CASSIUS CLAY
Born Cassius Marcellus Clay on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky, Ali began boxing at age 12 after his new bicycle was stolen and he vowed to policeman Joe Martin that he would "whup" the person who took it.
He was only 40kg at the time, but Martin began training him at his boxing gym, the beginning of a six-year amateur career that ended with the light heavyweight Olympic gold medal in 1960.
Ali had already encountered racism. On boxing trips, he and his amateur team-mates would have to stay in the car while Martin bought them hamburgers.
When he returned to Louisville with his gold medal, the Chamber of Commerce presented him a citation but said it didn't have time to co-sponsor a dinner.
In his autobiography, The Greatest, Ali wrote that he tossed the medal into the Ohio River after a fight with a white motorcycle gang, which started when he and a friend were refused service at a Louisville restaurant.
The story may be apocryphal, and Ali later told friends he simply misplaced the medal. Regardless, he had made his point.
After he beat Liston to win the heavyweight title in 1964, Ali shocked the boxing world by announcing he was a member of the Black Muslims – the Nation of Islam – and was rejecting his "slave name."
As a Baptist youth he spent much of his time outside the ring reading the Bible. From now on, he would be known as Muhammad Ali and his book of choice would be the Koran.
Ali's affiliation with the Nation of Islam outraged and disturbed many white Americans, but it was his refusal to be inducted into the Army that angered them most.
That happened on April 28, 1967, a month after he knocked out Zora Folley in the seventh round at Madison Square Garden in New York for his eighth title defence.
He was convicted of draft evasion, stripped of his title and banned from boxing.
Ali appealed the conviction on grounds he was a Muslim minister.
He married 17-year-old Belinda Boyd, the second of his four wives, a month after his conviction, and had four children with her. He had two more with his third wife, Veronica Porsche, and he and his fourth wife, Lonnie Williams, adopted a son.
During his banishment, Ali spoke at colleges and briefly appeared in a Broadway musical called Big Time Buck White. Still facing a prison term, he was allowed to resume boxing three years later, and he came back to stop Jerry Quarry in three rounds on October 26, 1970, in Atlanta despite efforts by Georgia Governor Lester Maddox to block the bout.
He was still facing a possible prison sentence when he fought Frazier for the first time on March 8, 1971, in what was labelled "The Fight of the Century."
A few months later the US Supreme Court overturned the conviction on an 8-0 vote.
"I've done my celebrating already," Ali said after being informed of the decision.
"I said a prayer to Allah."
Many in boxing believe Ali was never the same fighter after his lengthy layoff, even though he won the heavyweight championship two more times and fought for another decade.
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