He later disavowed the NOI, adhering to Sunni Islam, and supported racial integration like his former mentor Malcolm X. As a Muslim, Ali was initially affiliated with Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam (NOI).
Ali's actions as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War made him an icon for the larger 1960s counterculture generation, and he was a very high-profile figure of racial pride for African Americans during the civil rights movement and throughout his career. However, he had not fought for nearly four years by this point and lost a period of peak performance as an athlete. He stayed out of prison while appealing the decision to the Supreme Court, where his conviction was overturned in 1971. In 1966, Ali refused to be drafted into the military due to his religious beliefs and ethical opposition to the Vietnam War, and was found guilty of draft evasion and stripped of his boxing titles. Also that year, he renounced his birth name as a " slave name", and formally became known as Muhammad Ali. He won the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston in a major upset on February 25, 1964, at age 22.
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At 18, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics and turned professional later that year. In 1999, he was named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated and the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC.īorn and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, he began training as an amateur boxer at age 12.
Nicknamed The Greatest, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated sports figures of the 20th century, and is frequently ranked as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. Janu– June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer, activist, entertainer, poet and philanthropist. Muhammad Ali ( / ɑː ˈ l iː/ born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.