the unauthorized copy dedicated to the greatest my name shaun boothe born cassius clay jr january 17th in 42 louisville kentucky he grew up a little boy doing what a little boy do til somebody stole his bike swearing up and down they would pay the price a police officer overheard laughed at the child and gave advice told him to take that rage to fight come to my gym and train to fight little did he know that would change his life make him a star put his name in lights as an amateur he would bandage up anyone he faced due to his tutelage even then you knew the kid was destined to be great golden child 8 golden gloves on the road to olympic gold in rome everything he dreamed got his ticket then his feet got cold praying in the aisles on the way to the fight he made it and in that 1960 olympics victory he declared himself the greatest critics watched and frowned at his boxing style said he couldn t keep his guard up he wasn t pro and they still couldn t knock him down uh hands low damn he can dance though made em look too stiff to box a punch too quick to clock you get hit before you get from tick to tock uh and by 64 he was giving knockout predictions what round they would hit the floor ridiculing his opposition dismissed as the louisville lip outspoken but never out boxed liston finally gave in and clay got his first title shot he even put out an album threw a few sonny poems together and called it i am the greatest some say the first battle raps ever he said he d knock him out in eight but nobody believed nobody listened til the headlines came cassius clay beats sonny liston and after that huge upset he upset the world when he announced he was a member of the nation of islam he lashed back like what was it i did wrong huh and in the fashion of malcolm x for whom he had profound respect from his slave name he said i m free and he became young muhammad ali then the love for him got outweighed by outrage and fear of his new devout faith to an organization perceived as only being about hate years later he refused the draft denounced the war on the grounds of religious beliefs then they hated him more they told him go to jail or go to vietnam then they took his title and his boxing license so he took it to court and fought three years long now somewhere in that time america realized the war was wrong and he went from traitor to hero and in a year or so he was coming back strong uh moving with such grace and ease float like a butterfly sting like a bee hand can t hit what your eyes can t see then came the fight of the century ali joe frasier as far as match ups there were no greater first professional loss but he would beat him in a rematch later but by then frasier lost the belt to a man by the name of george foreman much stronger and younger than ali still he said i m in if you re in then came the rumble in the jungle promoted by don king in 74 they went to zaire he got out the plane like what do i hear they were saying it was much more than some ego stroke he knew he gave the poor people hope against the odds toe to toe swarming crowds overflow but no matter how hard he fought they said foreman would never be stopped but instead of going blow for blow he let him go for broke punched himself out later they would call it the rope a dope and in the eighth round everything turned around ali springs from the ropes swinging fearlessly and foreman goes down and the whole crowd erupts in amazement when he can t beat the count and a new king is crowned fighting for the poor and oppressed his victory made history but it was more than just being the best it was character it was charisma being someone that cares for us you see he redefined the word champion to a category that the rest can t be in the unauthorized biography of muhammad ali epilogue the next seven years of his legendary boxing career were not without its price and in the early 80s he would go on to develop parkinsons disease presumably due to all of the punishment he had endured but that didn t stop ali from what he called his true life calling in humanitarian endeavours travelling around the world as the goodwill ambassador to us all the end next chapter martin luther king jr and barack obama