FAYE MOSS: Hello and welcome back to Superstars in History, the only talk show that features interviews with history's biggest stars. I'm your host, Faye Moss. Today's guest was an Olympic gold medalist and three-time World Heavyweight Champion who entertained his fans both in and out of the boxing ring. Please help me welcome one of the world's greatest athletes, Muhammad Ali!
MUHAMMAD ALI: Faye, I think you've got that wrong. I'm not "one of the world's greatest athletes"—I am the greatest!
FAYE MOSS: Well, I stand corrected! So can you tell us about your childhood? How did you become a boxer—I mean the greatest boxer?
MUHAMMAD ALI: I was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1942. My parents gave me a brand new, beautiful red bike for my twelfth birthday. I rode it downtown to see a fair, and when I came out of the building, my bike had been stolen. I was so mad I was crying! A policeman named Joe Martin saw me and asked what was wrong. I told him I wanted to beat up the person who stole my bike. He said if I wanted to beat somebody up, I needed to know how to fight. He was a boxing trainer and told me to come down to the gym he ran.
FAYE MOSS: What a coincidence!
MUHAMMAD ALI: It was. Joe was a white man, and at the time blacks and whites couldn't train together. But Joe's gym was integrated. Joe took me on, became my coach, and taught me how to fight. I won my first match a few weeks later.
FAYE MOSS: You must have really loved it.
MUHAMMAD ALI: No, I hated every minute of training, but I didn't quit. I knew if I suffered, I would live the rest of my life as a champion. Even then I knew I was great—and I wasn't afraid to say so. The newspapers loved that stuff, and it got me lots of attention.
FAYE MOSS: And you also made up rhymes about your fights.
MUHAMMAD ALI: I wrote poetry. My poetry got printed and quoted more than those poets the critics liked so much. I'll recite one for you: "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. The hands can't hit what the eyes can't see."
FAYE MOSS: That sort of sums up your boxing style, doesn't it?
MUHAMMAD ALI: I used to dance around a lot and let my opponent get tired chasing me around. I trained hard so I could last longer. When the other guy was tired, I'd finish him off.
At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, I got a gold medal. Four years later, when I was 22, I won the title of World Heavyweight Champion from Sonny Liston, the big, ugly bear.
FAYE MOSS: Around that time you changed your name. Before then you were known as Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. Why did you change your name?
MUHAMMAD ALI: In the early 1960s I became interested in Islam. Many black Muslims were involved in civil rights causes and taking pride in our black heritage. Cassius Clay was a name that came from a white slaveholder, so I changed my name to show pride in my black heritage.
FAYE MOSS: Things were going pretty well for you until you got drafted for the Vietnam War. When you refused to go into the army, you were arrested. Why did you do that?
MUHAMMAD ALI: My religious faith prevented me from going to war and killing people. My conscience wouldn't let me go shoot some poor, hungry people. They never did anything to me. They were just little babies and women and children. How could I shoot those poor people? No, I couldn't do that. I said, "just take me to jail."
I was sentenced to five years in jail, and that was okay with me because I believed in what I was doing. Finally my case made it to the Supreme Court, and the justices agreed that my faith prevented me from going to war, so they reversed my sentence.
FAYE MOSS: But your heavyweight title had been taken away. And you weren't allowed to fight for three years while your court case was being heard! That must have been hard.
MUHAMMAD ALI: No, not really. I was stopped from fighting, but I wasn't stopped from talking. I spent those years making speeches and visiting colleges. I spoke about my opposition to war. I spoke about Islam. I made a lot of friends.
Eventually I was allowed to box again, and I got my title back. I was still the greatest.
FAYE MOSS: You officially retired from boxing in 1981 with a record of 56 wins, 5 losses, and 37 knockouts. You were not only great in the ring, you were also great out of it. In your later years you were well known for your humanitarian work. That's a long way from bashing people in the head in a boxing ring!
MUHAMMAD ALI: Charity and good deeds were important to me as part of my faith. I always said that being the world heavyweight champion felt very small when I saw how millions of my poor black brothers and sisters were struggling in America. I visited historically black colleges and universities, and I donated money for scholarships for black students.
Not only that, I traveled around the world to raise awareness on a variety of issues and see what good I could do. I went to places like Ghana, Iraq, and North Korea. One time I even stopped a man from jumping off a building in Los Angeles.
FAYE MOSS: You also worked to raise awareness for Parkinson's disease, which affects the nervous system. More than ten million people around the world suffer from it.
MUHAMMAD ALI: Yes, in the 1980s I was diagnosed with the disease, so it was a very personal issue. But I stayed healthy for a long time even after my diagnosis.
FAYE MOSS: And you continued to do good work too. Thank you so much for talking with us today. We'll let you get back to history now.
MUHAMMAD ALI: Thank you for having me, Faye!
FAYE MOSS: In 1996 Ali lit the Olympic flame, and in 2012 he was chosen as a bearer for the Olympic flag. During his lifetime Ali received awards and recognition for his humanitarian work. In 2016 he died of Parkinson's disease. World leaders and dignitaries from many countries praised him for his effort for peace and civil rights.
Ali once said he wanted to be remembered "as a man who treated everyone right and helped as many of his people as he could." I think he accomplished that goal.
I'll see you again next time with another one of history's greatest stars!