Saturday 4 June 2016 13:02, UK
Muhammad Ali's reach extended way beyond the four corners of a boxing ring, and we will never see his like again, writes Tim Hobbs.
Ali will always be 'The Greatest'.
He transcended the sport, taking boxing beyond its boundaries and became a global figure whose achievements in life equalled those in the ring.
Ali was a three-time world heavyweight champion who took on a conveyer belt of fearsome heavyweight fighters while at the same time tackling racism, religious bigotry and inequality. He didn't always do the right thing but he held men, women and children in his thrall.
Ali was the main man of a new era. Sports Illustrated and the BBC named him their Sports Personality of the Century. He is the most iconic sportsman the world has ever seen - and will ever see.
Born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr - or simply Cassius Clay - on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky, boxing hooked him as early as 12 when, angered by the theft of his bicycle and threatening retribution, he was taken under the wing of local policeman and boxing coach Joe E Martin.
Clay won six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles and two national Golden Gloves by the time he was 21. His amateur record of 100-5 peaked in the summer of 1960, when he went to Rome and won the Olympic light-heavyweight gold medal. Claims he threw the medal in the Ohio river after being denied service at a 'whites only' diner have been denied by close associates.
He turned professional straight away, and made his debut on October 29, 1960, outpointing Tunney Hunsaker over six rounds. He outsmarted but rarely knocked out his next 10 opponents but in February 1962, he was put down in the first by Sonny Banks. Clay got up and turned the tables in the second - a sign of things to come.
By then, he had teamed up with trainer Angelo Dundee and in June 1963, he travelled to the United Kingdom to take on national hero Henry Cooper at Wembley Stadium. 'Enry's 'Ammer struck first, and he was down again, but Clay regrouped to inflict a gruesome cut, forcing Cooper to be stopped in the fifth.
Within eight months, Clay was taking on the Sonny Liston for the world heavyweight championship. He produced a stunning display to finish him in six. "I shook up the world!" he shouted. Shortly after, he shook up America by joining the Nation of Islam and changing his name to Muhammad Ali.
The Liston-Clay fight won 1964 Ring Magazine's Fight of the Year award but the following year, Ali finished Liston in one in the rematch. Former world heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson, Cooper again, Brian London, and Karl Mildenberger all fell by the wayside as Ali took on and beat the world. With the blue riband belt and a record of 29-0, he had grabbed the world's attention.
Then, in 1966, the immortal line: "I ain't got no quarrel with the Vietcong." Ali refused to be inducted into the US Army to fight in Vietnam and not only lost the WBA world heavyweight title, but also his boxing licence.
In June 1967, Ali was sentenced to five years in prison for draft evasion, fined $10,000 and banned from boxing for three years. He stayed out of prison after taking his case to the US Supreme Court but the boxing ban remained and it was October 1970 before he was able to fight again.
The world was watching as he stopped Jerry Quarry in three. Ali was back.
Just five months later, he was fighting to regain a world title against 'Smokin' Joe Frazier, who not only held two world titles but had become his bitter rival. Ali was floored in the 15th round at Madison Square Garden and lost on points, and had failed to regain the biggest prize in boxing.
He responded with a rapid 10-fight unbeaten run but lost again - with no world title at stake - to Ken Norton in March 1973. Yet somehow America and the sport of boxing knew Ali had more to come, even if he might have missed his peak years.
In January 1974, he gained revenge by beating Frazier in New York with the animosity at its height, but there was still no world title on the line. Next up, in October, there was - but the WBA and WBC champion was the formidable George Foreman, who played his part in a fight that has gone down in folklore: The Rumble in the Jungle.
Foreman was the new heavyweight king and with the young Don King in control, they went out to Kinshasa, Zaire. A cut to Foreman in training meant the fight was delayed for six weeks and by the time they entered the ring on October 30, 1974, the locals were behind Ali to a man.
Foreman pummelled and punched Ali for seven vicious rounds but the now famous 'rope-a-dope' plan fell into place and having absorbed everything Foreman had thrown, Ali burst out of his shell and finished off his opponent in the eighth round.
Ali was the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and the biggest name on the planet, sporting or otherwise. He took on Frazier - who by now detested him - for a decisive third fight in October 1975 on another legendary night: the Thrilla in Manila. Ali was almost out, only to see Frazier kept in his corner ahead of the last round. The Ring Magazine named it Fight of the Year,
He went on to defend the undisputed title six more times, including finishing another trilogy by outpointing Norton in September 1976.
A new breed of heavyweights was emerging, and 1976 Olympic light-heavyweight gold medallist Leon Spinks shocked the world by outpointing Ali on a split-decision in February 1978 to lift the world heavyweight championship in just his eighth professional fight.
But in a scriptwriter's dream, Ali avenged the Spinks defeat straight away, winning on points in New Orleans' Superdome, to become the first man to become heavyweight champion of the world for a third time.
Ali announced his retirement but two years down the line, he came back only to be schooled by former sparring partner Larry Holmes. He retired again but inevitably gave it one more go, this time against Trevor Berbick in Nassau, Bahamas, in December 1981.
He went the 10-round distance but took plenty of punishment and by now, the boxing world was hoping this was the last time they would see him in a ring.
It was. The Greatest's days were over, in the ring at least. But his biggest battle was yet to come.
Two years after his retirement, Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, having suffered from vocal stutters and trembling hands since as early as 1980.
The days of the famous 'Louisville Lip' began to seem a distant memory but there were heartwarming acts of defiance along the way - most famously travelling to Iraq to negotiate with Saddam Hussein in 1991, and lighting the torch at the opening ceremony of the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.
Despite his declining health, Ali continued to make public appearances beyond the turn of the millennium, travelling to Afghanistan as a special guest of the United Nations for a 2002 goodwill mission.
Ali appeared at the 2012 London Olympics as the bearer of the Olympic flag but following bouts with pneumonia in December 2014 and an infected urinary tract in January 2015, Ali's health deteriorated further and having been readmitted to hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, he passed away on June 3, 2016.
He leaves behind his wife Yolanda and nine children including daughter Laila Ali, who boxed to a record of 24-0-KO21 before retiring in 2007.
