The Greatest of All Time
He was born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., on this date in 1942. Few of you reading this know him as anything other than Muhammad Ali . He put Lewiston, Maine on the map when he beat Sonny Liston for the world heavyweight championship in 1964. No doubt you've seen this picture... Sonny refused to call him by his Muslim name, and Ali taunted him throughout the fight. "What's my name?" he shouted over and over, as he took the title from Liston on May 25, 1965. There is no doubt that boxing is a brutal sport, and I have soured on it since Ali retired. He brought a poetry to it, an artistry that the boxers today do not. It was a tough act to follow. Only it wasn't an act. He was a real person with real convictions. So much so, that he was willing to give up his sport for three years when the government stopped him from fighting as a punishment for his refusal to serve in the military during the Vietnam war. In 1964 , Ali failed the Armed Forces qualifying test be...