Muhammad Ali Trivia
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49 free Muhammad Ali trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
Muhammad Ali called himself the Greatest before he had done much to prove it, then spent twenty years proving it, and this quiz follows the whole arc. It starts in Louisville with a stolen bicycle and a policeman's gym, goes to Rome for the 1960 gold medal and the river he may or may not have thrown it in, and then to Miami Beach, where a 22-year-old underdog made Sonny Liston quit on his stool. The name change, Howard Cosell, the 'What's my name?' beating of Ernie Terrell and the record crowd in the Astrodome follow. The centre of the quiz is the exile: the draft refusal, the 21-minute jury, three and a half years without a licence and the unanimous Supreme Court reversal. Then the great trilogy with Frazier, the jaw Ken Norton broke, Deer Lake, Zaire and the rope-a-dope, Don King's 4 a.m. start, the Bayonne Bleeder who inspired Rocky, Manila, the draw with a wrestler in Tokyo, Leon Spinks, the sad night against Holmes and the last fight in the Bahamas. It closes with Parkinson's, the Atlanta torch, the Iraq hostages, the wall-mounted Walk of Fame star, Laila, Will Smith and the DC comic in which he boxed Superman. Easy questions suit anyone who knows the name; the expert tier reaches Trevor Berbick, Deer Lake and the Collision in Korea. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Ali and his fights, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Black leader was a close friend and mentor to the young Ali until Ali broke with him in 1964?
Malcolm X
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.
Q 02In which city was Muhammad Ali born and raised?
Louisville, Kentucky
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.
Q 03What childhood incident led the 12-year-old Ali to policeman Joe Martin's boxing gym?
His bicycle was stolen
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.
Q 04What did Ali claim he did with his Olympic gold medal after a whites-only restaurant snub?
Threw it into the Ohio River
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.
Q 05Who was Ali's trainer for almost his entire professional career, from 1960 to 1981?
Angelo Dundee
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.
Q 06Which singer gave Ali a robe reading 'People's Choice' that he wore into the ring in 1973?
Elvis Presley
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.
Q 07How did the first Clay–Liston title fight end?
Liston quit on his stool
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.
Q 08What did the press call the barely visible first-round blow that floored Liston in the 1965 Lewiston rematch?
The phantom punch
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.
Q 09What interim name did the new champion adopt after the first Liston fight, before settling on Muhammad Ali?
Cassius X
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.
Q 10Which broadcaster was one of the very few journalists to accept and use the name Muhammad Ali right away?
Howard Cosell
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.
Q 11Which 1967 opponent did Ali taunt with 'What's my name?' for insisting on calling him Clay?
Ernie Terrell
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.
Q 12Ali's 1966 fight against Cleveland Williams drew a record indoor crowd of 35,460 at which venue?
The Houston Astrodome
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.
Q 13In 1967 Ali was stripped of his heavyweight title after refusing to do what?
Q 21What did Ali call his tactic of covering up and letting George Foreman punch himself out in 1974?
Rope-a-dope
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.
Q 22Why was the Rumble in the Jungle postponed by five weeks?
Foreman was cut in sparring
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.
Q 23Which promoter staged the Rumble in the Jungle, first billed 'From Slaveship to Championship'?
Don King
Be drafted into the US Army
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.
Q 14Who threw out Ali's conviction in June 1971?
The US Supreme Court
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.
Q 15Barred from boxing between 1967 and 1970, Ali spent much of his exile giving speeches where?
College campuses
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.
Q 16Who beat Ali by unanimous decision in the March 1971 'Fight of the Century'?
Joe Frazier
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.
Q 17Where was Ali's 1971 'Fight of the Century' held?
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden filled with celebrities that night, and Frank Sinatra shot the fight from ringside as a photographer for Life magazine.
Q 18Which boxer broke Ali's jaw in their first fight in 1973 and handed him the second loss of his career?
Ken Norton
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.
Q 19At Ali's training camp in rural Pennsylvania, what did his father paint on the giant boulders?
Names of famous boxers
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.
Q 20The Rumble in the Jungle on October 30, 1974, took place in which country?
Zaire
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.
The fight was scheduled for 4 a.m. local time so it could air live at 10 p.m. on the US East Coast.
Q 24Which 1996 documentary about the Rumble in the Jungle won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature?
When We Were Kings
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.
Q 25Ali's 1975 fight against journeyman Chuck Wepner, 'the Bayonne Bleeder', inspired which film?
Rocky
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.
Q 26Who stopped the Thrilla in Manila before the 15th and final round could begin?
Frazier's trainer
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.
Q 27What insulting nickname did Ali give his opponent before the Thrilla in Manila?
The Gorilla
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.
Q 28Ali fought a 15-round draw under special rules in Tokyo in 1976 against which wrestler?
Antonio Inoki
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.
Q 29Ali lost his title in February 1978 to which Olympic champion who had only seven professional fights?
Leon Spinks
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.
Q 30Which former sparring partner of Ali's beat him in 1980?
Larry Holmes
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.