Muhammad Ali: the boxer and the man.

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Football has Joe Namath. Hockey has Wayne Gretzky. Baseball has Jackie Robinson. Boxing has Cassius Clay. Humanity has Muhammad Ali.

Raised in a small home in a modest Louisville, Kentucky neighborhood, Clay would rise to dominate headlines, boxing and otherwise, and become Muhammad Ali before his twenty-third birthday. He would stretch his "fifteen minutes of fame" into an incredible legacy that will last for generations to come.

Spurred by the theft of his prized new bicycle, the 12-year old Ali began to study the art of boxing. Vowing to never be victimized again, he spent his teen years at the gym, molding both his body and mind into championship caliber. But not even the ever-confident Ali could have fathomed the career that waited in his future: a Golden Gloves champion at age 17, an Olympic gold medalist at age 18, an undefeated heavyweight champion at age 22. But this, as they say, was just the beginning.

Ali would continue his trek to boxing and, ultimately, social dominance in the coming years. His professional career began with a victory over Tunney Hunsaker on October 29, 1960, and would end some twenty-one years later with a loss to Trevor Berbick on December 11, 1981, only his fifth loss in more than two decades of professional boxing. Always inspired by the toughest of challenges, Ali would face many of history's greatest fighters, almost always leaving the ring victorious. He would win the world heavyweight championship three times by utilizing his lethal combination of blinding speed and awesome power. As Ali's speed slowed with time, his intelligence and cunning became his main weapons in the ring. Watching Ali perform his magic in the ring was a near breathtaking experience, and the combination of brute force and beautiful choreography exhibited by Ali created a visual experience difficult to forget.

However, perhaps Ali's greatest moments came in the life he led outside the ring. Ali was as confident in the public circle as he was in the boxing ring, and he continued to meet every challenge with a mind that was as powerful as his fists. As a black man living in an era that continued to question his rights as a person, Ali faced and battled issues of race and class, and to this day ranks as one of the champions of the Civil Rights movement. His conversion to Islam,
and his subsequent refusal to be inducted into the military, created the largest controversy of his life and he was stripped of his heavyweight title. Not surprisingly, this adversity only made Ali stronger, prouder, and more determined than ever to live his life with dignity and by his own conviction. And while it may have looked to some that the count was nearing ten and the final bell was about to ring, Ali emerged from this battle with chin high and hands raised, and years later would be selected the greatest athlete of modern times by Sports Illustrated.

No other athlete has transcended the glamour and glory pinned to the lapels of sports champions the way Muhammad Ali has. His grace under fire, his confidence tinged with cockiness, the spirit of his convictions, and his pride of self make Muhammad Ali not only the greatest sports figure who ever lived, but one of the greatest human beings to ever grace the Earth. Ali was truly a champion of the people, a hero in the truest sense of the word, and a testament to humanity. Ali used to say, "I am the greatest." And he is.

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