However, the adulation awarded to an Olympic champion did not stretch to allowing this black man to dine in the white restaurant. To the young Cassius Clay this would be a bitter pill he just couldn’t swallow. In his frustration and anger, he threw his hard earned medal into the depths of the Ohio River, never to be seen again. This deeply prejudiced world was more than Cassius could bear. Determined to make it in the professional world he embarked on a devastating run of 19 fights, all won and 15 by knockout. Along this journey he had come to know Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad and Sam Cooke, all leading lights in the growing black empowerment movement determined to eradicate the last vestiges of slavery in the United States. The concept of being “free” was a genuine cause at the time. He was on his way to one of the most defining moments in boxing history, when he fought the invincible Sonny Liston for the World Heavyweight Title in Miami Beach, Florida, on 25 th February 1964 at the age of just 22. What unfolded that night truly shook the boxing establishment. Sonny Liston was the
Ali, with Malcolm X.
heir to the legendary Joe Louis and seen as an unbeatable and truly great black heavyweight champion of the world. This wasn’t the way the young Cassius Clay saw him. Rather, to Cassius Clay, he represented the subservient black man, still willing to follow his white master’s orders. The night was electric. The whole world was tuning in on the radio, expecting an epic battle between the Cassius Clay and the vastly more experienced and powerful champion. The world thought that this was the night that the “Louisville Lip”, as Clay was known, would eat his words. However, Clay’s resounding victory meant that his claim to be the greatest now reverberated all around the world. By the end of the fight, Cassius Clay, such an angry young man, stood over the reigning champion screaming for him to get up and fight. In the end Liston refused to emerge from his corner and the “Louisville Lip” became world champion at the age of 22. Not long after this, Muhammad Ali took his Islamic name and began to defy not only the boxing establishment, but also the U.S. Government. At a time in America when the Vietnam War was seen as right and just, he refused to be drafted and sent to fight. As he so succinctly put "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong ... They never called me n*****." The government fined and threw him in jail. The boxing establishment stripped him of his title. No matter how hard Ali’s opponents tried to defeat him, all the succeeded in was to strengthen his resolve and make him more determined to overcome injustice. He was never broken and came back to defy the odds, going on to become the first three-time world
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