Lonnie Williams was six when she first met the 21-year-old boxer in his home town, where their mothers were friends. She became his fourth wife in 1986 and stayed with him until his death 30 years later.

Who played Ali in Michael Mann's 2001 biopic, earning a Best Actor Oscar nomination?

Will Smith recalled the boxer's first words to him as 'Man, you're almost pretty enough to play me.' He was later one of the pallbearers at Ali's funeral.

In the 1977 film 'The Greatest', who played Muhammad Ali?

Ali himself took the lead. George Benson sang the film's theme, The Greatest Love of All, which Whitney Houston took to number one nine years later.

In 1964 Ali recorded a cover version of which rhythm and blues hit?

Stand by Me, the Ben E. King hit, shared a single with his boast 'I Am the Greatest'. The comedy album of that name had earned a Grammy nomination and climbed to number 61 on the album chart.

In 1978 DC Comics published a special in which Ali boxed which of its heroes?

Superman loses his powers for the bout, which is staged because invading aliens demand to face Earth's greatest champion. The two then team up to beat the invaders, with Ali fighting the alien champion.

Ali died on June 3, 2016, aged 74, in which Arizona city?

Scottsdale, on the edge of Phoenix, is where he was taken to hospital with a respiratory illness. He died there of septic shock and was buried in his home town.

What did Ali and his wife open in his home town in November 2005?

A museum and cultural centre, the Muhammad Ali Center shows his boxing memorabilia but is built around themes of peace and social responsibility. He and his wife founded it together.

Which president appointed Ali's namesake, the abolitionist Cassius Marcellus Clay, as minister to Russia?

Abraham Lincoln gave him the post in 1861. Clay, a rich slaveholder's son, had run an anti-slavery newspaper despite death threats, and the boxer's father was named in his honour.

Which martial-arts film star studied Ali's footwork and cited him as an influence?

Bruce Lee watched films of the champion's fights in a mirror, because Ali led with his left hand and Lee fought with his right side forward.

Which basketball giant challenged Ali to a fight in 1971, then backed out after Ali taunted him with 'Timber!'?

Wilt Chamberlain, by promoter Bob Arum's account, left the room after the taunt and accepted a record Lakers contract, offered on condition that he dropped 'this boxing foolishness'.

In 1995 Ali was guest of honour at a record-attendance wrestling event in which country?

North Korea packed a Pyongyang stadium on two nights with crowds still claimed as wrestling's biggest ever. Ali made the goodwill trip with American and Japanese wrestlers who included Ric Flair.