Muhammad Ali: Eternal boxing champion who shocked the world (+seeding)

On June 3, 2016, Cassius Clay, known worldwide as Muhammad Ali, boxing icon, died in Arizona, United States.

He was Olympic champion in Rome in 1960, and in that same year he began his professional career. In 1964, he became the world champion of the World Boxing Association (WBA) after knocking out Sonny Liston in the seventh round.

His humanist character was demonstrated in 1967 by refusing to perform military service and go to the Vietnam war.

“I don't have a fight with the Viet Cong. No Viet Cong has called me a nigger,” he emphasized.

The then American government, seeing the athlete's refusal, revoked his title and banned him from boxing for three and a half years.

He returned to the ring in 1974 and won by knockout in the eighth round and achieved the title of the World Boxing Council (WBC). That same year he obtained another but in the WBA.

Ali then lost his title by points only to Leon Spinks on February 15, 1978; but then regained it in the rematch on September 15 of that same year. His career culminated when Trevor Berbick beat him by points in 1981.

“I don't divide the world between modest and arrogant men. I divide the world between men who lie and those who tell the truth”, one of Muhammad Ali's emblematic phrases.

Mazo News Team