On Self-Belief: Muhammad Ali
"I'mma show you how great I am!"
In 1964, Muhammad Ali shocked the world by defeating Sonny Liston, becoming the undisputed heavyweight boxing championship of the world. Ali was only 22.
The reigning champion Sonny Liston was 35-1 with 24 knockouts. Liston had knocked out former champion Floyd Patterson in two fights, both in the first round. Ali had two lackluster performances leading up to the title fight. Ali was a 7-1 underdog. Armed with self-belief, Ali declared:
"I'm gonna float like a butterfly and sting like a bee."
After the fight, a triumphant Ali pointed to the ringside press and shouted:
"Eat your words!"
"I shook up the world!"
"I must be the greatest!"
In 1967, Ali refused conscription into the US military, citing his religious beliefs and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War. He was eventually arrested, found guilty of draft evasion charges, and stripped of his boxing title. Ali lost everything. He was branded a traitor, and his fans turned against him.
"No, I'm not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor people. ... If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people, they wouldn't have to draft me. I'd join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I'll go to jail. So what? We've been in jail for 400 years." – Muhammad Ali
Mathematician, philosopher, and Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell sent these words of encouragement to Ali:
"In the coming months, there is no doubt that the men who rule Washington will try to damage you in every way open to them, but I am sure you know that you spoke for your people and for the oppressed everywhere in the courageous defiance of American power. ... You have my wholehearted support."
In King of the World, David Remnick quotes the American poet Sonia Sanchez:
"It's hard now to relay the emotion of that time ... when hardly any well-known people were resisting the draft ... and here was this beautiful, funny, poetical young man standing up and saying, 'No!'"
In 1971, Ali's conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court.
"The champ is here." – Muhammad Ali
In 1974, an older and slower Muhammad Ali challenged George Foreman for the undisputed heavyweight title. Foreman was 7 years Ali's junior, with a perfect 40-0 record, with 37 knockouts. This included knockouts over Ken Norton and Joe Frazier, men who had previously bested Ali. They lasted less than two rounds with Foreman.
No one gave Ali a chance. No one other than Ali. When faced with adversity, rather than recounting why he can't, Ali asked: Why can't I?
In typical Ali fashion, Ali told the world:
"It is befitting that I leave the game just like I came in, beating a big bad monster who knocks out everybody and no one can whoop him. That's when that little Cassius Clay from Louisville, Kentucky, came up and stopped Sonny Liston. The man who annihilated Floyd Patterson twice! He was gonna kill me!
But he hit harder than George. His reach is longer than George. He's a better boxer than George. And I'm better now than I was when you saw that 22-year-old undeveloped kid running from Sonny Liston.
I'm experienced now. Professional. Jaws been broke, been lost, knocked down a couple of times.
I'm bad!
Been choppin' trees. I done something new for this fight. I've wrassled with an alligator. That's right! I have wrassled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale, I done handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail! That's bad!
Only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick. I'm so mean I make medicine sick!
Bad!
Fast. Fast. Fast!
Last night I cut the light off in my bedroom, hit the switch, was in the bed before the room was dark! Fast!
And you, George Foreman. All of you chumps are gonna bow when I whoop him. All of ya! I know you got him. I know you got him picked. But the man's in trouble.
I'mma show you how great I am!"
Lacking the same speed, Ali outsmarted George Foreman. Knowing he couldn't escape the younger fighter, Ali yielded to Foreman's punishment against the ropes with the now famous "rope-a-dope." Ali knew he'd have to lose for a while, suffer for a while, persevere, and when the time was right, prevail.
In the eighth round, in the center of the ring, Muhammad Ali knocked out an exhausted George Foreman. Against the odds, Ali had regained his title.
George Foreman said of his fight with Ali:
"I'll admit it. Muhammad outthought me and outfought me."
To test himself further, in 1976, Ali fought in the first-ever internationally televised mixed styles fight (the precursor to mixed martial arts) with Japan's Antonio Inoki. Ali was not only the greatest, he was ahead of his time.
In 1984, Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's syndrome. Against all medical expectations, Ali still went strong. He outlived many of his opponents. Overcoming the odds became a tradition for the man with self-belief.
"What's my name?!" – Muhammad Ali
In King of the World, Remnick writes:
"[Ali is] an American myth who has come to mean many things to many people: a symbol of faith, a symbol of conviction and defiance, a symbol of beauty and skill and courage, a symbol of racial pride, of wit and love."
With the passage of time, Ali's actions, along with his larger-than-life character, have made him an inspiration to many and the greatest of all time.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing." – Muhammad Ali
Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. was born on January 17, 1942, and died on June 3, 2016. Yet when Cassius Clay gave up his name, he set himself free.
Muhammad Ali will live on forever.
"I know where I'm going, and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want." – Muhammad Ali
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