Full Transcript for 166. Muhammad Ali

forever. 00:04:38.639 --> 00:04:44.079 Tyson recalls I was in isolation, but there was a tiny window in the door, and I'd hear some inmates walking by. 00:04:44.319 --> 00:04:45.439 Hey, what's going on out there? 00:04:45.600 --> 00:04:46.079 I yelled. 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:48.800 One of the guys told me that they had just finished sparring with Mr. 00:04:48.879 --> 00:04:50.079 Stewart, one of the guards. 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:51.600 I had heard about Bobby Stewart. 00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:55.759 He had a boxing program, and everyone who was in it was always laughing and happy. 00:04:55.839 --> 00:04:59.519 He'd make the kids miss with a punch, and they'd fall down and everybody would crack up. 00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:01.600 I decided I wanted to get in on that program. 00:05:01.759 --> 00:05:11.360 And it was how Mike Tyson was introduced to boxing by being sent to this confinement program for troubled kids, which would often be viewed as a very low point in your life. 00:05:11.519 --> 00:05:21.439 And and in a very similar way, it would be one of the low moments in the life of Cassius Clay that would introduce him to the sport of boxing at just 12 years old. 00:05:21.600 --> 00:05:29.680 Late one afternoon in October 1954, 12-year-old Cassius pedaled his bike through downtown Louisville when a sudden rain forced the boys to seek shelter. 00:05:29.759 --> 00:05:33.600 They scrambled into the Columbia Auditorium at 324 South 4th Street. 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:45.920 The Louisville Auditorium was sponsoring a home service exposition, but Cassius wasn't interested in the latest kitchen gadgets, but the exposition offered refuge from the storm, and the boys happily gobbled up their free popcorn and candy. 00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:48.959 It rained all afternoon, and it was still pouring at around 7 p.m. 00:05:49.040 --> 00:05:55.120 when Cassius, Rudy, and their friend finally left the auditorium, but when they got outside, they discovered their bicycles gone. 00:05:55.279 --> 00:05:57.519 They ran up and down the block searching for the thieves. 00:05:57.680 --> 00:06:01.759 Cassius began to cry frightened, he said, of what my father would do. 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:11.920 Cassius' bike had been a Christmas present, a Schwin Cruiser deluxe, red and white with chrome fenders, chrome rims, white wall tires, and a big red rocket-shaped headlight. 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:15.439 It retailed for$60, the equivalent of about$500 today. 00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:21.839 Someone told the distraught to report the stolen bicycle to the police officer who happened to be in the basement of the auditorium. 00:06:21.920 --> 00:06:24.240 They flew back into the building and down the stairs. 00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:28.319 There they met Joe Martin, a white skinned patrolman and part-time boxing coach. 00:06:28.480 --> 00:06:35.759 Cassius was angry, hotter than a firecracker, as Joe put it, saying he wanted to find the person who sold the bike and give him a good whooping.

00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:40.399 Martin looked at Cassius, all 89 pounds of him, and asked, Do you know how to fight? 00:06:40.560 --> 00:06:41.759 No, Cassius said. 00:06:41.920 --> 00:06:45.279 Well, why don't you come down here and start training? 00:06:45.519 --> 00:06:47.600 Destiny is the function of choice and chance. 00:06:47.759 --> 00:06:53.279 Chance delivered young Cassius Clay to Joe Martin's gym, but choice would bring him back again. 00:06:53.519 --> 00:07:03.360 It's one of the fascinating aspects to think about in Clay's life, which, j just a small note, was Muhammad Ali's name for the first two, three decades of his life before he changed it. 00:07:03.439 --> 00:07:06.560 So I'll refer to him as as Cassius and Clay until the change. 00:07:06.720 --> 00:07:17.600 But it's fascinating to think that without his bike being stolen, maybe he's never introduced to the sport of boxing at a young enough age for it to become what it would become for him and turn him into who it would turn him into. 00:07:17.759 --> 00:07:21.279 And this is always something that that's that's tough to recognize in our own lives. 00:07:21.439 --> 00:07:30.800 But the passage of time can often be the greatest thing for you in your life when you look back on on the events, on the things that that seemed awful or unfortunate. 00:07:30.959 --> 00:07:37.439 Once the clock actually starts to tick for a while, can often become the things that that turn into an asset or an advantage later down the line. 00:07:37.600 --> 00:07:40.879 And for Clay, a stolen bike would alter his destiny forever. 00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:46.399 And it's from that moment that he's introduced a boxing that he just becomes absolutely addicted to the sport. 00:07:46.480 --> 00:07:48.319 It's all he does and it's all he thinks about. 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:53.199 But it wasn't like Clay ru was a uh prodigy from the start. 00:07:53.360 --> 00:07:54.399 Here's how he's described. 00:07:54.560 --> 00:07:57.920 On his second visit, he climbed into the ring with some older boxer and got hammered. 00:07:58.079 --> 00:08:01.519 In a minute, my nose started bleeding, my mouth hurt, my head was dizzy. 00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:03.360 Finally, someone pulled me out of the ring. 00:08:03.519 --> 00:08:17.680 When his head cleared, Cash is went to work with Martin, the trainer, learning how to set his feet, how to turn his body at an angle to his opponent, where to hold his hands to protect his head from damage, how to duck a punch, how to throw the left jab, and the right cross, the uppercut, the hook. 00:08:17.839 --> 00:08:22.079 Nothing in the young fighter's performance suggested that a prodigy had stepped into the ring. 00:08:22.240 --> 00:08:24.800 He was just ordinary, Joe Martinson. 00:08:24.959 --> 00:08:33.759 But despite his lack of maybe initial gifts when he first got started, what truly mattered and what was truly important was just how the sport made him feel at the time. 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:37.200 Boxing triggered something wholly new in Cassius, ambition. 00:08:37.440 --> 00:08:39.200 School had certainly never lit a fire in him. 00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:51.759 Now, for the first time, he had found something he wanted to do other than mis mischief making, something for which he was willing to labor and sacrifice, something that would put him on TV for Lord knows how many people to see. 00:08:51.919 --> 00:08:56.960 Up until he started boxing, you you could describe Clay as probably just like a really lazy person. 00:08:57.039 --> 00:09:01.200 He struggled in school, but more importantly, he didn't give his effort in the classroom. 00:09:01.360 --> 00:09:04.240 And this is something we actually saw in Michael Jordan. 00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:07.120 As a young boy, MJ was considered quite a lazy boy. 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:09.120 His dad said this on Michael Jordan. 00:09:09.279 --> 00:09:10.879 That's the laziest boy I've ever seen. 00:09:11.279 --> 00:09:14.639 If he had to get a job in a factory punching a clock, he'd starve to death. 00:09:14.799 --> 00:09:20.080 He would give every last dime of his allowance to his brothers and sisters, and even kids in the neighborhood, to do his chores. 00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:21.919 He was always broke. 00:09:22.080 --> 00:09:30.559 But once MJ was introduced to basketball, to something that that deeply, deeply interested him, he became this ultra-ambitious, obsessive person. 00:09:30.720 --> 00:09:33.039 And it's the same thing we see with with Clay. 00:09:33.200 --> 00:09:36.240 He's introduced to boxing and he just becomes addicted to it. 00:09:36.320 --> 00:09:46.159 And it's an interesting idea to think about, but but Jordan and Cassius Clay were both quite lazy individuals until they found something that they deeply, deeply loved. 00:09:46.399 --> 00:09:52.399 So, like oftentimes laziness or or maybe a lack of drive is often just a lack of interest. 00:09:52.559 --> 00:09:54.240 And you see this with Clay in boxing. 00:09:54.320 --> 00:09:55.600 He took up running for exercise. 00:09:55.759 --> 00:09:58.879 He could have run before school or after, after school, but he didn't. 00:09:58.960 --> 00:10:00.000 He ran to school. 00:10:00.159 --> 00:10:02.879 For breakfast, a quart of milk mixed with two raw eggs. 00:10:02.960 --> 00:10:08.559 Soda poppy declared was as bad as alcohol or cigarettes for an athlete, and he vowed never to touch them. 00:10:08.720 --> 00:10:11.360 It was almost impossible to discourage him, Joe Martin said. 00:10:11.519 --> 00:10:14.639 He was easily the hardest worker of any kid I ever taught. 00:10:14.799 --> 00:10:19.360 Clay's discipline from the age of twelve on convinced Martin that he had a future as a boxer. 00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:30.559 Cassius woke up between four and five in the morning, this is when he's 12, 13 years old, to run several miles and then worked out at the gym in the afternoon, staying long past the hour when his peers had gone home for

dinner. 00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:35.679 All he ever wanted to do was run and train and spar, said Jimmy Ellis, a boxer at the facility. 00:10:35.840 --> 00:10:38.639 And this next line is a perfect description of Clay at the time. 00:10:38.799 --> 00:10:41.360 Boxing had become his religion, his reason to get up in the morning. 00:10:41.519 --> 00:10:47.919 He shadow boxed in the halls between classes, throwing punches that stopped inches shy of the lockers that lined the hallways. 00:10:48.080 --> 00:10:52.080 As his teachers lectured, he doodled pictures of boxing rings and boxing gloves. 00:10:52.240 --> 00:10:58.960 He offered classmates and he offered classmates autographs and signed them Cassius Clay, world heavyweight champion. 00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:04.879 And it's also around this time that we get a good insight into just the confidence he would have in himself. 00:11:05.039 --> 00:11:13.440 He would often tell his classmates and his parents and really anyone around him who would listen that he was going to be the best boxer in the world, that he was going to win the heavyweight champion. 00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:20.399 And it wasn't long before he began telling strangers that he intended to not barely be a professional boxer, but the heavyweight champion of the world. 00:11:20.480 --> 00:11:25.039 He began knocking on doors before his Friday night fights to stir up interest and boost attendance. 00:11:25.120 --> 00:11:26.080 No one told him to do it. 00:11:26.159 --> 00:11:28.480 And it was completely unheard of at the time. 00:11:28.639 --> 00:11:34.799 From the moment Clay won his first fight, he would come home in the evening and tell his parents how he was going to be champion of the world. 00:11:34.879 --> 00:11:36.000 But he didn't just talk about it. 00:11:36.159 --> 00:11:38.159 Cassius practically lived in the gym. 00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:39.759 He never smoked, never drank. 00:11:39.840 --> 00:11:41.039 He was a nutrition nut. 00:11:41.120 --> 00:11:47.120 He carried about a bottle of water with garlic in it, a solution he said would keep his blood pressure down. 00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:56.320 And as I read more and more on Clay and his life, the words that just kept coming back to me was he was a paradox. 00:11:56.480 --> 00:12:08.720 There's so much in his life that that would ultimately be a paradox in how he lived, in what he believed, and then what he did or didn't do as a result of those beliefs, and even in how he boxed and how he had success in the sport. 00:12:08.879 --> 00:12:18.480 Because if you know boxing, you know Clay developed this very like non-traditional boxing style that would really infuriate boxing traditionalists and purist. 00:12:18.639 --> 00:12:21.440 The more he fought, the more he began to develop a style of his own. 00:12:21.519 --> 00:12:32.080 Some fighters like to move forward, to step in for big punches, but Cassius preferred to circle his opponent clockwise, to punch and move away, to pull his head

back from blows rather than duck them. 00:12:32.240 --> 00:12:34.639 His greatest talent may have been his measurement. 00:12:34.720 --> 00:12:41.519 He had a brilliant brilliant knack for staying just beyond the reach of his opponents, and then getting just close enough to throw punches that hurt. 00:12:41.759 --> 00:12:43.440 There was a danger in such an approach. 00:12:43.600 --> 00:12:55.120 Fighters are taught to keep their hands up near their heads to block punches, but Clay dropped his gloves, tempting his opponents to go for his face and counting on his reflexes to get him out of the way in time. 00:12:55.360 --> 00:13:08.720 But it was a style that, for as much as it seemed wrong to boxing trainers and boxing purists, for as much danger as it seemed to put him in, it seemed to serve him well as the years went on because as a young fighter, he just kept winning and winning and winning. 00:13:08.799 --> 00:13:14.559 And we mentioned in the introduction that the dominating driver in Clay's life was the pursuit of wealth. 00:13:14.720 --> 00:13:17.120 He always wanted money, he always wanted to be a rich man. 00:13:17.200 --> 00:13:20.559 And it's actually one of the reasons boxing attracted him so much. 00:13:20.720 --> 00:13:25.679 He explained, I started boxing because I thought it was the fastest way for a black person to make it in this country. 00:13:25.840 --> 00:13:32.399 I was not that bright and quick in school, couldn't be a football or basketball player because you have to go to college and get all kinds of degrees and pass examinations. 00:13:32.559 --> 00:13:38.879 A boxer can just jump into a gym, jump around, turn professional, win a fight, get a break, and he's in the ring. 00:13:39.039 --> 00:13:58.000 And one of the fascinating things about Clay, and we'll see this as the years go on, and this is a contradiction between so many of the people that we do end up studying or have studied in the past, but Clay would continue to box less for the love of the sport as the years went on, and more for just the money and the riches it would bring him. 00:13:58.080 --> 00:14:01.679 Jeff Bezos talked about this idea of being a missionary versus a mercenary. 00:14:01.759 --> 00:14:08.399 He says the missionary is building the product and building the service because they love the customer, because they love the product, because they love the service. 00:14:08.559 --> 00:14:13.279 The mercenary is building the product or service so they can flip the company and make money. 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:17.519 The missionary is about the craft, the mission, the work, the love of the thing. 00:14:17.600 --> 00:14:23.679 The mercenary is about what the work can bring you, the money, the praise, the riches the thing can bring you. 00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:30.879 And Klay's evolution with boxing is quite unique because he deeply, deeply fell in love with the sport of boxing from a young age. 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:32.559 And that and that love really

drove him. 00:14:32.720 --> 00:14:34.559 Like he truly was a missionary early on. 00:14:34.639 --> 00:14:35.679 It was all about the sport. 00:14:35.759 --> 00:14:36.480 It was all about the work. 00:14:36.639 --> 00:14:38.080 He trained before and after school. 00:14:38.240 --> 00:14:40.720 He was disciplined and deeply, deeply cared about it. 00:14:40.960 --> 00:14:49.519 But as he got older, as he saw the riches and the money the sport could and would bring him, he seemed to become much more of a mercenary. 00:14:49.600 --> 00:14:58.399 He boxed less for the love of the game and more for the money that he could make as a result of the game, which is very different from a lot of the people we dive dive into. 00:14:58.639 --> 00:15:01.200 And older Bill Gates actually said this. 00:15:01.279 --> 00:15:04.720 He has a line where he's talking about like what's more important, a job or money? 00:15:04.799 --> 00:15:06.000 Like what would he rather have? 00:15:06.080 --> 00:15:09.039 And he says, even today, what interests me isn't making money per se. 00:15:09.200 --> 00:15:13.360 If I had to choose between my job and having great wealth, I'd choose the job. 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:19.519 And if you were to ask a older cassius clay, Muhammad Ali, I think he would have said just the opposite. 00:15:19.679 --> 00:15:24.799 He would have rather had all the money in the world than the ability to box again. 00:15:25.039 --> 00:15:26.399 Now, back to a young clay. 00:15:26.480 --> 00:15:33.120 I mentioned the sense of confidence he had in himself, this belief that he was going to be the heavyweight champion of the world from a very young age. 00:15:33.200 --> 00:15:37.360 And what Clay would become famous for is how much he would talk. 00:15:37.519 --> 00:15:44.159 There's actually this great line from a writer in his career, Peter Wilson, who said, He came, he saw, and he talked. 00:15:44.320 --> 00:15:46.399 He came, he saw, and he talked. 00:15:46.559 --> 00:15:59.360 Whether it was in the ring, in the buildup to a fight, in an interview, even just talking about himself, Clay was always talking trash, or he was always praising himself, or he was always predicting how a fight would go. 00:15:59.600 --> 00:16:02.879 And he even did this from the moment he started boxing. 00:16:02.960 --> 00:16:11.679 There's this great and funny story at just, he's like 12 or 13 years old, and he's at a tournament, and he starts trash talking this older fighter. 00:16:11.759 --> 00:16:13.679 He's 21, 22 years old, and here's how it goes. 00:16:13.840 --> 00:16:21.679 At a city tournament, when he was still 12, he started sassing a fighter named George King, flicking jabs at the air and asking over and over, You think you could stop this jab? 00:16:21.840 --> 00:16:24.080 King was 21 and married with a child. 00:16:24.240 --> 00:16:28.399 Who was this 12-year-old boy when he mouthed off at his bouts on local television? 00:16:28.480 --> 00:16:34.240 The crowds in the arenas rooted against him, shouting, button his lip, bash his nose in. 00:16:34.399 --> 00:16:36.240 Like, like imagine being that fighter. 00:16:36.320 --> 00:16:37.759 Imagine being George King. 00:16:37.919 --> 00:16:39.919 And this you're what, 21 years old? 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:46.159 And this 12-year-old boy comes up to you and is is talking smack, how he can he can take you out. 00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:49.360 Like, I'm sure George George was just laughing at himself. 00:16:49.519 --> 00:16:56.320 But if you look at Clay's whole career, I mean, this is something he always did, almost to the point of it being hysterical. 00:16:56.480 --> 00:17:07.680 If you've if you've never seen Clay or or Muhammad Ali's trash talking and his hysterics, like go on YouTube and just like look up a compilation of it because it's I think it's great and it's very humorous at the same time. 00:17:08.559 --> 00:17:09.839 It's a funny thing to watch. 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:20.559 And we'll mention this later, but but part of the reason he did all this trash talking and caused a ruckus in his fights or or in the buildup to his fights is he really wanted to draw a crowd. 00:17:20.799 --> 00:17:23.920 It was all about showmanship and building up the hype. 00:17:24.079 --> 00:17:31.839 He realized that the the more noise that he created, the more people would tune into the fight, and therefore the more money he could make. 00:17:31.920 --> 00:17:37.599 And we're gonna we're gonna come back to this idea of showmanship throughout the episode and kind of the lesson he learned from it. 00:17:37.759 --> 00:17:42.319 So the launching point of Ali's career into the limelight would be the 1960 Olympics in Rome. 00:17:42.400 --> 00:17:49.680 He was 18 years old, and leading up to the Olympics, we see again his self-confidence, or at least I guess you could call it his own self-promotion. 00:17:49.759 --> 00:17:54.880 He said in an interview to a sports writer named Dick Schapp, I'll be the greatest of all time. 00:17:55.039 --> 00:17:56.400 I mean, he's 18 years old. 00:17:56.559 --> 00:17:58.079 He hasn't done anything yet. 00:17:58.160 --> 00:18:03.200 Like, yeah, he's going to the Olympics, and he's declaring to the world that he's going to be the best boxer ever. 00:18:03.599 --> 00:18:06.400 But there's this funny story on Clay in the Olympics. 00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:15.839 So something he feared was flying, and he generally considered not going to the Olympics in 1960 because he was genuinely too scared to get on a plane. 00:18:16.079 --> 00:18:19.440 Clay's only obstacle as an Olympian was his fear of airplanes. 00:18:19.519 --> 00:18:26.000 It took Joe Martin, his trainer, four hours of sitting and talking with Clay in Central Park to convince him that he could not take a train to Rome. 00:18:26.160 --> 00:18:31.359 He finally agreed to fly, but then he went to an Army surplus store and bought a parachute and actually wore it on the plane. 00:18:31.519 -->

00:18:36.720 It was a pretty rough flight, and he was on the aisle praying with the parachute on. 00:18:37.200 --> 00:18:44.960 Now Clay would win the gold at the 1960 Olympics, which would make him a hero in his hometown of Louisville and really across America. 00:18:45.119 --> 00:18:50.880 And it's at the Olympics that he sees the man who was now the heavyweight champion of the world, Floyd Patterson. 00:18:50.960 --> 00:18:57.200 And if you know anything about Cassius Clay at this point, you know he's going to take this chance to trash talk Floyd Patterson. 00:18:57.279 --> 00:19:06.319 So he goes up to Floyd, who was arguably the best fighter in the world at the time, and says, be seeing you in about two years, implying that he would be ready then to fight and beat the champ. 00:19:06.400 --> 00:19:09.039 If Patterson answered Clay, reporters didn't mention it. 00:19:09.119 --> 00:19:14.480 But it's safe to say that the kid swagger displeased at least a portion of the audience. 00:19:14.640 --> 00:19:18.079 I mentioned earlier how Clay was a showman. 00:19:18.240 --> 00:19:22.240 He believed in the power of trying to put on a show and get people involved. 00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:26.480 And he would take that lesson with him throughout the entirety of his career. 00:19:26.559 --> 00:19:29.759 And he recalls learning this lesson from a man named Gorgeous George. 00:19:29.839 --> 00:19:34.720 He was this wrestler who did all this talking and really tried to put on a show himself. 00:19:34.799 --> 00:19:40.720 And Clay is told by George one day after one of his wrestling shows that that Clay watched this. 00:19:40.880 --> 00:19:45.519 A lot of people will pay to see someone shut your mouth, he told Clay in the dressing room after watching Gorgeous George. 00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:50.160 So keep on bragging, keep on sassing, and always be outrageous. 00:19:50.319 --> 00:19:52.799 Clay would take those words to heart. 00:19:52.960 --> 00:19:56.880 Keep on bragging, keep on sassing, and always be outrageous. 00:19:57.039 --> 00:19:58.640 Clay took took direction well. 00:19:58.720 --> 00:20:02.559 I saw 15,000 people coming to see this man get beat, he said, and his talking did it. 00:20:02.640 --> 00:20:05.279 I said, that's a good idea. 00:20:05.440 --> 00:20:11.279 And from then on and for the rest of his career, that Clay would always try to be a showman. 00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:18.319 So after the Olympics, Clay wants to go pro and he ends up signing a contract with the syndicate of wealthy Louisville businessmen. 00:20:18.480 --> 00:20:22.000 The contract was for six years with an opportunity for Clay to break the deal after three. 00:20:22.160 --> 00:20:31.920 The boxer would receive$10,000 in signing bonuses,$4,800 a year in guaranteed income for the first two years, and 50% of the money generated from his activities in and out of the ring. 00:20:32.079 --> 00:20:42.079 And it's as he turns pro and starts to win some more fights, starts to move

up the ladder a little bit, that we see the same trash talking and showmanship and confidence again and again. 00:20:42.240 --> 00:20:49.680 After one of his fights where he beat a man named Archie Moore, he started explaining that he was ready for the then champion, a new champion named Sonny Liston. 00:20:49.839 --> 00:20:53.839 I'll take Sonny Liston right now, Clay said after the fight, and I'll finish him in eight rounds. 00:20:53.920 --> 00:21:00.720 This was the same Sonny Liston who had just humiliated the heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson, knocking him out in only 126 seconds. 00:21:00.880 --> 00:21:07.599 The same cornerman had removed seven teeth from the losing fighter's mouthpiece and split sp and spotted blood dripping from his ear. 00:21:07.759 --> 00:21:12.160 That night, as it happened, Clay ran into Liston in a downtown Los Angeles ballroom. 00:21:12.319 --> 00:21:16.640 You're next, Clay said, the champion, did not appear concerned. 00:21:16.799 --> 00:21:21.440 And these sort of occasions would happen over and over and over again. 00:21:21.599 --> 00:21:26.240 Nothing in Clay's early experience as a professional fighter dismayed him of his own greatness. 00:21:26.400 --> 00:21:31.759 He began wearing white t-shirts with his name printed in red script, perhaps inspired by the Coca-Cola logo. 00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:36.720 It may have been the first time an American athlete devised his own name brand apparel for daily wear. 00:21:36.880 --> 00:21:40.960 Already he was emerging as one of the most adept self promoters in all of the sporting. 00:21:42.160 --> 00:21:43.839 Here's another instance after another fight. 00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:49.200 In the dressing room after the fight, Clay, surrounded by reporters, slid out of warrior mode and back to entertainer. 00:21:49.359 --> 00:21:50.400 I'm so pretty, he said. 00:21:53.519 --> 00:21:59.759 There's this moment in the build up to a fight with a fighter named Doug Jones, and he asked Jones. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:00.400 This. 00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:01.279 How tall are you? 00:22:01.359 --> 00:22:02.000 He asked Jones. 00:22:02.160 --> 00:22:02.880 Why do you ask that? 00:22:03.119 --> 00:22:04.559 said Jones to Cassius. 00:22:04.799 --> 00:22:09.119 So I know in advance how far to step back when you fall in four. 00:22:09.359 --> 00:22:21.519 Clay's entire boxing philosophy was almost to hype himself up, to talk trash, to get inside the head of others, and in the process to build up excitement for the fights, to be the showman. 00:22:21.680 --> 00:22:26.000 And I mentioned Floyd Patterson earlier, who was one of the heavyweight champions when Clay was coming up. 00:22:26.160 --> 00:22:28.559 And he would actually fight Clay later in his career. 00:22:28.720 --> 00:22:35.519 But Floyd has, I think, a great description on part of the reason he believed Clay did all this talking. 00:22:35.759 --> 00:22:36.640 Floyd explains. 00:22:36.799 --> 00:22:42.160 That's why I always knew that all of Clay's bragging was a way to convince himself that he could do what he said he'd do. 00:22:42.240 --> 00:22:43.440 I never liked all his bragging. 00:22:43.599 --> 00:22:47.119 It took me a long time to understand what Clay was talking to or who Clay was talking to. 00:22:47.279 --> 00:22:49.519 Clay was talking to Clay. 00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:58.799 In a way, Clay did all this talking to put some pressure on himself, to force himself to live up to what he was saying and what he was going to do. 00:22:58.960 --> 00:23:01.359 And I think I mean we've seen this with a bunch of athletes. 00:23:01.519 --> 00:23:04.240 Michael Jordan did this, Billie Jean King, Michael Phelps. 00:23:04.400 --> 00:23:06.160 It's even something Thomas Edison did in a way. 00:23:06.319 --> 00:23:12.640 One of his colleagues actually sit on Edison, who often announced the world these these crazy feats he would accomplish. 00:23:12.799 --> 00:23:21.680 I have often thought that Edison got himself into trouble purposely by premature publication so that he would have full incentive to get himself out of trouble. 00:23:21.839 --> 00:23:28.079 Edison made it a habit of telling the world what he was going to do and how fast he was going to do it. 00:23:28.160 --> 00:23:37.440 And it would almost, as his, as his colleague said, force him to work even harder or even faster to try to live up to those predictions or to those expectations. 00:23:37.599 --> 00:23:41.759 And it's this exact same thing that Clay would do throughout his boxing career. 00:23:42.000 --> 00:23:51.599 Now, you can't talk about the life of Cassius Clay without talking about a man named Elijah Muhammad, who played a drastic role in his life, and his journey and his story. 00:23:51.759 --> 00:23:56.240 It was also in Chicago that Cashus Clay discovered a man who would change his life perhaps more than any other. 00:23:56.400 --> 00:24:03.839 Elijah Muhammad referred to himself as the Prophet Muhammad of the Nation of Islam, a religious group dedicated to black separatism and empowerment. 00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:08.240 He rejected the pacifism of civil rights leaders such as Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. 00:24:08.400 --> 00:24:13.279 and rejected the efforts of the NAACP to bring gradual change to the American judicial system. 00:24:13.359 --> 00:24:16.480 He urged black people to quit waiting for right white America to help them. 00:24:16.640 --> 00:24:19.359 The only way forward was for black people to separate themselves. 00:24:19.519 --> 00:24:23.759 Cassius Clay would fall under the spell of two great influences in his life. 00:24:23.839 --> 00:24:24.799 The first was boxing. 00:24:24.960 --> 00:24:32.960 The second was the philosophy of Elijah Muhammad, who said a black man should take pride in his color and that black men should rule the world. 00:24:33.200 --> 00:24:49.759 It was mentioned there, but America in the 1960s, the the this this black Muslim group and the Nation of Islam believed

not in desegregation and much of what MLK and the civil rights movement was fighting for, but rather separating from whites and almost having their own self and economic reliance. 00:24:49.920 --> 00:24:54.960 And the Nation of Islam was a group in America that was very unpopular in the 50s and 60s and 70s. 00:24:55.039 --> 00:25:05.119 So when Clay became a part of it, when the word spread that he had some ties to the group and to Elijah Muhammad, it caused a lot of criticism and concern around him. 00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:19.920 And I'm and I mentioned this because one of the defining stories and many of the defining stories of Clay, many of the things that I that I deeply, deeply respect about him revolve around what he would be willing to do and what he would be willing to sacrifice for his religion and beliefs. 00:25:20.240 --> 00:25:22.400 So we'll bring that up later. 00:25:22.559 --> 00:25:38.960 So Clay would spend the next couple of years working his way up the boxing, boxing rates until he eventually got his chance to compete for the heavyweight championship against Sonny Liston, who we mentioned earlier, who was considered maybe like the most feared fighter to ever cross the heavyweight division ever up to that point. 00:25:39.119 --> 00:25:43.839 We mentioned Floyd Patterson before, who held the title until Liston took it from him. 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:50.000 And he beat Patterson in two separate bouts for the title in less than like two or three minutes combined. 00:25:50.160 --> 00:25:54.480 And Liston had power that was that was really rare and terrifying for the time. 00:25:54.640 --> 00:25:57.680 And many believed that Clay didn't stand a chance against him. 00:25:57.920 --> 00:26:02.640 And you can see this by just looking at what the writers and reporters were saying before the fight. 00:26:02.799 --> 00:26:04.319 Clay wasn't prepared for Liston. 00:26:04.400 --> 00:26:06.079 They said he needed more experience in the ring. 00:26:06.240 --> 00:26:07.039 He needed more time. 00:26:07.200 --> 00:26:11.359 That was the nearly unanimous view amongst the press corps and former fighters. 00:26:11.519 --> 00:26:18.000 I don't see the kid going more than one, two rounds, said Mike DeJonne, a boxer who had lost to Liston in 1959 and had sparred with Clay. 00:26:18.079 --> 00:26:21.200 Maybe in a year, two years, Liston is just too strong. 00:26:21.359 --> 00:26:31.119 Arthur Daly of the New York Times wrote the loudmouth from Louisville is likely to have a lot of vanglorious boast jammed down his throat by a ham-like fist belonging to Sonny Liston. 00:26:31.200 --> 00:26:32.400 And listen to this. 00:26:39.920 --> 00:26:44.240 It's even money Clay won't lash the national anthem, one writer said. 00:26:44.400 --> 00:26:52.799 But something that Clay had, or at least it seemed that he was willing to do, was to die for this championship, to die for the heavyweight title. 00:26:52.880 --> 00:26:54.480 He said this in the buildup to the fight. 00:26:54.640 --> 00:26:56.079 Maybe I can be beat, I doubt it. 00:26:56.160 --> 00:26:58.400 But the man is going to have to knock me down and then I'll get up. 00:26:58.480 --> 00:27:00.240 And he'll have to knock me down again and I'll get up. 00:27:00.319 --> 00:27:02.799 And he'll have to knock me down again and I'll still get up. 00:27:03.039 --> 00:27:04.960 I've worked too hard and too long to get this chance. 00:27:05.039 --> 00:27:08.720 I'm going to have to be killed before I lose, and I ain't going to die easily. 00:27:08.880 --> 00:27:15.359 And it's in this fight that we see Liston fall into the trap or a trap that Clay would actually later fall into his career. 00:27:15.440 --> 00:27:26.079 But Liston, because of how great he was, because of how inexperienced Clay was, because of his past success, because of what everyone was predicting, was taking the fight too lightly. 00:27:26.240 --> 00:27:34.160 While Clay was running the streets every morning and pushing his body in brutal sessions with Brawny's sparring partners at the Fist Street Gym, Liston was coasting. 00:27:34.319 --> 00:27:46.319 Liston worked out in the air-conditioned civic auditorium in North Miami Beach, skipping rope, pounding the heavy bag, absorbing the blows from a medicine ball hurled at his gut, and running a mile or two outside when the mood struck him, which wasn't often. 00:27:46.480 --> 00:27:51.200 He sparred, but not but none of his sparring partners were as big or as fast as Clay's. 00:27:51.359 --> 00:27:55.599 At night, Liston ate hot dogs, drank beer, played cards, and screwed around with prostitutes. 00:27:55.680 --> 00:28:02.240 He was treating he was training like a man who believed he could knock out his opponent with a hard stare. 00:28:02.480 --> 00:28:16.880 So here's Clay, who started boxing at 12 years old, who told himself and his parents and his classmates and his teachers growing up, and and anyone who would ever listen him, that all he wanted was to become the heavyweight champion in the world, and that he would become the heavyweight champion in the world. 00:28:17.119 --> 00:28:19.359 And here is his chance to do just that. 00:28:19.519 --> 00:28:21.680 But days before the fight, this happened. 00:28:21.920 --> 00:28:26.799 As the fight drew closer, every reporter in Miami knew about Clay's association with the Nation of Islam. 00:28:26.960 --> 00:28:34.079 Clay's team told the FBI they were worried that the white fans would boycott the listen fight if word spread about Clay's beliefs. 00:28:34.240 --> 00:28:42.720 Bill McDonald, the promoter of the fight, three days before went to Clay and told him the fight would be canceled if he didn't retract his statements of support for the Nation of Islam. 00:28:42.799 --> 00:28:44.559 But the threat to Clay didn't work. 00:28:44.720 --> 00:28:47.680 The championship was all he'd ever wanted since he was 12 years old. 00:28:47.759 --> 00:28:48.559 It was his destiny. 00:28:48.720 -->

00:28:50.720 But he refused to deny his tithe to the nation. 00:28:50.799 --> 00:28:54.160 If MacDonald wanted to call off the fight, then that was his business. 00:28:54.400 --> 00:28:56.720 I ain't denying it because it's true, Clay said. 00:28:56.880 --> 00:28:59.839 And if you want to call off the fight, that's your business. 00:29:00.079 --> 00:29:03.279 My religion's more important to me than the fight. 00:29:03.440 --> 00:29:04.559 I love that last line. 00:29:04.720 --> 00:29:08.720 My religion is more important to me than the fight. 00:29:08.880 --> 00:29:16.240 This is the moment Clay's been dreaming of since he's been a young boy, since he was introduced to the sport of boxing when he was just 12 years old. 00:29:16.319 --> 00:29:21.599 And he's willing to lose that chance for his beliefs, for his religion, for what he values. 00:29:21.759 --> 00:29:24.640 Like I think there's there's so much beauty in that. 00:29:24.720 --> 00:29:27.440 And I I made a note to myself when I read this in the book. 00:29:27.519 --> 00:29:29.759 I just said, like, how strong are your beliefs and values? 00:29:30.079 --> 00:29:32.640 Truly, how strong are your beliefs and values? 00:29:32.799 --> 00:29:37.839 Like Clay, would you would you sacrifice what you've been working your entire life for them? 00:29:38.000 --> 00:29:41.839 Would you sacrifice hundreds of thousands of dollars like Clay would have for them? 00:29:42.000 --> 00:29:46.000 Because that's what Clay was willing to do at this moment in his life. 00:29:46.240 --> 00:29:58.880 Now, with that said, it seemed that this threat from MacDonald, the promoter, seemed to be more of a scare tactic than an actual threat because he wouldn't cancel the fight, and Clay would still get his chance to fight Linston. 00:29:59.039 --> 00:30:01.119 And there's one key thing I want to mention with the fight. 00:30:01.279 --> 00:30:09.440 So once it starts, it's clear that Clay is a much better fighter than the reporters and other boxers, and even Liston thought. 00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.240 And after three rounds, Liston couldn't find a way to knock him out. 00:30:14.480 --> 00:30:25.680 And because he couldn't find a way to knock him out, and Liston wasn't prepared for a long bout a long fight because he didn't he didn't train properly, he he he resorts to one thing and one thing only cheating. 00:30:25.839 --> 00:30:28.640 There are many ways to get an edge in a fight, and trainers know them all. 00:30:28.720 --> 00:30:34.960 As it happened, after the brutal and frustrating third round, Liston told his main cornerman, Polino, to call their own special advantage. 00:30:35.039 --> 00:30:40.240 As writer Jack McKinley writes, he told me that Sonny had told him to juice his gloves, and he went ahead and did it. 00:30:40.480 --> 00:30:46.720 Not only that, he said that he what he said that they always were ready to do that in case of danger. 00:30:46.960 --> 00:30:57.119 Polino never told McKinley what substance he rubbed on Liston's glove, but he did say it was a stinging solution that was intended to blind Clay long enough for Liston to find his range and knock him out. 00:30:57.279 --> 00:31:05.359 So Liston goes into the fourth round of this fight with this stinging solution on his gloves, basically with the attempt, as it mentioned, to blind Clay's eye. 00:31:05.519 --> 00:31:08.559 Blind Clay's eyes so he couldn't see, and then Liston could knock him out. 00:31:08.720 --> 00:31:11.920 And after the bell rings for that round, that's exactly what would happen. 00:31:12.079 --> 00:31:15.839 Clay comes back to the corner after that round, and he just he can't see. 00:31:15.920 --> 00:31:16.720 His eyes are stinging. 00:31:16.880 --> 00:31:18.240 Clay's eyes began to sting. 00:31:18.319 --> 00:31:22.319 And by the time the round was over and he was on his stool, it felt as if there were needles in his eyes. 00:31:22.480 --> 00:31:26.240 Clay had been hit before in the ring, and suddenly the pain grew worse. 00:31:26.400 --> 00:31:27.759 Clay was almost blind. 00:31:27.839 --> 00:31:30.720 He was pawing at his face, trying to shake the pain out of his eyes. 00:31:30.799 --> 00:31:34.160 I can't see, cut him off, Clay shouted into the void, into the noise of the crowd. 00:31:34.319 --> 00:31:35.119 I can't see. 00:31:35.359 --> 00:31:36.880 Cut off the gloves. 00:31:37.119 --> 00:31:40.799 This would be the most important single minute of Dundee's his trainers. 00:31:40.960 --> 00:31:42.400 Two decades with Clay. 00:31:42.559 --> 00:31:49.279 Without this one minute, without Dundee's instant instant reaction or instant reaction, there may never have been a Muhammad Ali. 00:31:49.440 --> 00:32:02.160 Sonny Liston would not likely have been given a rematch to someone who had humbled him, forced him to juice his gloves, nor would the public have gone out of its way to demand boxing justice for a member of a religious sect that professed hatred of white America. 00:32:02.240 --> 00:32:05.440 While Dundee's fighters screamed at him, demanding he let him quit. 00:32:05.599 --> 00:32:06.559 Dundee was cool. 00:32:06.720 --> 00:32:09.839 I'd had this problem before, he said, Isn't the experience wonderful? 00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:11.920 I've only been doing this for 48 years. 00:32:12.160 --> 00:32:14.720 Dundee had an inkling how painful the substance was. 00:32:14.880 --> 00:32:18.720 He had dipped his pinky into the corner of Clay's eye and then put his finger into his own eye. 00:32:18.880 --> 00:32:21.519 It burned like mad, but he would not relent. 00:32:21.680 --> 00:32:24.000 This is the big one, Dundee shouted in Clay's ear. 00:32:24.079 --> 00:32:24.960 Cut the bullshit. 00:32:25.039 --> 00:32:26.720 We're not quitting now. 00:32:26.880 --> 00:32:31.039 With his sponge, Dundee tried to get as much clean water flowing into Clay's eyes as possible. 00:32:31.119 --> 00:32:33.359 He had no idea how this happened, and he cared less. 00:32:33.440 -->

00:32:36.160 He cared about the fight, about getting through this next round. 00:32:36.319 --> 00:32:38.480 You gotta go out there and run, he told Clay. 00:32:38.640 --> 00:32:44.640 The idea was that Clay would keep moving and measuring Liston with his jab long enough for the solution to water out the eyes. 00:32:44.720 --> 00:32:48.880 Clay got to his feet, straightened himself, and walked back out slowly. 00:32:49.039 --> 00:32:52.160 Clay went into the fifth round blinking madly, his eyes on fire. 00:32:52.319 --> 00:32:54.960 He could see only the blurred outline of his opponent. 00:32:55.039 --> 00:33:11.599 And for the next three minutes, while partially blind, Clay just tried to survive and ultimately survive he would, which only demoralized Linston even more, who after the next round finished, the sixth round, was just too exhausted to go on. 00:33:11.680 --> 00:33:17.839 So when the bell rang for the seventh round, Linston stayed on a stool, throwing in the white flag. 00:33:18.079 --> 00:33:21.200 Suddenly, Clay was dancing and leaping and raising his hands in the air. 00:33:21.279 --> 00:33:22.559 Liston had quit. 00:33:22.720 --> 00:33:26.480 The fight was over, and Clay was the new heavyweight champion. 00:33:26.640 --> 00:33:28.160 I am the king, Clay shouted. 00:33:28.319 --> 00:33:29.599 I am the king, king of the world. 00:33:29.759 --> 00:33:32.079 Eat your words, eat your words. 00:33:32.240 --> 00:33:39.359 ABC reporter Howard Cassell reached Clay first, sticking a microphone in front of Clay's face as the fighter peered over a row of newsmen. 00:33:39.519 --> 00:33:40.880 I am the greatest, I am the greatest. 00:33:40.960 --> 00:33:42.880 I am the king of the world, Clay shouted. 00:33:43.039 --> 00:33:45.200 He moved over to a TV camera and continued. 00:33:45.359 --> 00:33:46.880 I'm the greatest fighter who ever lived. 00:33:46.960 --> 00:33:48.720 I'm so great, I don't have a mark on my face. 00:33:48.799 --> 00:33:51.599 I upset Sonny Liston, and I just turned 22 years old. 00:33:51.759 --> 00:33:52.720 I must be the greatest. 00:33:52.880 --> 00:33:53.599 I showed the world. 00:33:53.680 --> 00:33:54.559 I'm the king of the world. 00:33:54.640 --> 00:33:55.039 I'm pretty. 00:33:55.119 --> 00:33:56.000 I'm a bad man. 00:33:56.160 --> 00:33:57.039 I shook up the world. 00:33:57.200 --> 00:33:58.240 I shook up the world. 00:33:58.480 --> 00:34:00.640 I shook up the world. 00:34:00.960 --> 00:34:05.920 And this would bring us to how Cassius Clay would become Muhammad Ali. 00:34:06.160 --> 00:34:14.320 In the interview with Jet, Clay announced that he was entering a new phase in his life, one in which he would devote himself to religious observance and in the pursuit of racial equality. 00:34:14.480 --> 00:34:21.199 He said he was thinking about retiring from boxing and devoting his life to traveling and seeking a peaceful, workable solution to the race problem. 00:34:21.440 --> 00:34:22.159 Another possibility. 00:34:22.320 --> 00:34:24.719 I just might run for mayor of New York or something. 00:34:24.880 --> 00:34:35.679 Later, Elijah Muhammad announced in a radio address that boxing heavyweight champion Kash Klay, now a father, now a follower of the nation of Islam, was to receive the honor of a full Muslim name. 00:34:35.840 --> 00:34:38.159 This Klay name has no defined meaning. 00:34:38.320 --> 00:34:42.639 Muhammad Ali is what I will give him as long as he believes in Allah and follows me. 00:34:42.800 --> 00:34:46.639 In a phone call, Elijah Muhammad told the boxer that his new name carried special meaning. 00:34:46.800 --> 00:34:48.960 Muhammad, he explained, meant worthy of praise. 00:34:49.199 --> 00:34:50.719 Ali meant lofty. 00:34:50.880 --> 00:34:55.440 Elijah called on him to abandon the name, and the boxer agreed immediately. 00:34:55.599 --> 00:35:04.000 Throughout his boxing career, Cassius Clay had worked hard to generate controversy and rankled boxing fans mostly with the goal of selling tickets and spreading his fame. 00:35:04.159 --> 00:35:06.800 Now, as Muhammad Ali, he didn't have two at all. 00:35:06.960 --> 00:35:17.199 With his name, with his new name and his expressed allegiance to a radical religious group poorly understood by most Americans, he was generally distrusted and disliked, and more widely discussed than ever. 00:35:17.360 --> 00:35:32.639 And if you don't know much about the arc of Muhammad Ali's life, it's quite fascinating because before he was admired, before he was talked about in the history books, before he was praised as one of the greatest fighters ever, he was one of, if not one of the most hated men in America at the time. 00:35:32.800 --> 00:35:38.159 Joining the Nation of Islam, a controversial and hated group in America, made Ali really a target. 00:35:38.320 --> 00:35:42.960 It didn't help that he was this boisterous black man who talked all the smack and hyped himself up. 00:35:43.119 --> 00:35:47.119 And it would only get worse when America was at war with Vietnam. 00:35:47.199 --> 00:35:51.760 And it seemed that, or at least it seemed to others that Ali was trying to dodge the draft at the time. 00:35:51.920 --> 00:36:01.280 Then came a report from the Army that Ali had failed twice his pre-induction exam, which caused many reporters and boxing fans to assume that the boxer had taken a dive on the test to avoid service. 00:36:01.440 --> 00:36:04.239 Test takers need to get 30 correct out of 100 to pass. 00:36:04.400 --> 00:36:06.880 But Ali didn't make the grade. 00:36:07.039 --> 00:36:08.400 I just said I'm the greatest. 00:36:08.559 --> 00:36:10.719 I never said I'm the smartest, he told reporters. 00:36:10.960 --> 00:36:15.360 Ali may have been the most disliked man in America in 1965. 00:36:15.599 --> 00:36:23.360 The news was such an outcry amongst so many parents and so many young boys because they were being sent to war. 00:36:23.440 --> 00:36:34.239 And amongst writers and reporters, and

amongst daily Americans, they were so frustrated with Ali because they seemed that it seemed that here were these young men risking their lives, and Ali wasn't willing to do the same. 00:36:34.400 --> 00:36:37.119 He was in perfect health and he wasn't going to go. 00:36:37.199 --> 00:36:44.880 And many believed he intentionally failed the exam and the test to be ineligible, only increasing the hatred and the animosity toward him. 00:36:45.039 --> 00:36:50.400 But even if Ali was intentionally or unintentionally trying to dodge the draft, in due time, it wouldn't matter. 00:36:50.559 --> 00:36:56.880 Muhammad Ali stretched his long legs and sank back into the lawn chair as he sang a refrain from Bob Dylan. 00:36:56.960 --> 00:36:58.719 It was February 17, 1966. 00:36:58.800 --> 00:37:10.079 And the question on Ali's mind was this: why had a draft board in Louisville reversed its previous position and classifies his his status as 1A, suddenly making him ineligible for military service. 00:37:10.239 --> 00:37:16.639 But even though he was now eligible, he still planned to refuse based on his religion. 00:37:16.800 --> 00:37:22.239 Ali submitted paperwork to the Selective Service claiming to be a conscientious objector. 00:37:22.400 --> 00:37:29.039 He claimed expedition to both combat and non-combat service based on religious beliefs. 00:37:29.199 --> 00:37:33.840 Not surprisingly, Ali's refusal to fight for this country inspired even more hatred. 00:37:34.000 --> 00:37:40.960 And it's with this situation that we see another example of what Ali was willing to do for his religion. 00:37:41.039 --> 00:37:46.719 He would be willing to sacrifice nearly everything, his freedom, his boxing career, and all the money he could make. 00:37:46.880 --> 00:37:51.199 Members of the Louisville sponsoring group tried to persuade Ali to compromise on his military service. 00:37:51.360 --> 00:37:58.880 They called in favors and received assurances from powerful men in government that if Ali agreed to serve his country, he would be assigned a role that kept him far from combat. 00:37:59.039 --> 00:38:05.360 In all likelihood, he would perform a series of boxing exhibitions for soldiers, just as Joe Lewis had done during World War II. 00:38:05.519 --> 00:38:11.519 The men hoped to impress upon the boxer how much he would lose by refusing the draft, but Ali would not be moved. 00:38:11.599 --> 00:38:13.119 And Ali said this on his decision. 00:38:13.280 --> 00:38:22.159 It would cost me$10 million in earnings, he said to the reporter and his and to his own reflection, does that sound like I'm serious about my religion? 00:38:22.400 --> 00:38:27.760 So on the morning of April 28th, 1967, Ali appears in front of the U.S. 00:38:27.840 --> 00:38:33.760 Armed Forces examination with other young men to face induction into the Army and the Vietnam War. 00:38:33.920 --> 00:38:37.280 And Ali, at this, refuses to step forward and serve. 00:38:37.519 --> 00:38:46.000 Ali and 25 other potential recruits were told to fill out papers, undergo physical examinations, and then wait for a long bus ride to Folk to Fort Polk, Louisiana. 00:38:46.159 --> 00:38:49.599 In the early afternoon, the recruits lined up in front of a young lieutenant. 00:38:49.679 --> 00:38:54.639 The officer called each man's name and told him to take another step forward and into the armed forces. 00:38:54.800 --> 00:38:57.760 Finally, Ali's name was called Cassius Clay, Army. 00:38:58.000 --> 00:38:59.280 Ali did not move. 00:38:59.440 --> 00:39:02.719 He was called Ali, and again he remained still. 00:39:02.880 --> 00:39:09.920 Then another officer led Ali to a private room and advised him that the penalty for refusing the draft was five years' imprisonment and a fine. 00:39:10.079 --> 00:39:10.880 Did he understand? 00:39:11.039 --> 00:39:11.679 Yes, he did. 00:39:11.840 --> 00:39:15.360 Ali was given another chance to respond to his name and step forward. 00:39:15.519 --> 00:39:16.880 Again, he stood still. 00:39:17.119 --> 00:39:18.800 There was no fear in Ali. 00:39:19.119 --> 00:39:22.960 Ali was sentenced to five years in prison and a$10,000 fine, the maximum. 00:39:23.119 --> 00:39:29.280 I figured the decision cost him$10 million in purses and endorsements and the rest, said Gordon Davidson. 00:39:29.440 --> 00:39:37.280 It also cost him the goodwill of many Americans who thought that he was a rich man in perfect health, avoiding military service and using religion as an excuse. 00:39:37.440 --> 00:39:42.800 And it's after his refusal that those around him are still trying to urge and convince him to serve. 00:39:42.880 --> 00:39:45.519 There's even an offer from the president at the time, Lyndon B. 00:39:45.679 --> 00:39:48.880 Johnson, to join the war efforts and just give boxing exhibitions. 00:39:48.960 --> 00:39:53.360 Like he he wouldn't even have to serve or be on the front lines or do anything besides box. 00:39:53.519 --> 00:39:55.920 And Ali still wouldn't accept it. 00:39:56.079 --> 00:40:05.920 And it eventually gets to the point where there's this massive group of black athletes that are put together to try and persuade Ollie to what they they thought was stop this foolish thinking. 00:40:06.079 --> 00:40:18.000 Jim Brown organized a meeting of many of the nation's leading black athletes, including Bill Russell, Louis Alcinder, Krim Abdul Jabbar, Curtis McClinton, Bobby Mitchell, Sid Williams, Jim Shorter, Walter Beach, and Willie Davis. 00:40:18.159 --> 00:40:21.519 But no matter what they said, Oli still remained unmoved. 00:40:21.599 --> 00:40:26.400 And it's actually Bill Russell, the basketball legend, after the meeting, he actually said this on Ali, which I love. 00:40:26.559 --> 00:40:31.039 He has something I have never been able to attain, and something very, very, very few people I know possess. 00:40:31.199 --> 00:40:33.920 He has an absolute and sincere faith. 00:40:34.079 --> 00:40:36.639 He has an absolute and

sincere faith. 00:40:36.800 --> 00:40:42.719 You can disagree with Oli's decision, even hate it, but there is a certain beauty in the fact that he was willing to go to prison. 00:40:42.880 --> 00:40:46.800 He was willing to lose the opportunity to box to the thing that would make him millions and millions of dollars. 00:40:46.960 --> 00:40:52.800 He was willing to be considered one of the most hated men in America for his religion, for his beliefs. 00:40:53.039 --> 00:40:57.760 Because he had what Russell said, absolute and sincere faith. 00:40:58.079 --> 00:41:16.719 Now, Ali would actually never serve time in prison as he as he appealed the decision in courts, but for much of his boxing prime, because of his refusal to serve and the whole appeal process, he was stripped of his title and he was unable to fight for two, three, four years during the prime of his career when he was at his absolute best. 00:41:17.280 --> 00:41:32.079 But with this certain admiration that I do have for Ali's willingness to stand up for his beliefs and endure the cost of it, Ali himself, as I mentioned earlier, was quite a paradox because it gets to a point where Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the nation of Islam, wants Ali to quit boxing. 00:41:32.239 --> 00:41:38.719 He thought it was an immoral activity and it took away from Ali's religion and his true purpose of spreading the message of the religion. 00:41:39.039 --> 00:41:58.719 So you would think the man who dedicated almost his entire life to Elijah and his teaching, who risked going to jail, who risked the sport that brought him so much glory, who would lose his championship title for refusing to serve, who would lose lots and lots of money and endure all this hatred, would be willing to walk away from the sport because his leader wanted him to. 00:41:59.039 --> 00:42:02.159 But it was something Ali could and would never do. 00:42:02.400 --> 00:42:10.800 Ali said a few years later after his short banishment from boxing on TV that he planned to start fighting again, and it actually infuriated Elijah Muhammad. 00:42:10.960 --> 00:42:16.079 The sight of Ali on TV saying he wanted to fight again because he needed money and raised the nation of Islam's leader. 00:42:16.159 --> 00:42:19.920 Ali's punishment, Elijah said, would be a one-year banishment from the nation of Islam. 00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:21.679 He had given up his wife for his religion. 00:42:21.760 --> 00:42:26.239 He had changed his name, risked prison, sacrificed millions of dollars, turned his back on friends and relatives. 00:42:26.320 --> 00:42:35.599 And now the man who inspired Ali's actions, the man he worshipped as a prophet of God, was casting him aside because he refused to abandon boxing, it must have been bewildering. 00:42:35.760 --> 00:42:40.480 And Ali said he understood his mistake and would do everything he could to regain his teacher's trust. 00:42:40.639 --> 00:42:43.840 All that funnel and fighting, running around, being on TV is over. 00:42:44.000 --> 00:42:48.960 Now I'll concentrate on praying, studying hard, and learn to be a better Muslim minister. 00:42:49.199 --> 00:43:03.840 But then, of course, were those of course were just words for show because 43 months after being banned for boxing, after the Supreme Court eventually overruled his draft conviction, Ali returned to the ring against his leader's wishes to fight and box again. 00:43:04.000 --> 00:43:05.840 And you may ask, like, like why? 00:43:06.000 --> 00:43:07.440 Why couldn't Ali give up the sport? 00:43:07.519 --> 00:43:10.880 He had already risked and sacrificed so much for his religion for Elijah Muhammad. 00:43:10.960 --> 00:43:12.480 Why couldn't he do it just one more time? 00:43:12.719 --> 00:43:23.440 And the answer to that question is maybe still a little cloudy, but the more you read about it, the more you learn about Ali, the one thing that comes to the forefront is he couldn't lead the sport because of money. 00:43:23.599 --> 00:43:37.360 He could make so much money in one night from one fight, money he desperately needed because throughout his career he wasn't great using his finances or with his finances, that he just couldn't give up the opportunity for all the riches that boxing could bring him. 00:43:37.519 --> 00:43:39.760 Ali actually said this on boxing, which is fascinating. 00:43:39.920 --> 00:43:45.679 I've been boxing since I was 12 years old, and I'm getting mighty tired of training and always having somebody try to pop me in my mouth. 00:43:45.760 --> 00:43:48.559 But I'll probably won't but I probably won't ever get tired of money. 00:43:48.719 --> 00:43:49.360 I love money. 00:43:49.519 --> 00:43:54.960 The fame and pride of doing something real well, like being the world champion, is a pretty nice thing to think about sometimes. 00:43:55.119 --> 00:43:58.000 But the money I'm making is nice to think about all the time. 00:43:58.159 --> 00:44:01.519 I suppose it's the one thing that keeps Keeps me going. 00:44:01.679 --> 00:44:03.119 I mentioned this a little bit earlier. 00:44:03.360 --> 00:44:08.559 But the number one reason Ali continued to fight and boxed throughout his career was because of the Mulah. 00:44:08.880 --> 00:44:12.480 It wasn't the only reason, but it was the main reason. 00:44:12.639 --> 00:44:19.760 He could make millions in a single night, and he just couldn't imagine giving that up forever for anything, even his his own religion. 00:44:19.920 --> 00:44:27.440 And and we mentioned this as well, but he went from this young boy who was a missionary who boxed because he fell in love with the sport. 00:44:27.760 --> 00:44:36.159 But as he aged, as he received the adulation and praise and money, he became much more of a mercenary, fighting more for the Moolah than for the love of the sport. 00:44:36.320 --> 00:44:40.639 Now, when Ali did return four years later, he simply wasn't the same fighter. 00:44:40.800 --> 00:44:43.840 It makes sense when you take four

years off during the prime of your career. 00:44:44.079 --> 00:44:49.519 And there are statistics that were later pulled on his career that really start to show this really well. 00:44:49.760 --> 00:44:54.639 Years later, a statistical analysis of Ali's career showed beginning in 1970, Ali was a different fighter. 00:44:54.800 --> 00:45:00.239 From 1960 to 1967, the 16 fights in which complete films had survived and counted every punch. 00:45:00.320 --> 00:45:06.719 And in those fights, Ali was at his best, landing 2,245 punches while getting hit only 1,400 times. 00:45:06.880 --> 00:45:11.440 Over the course of the rest of his career, Ali took as much punishment, if not more, than he gave. 00:45:11.519 --> 00:45:16.400 He hit opponents 56, 5,700 times and got hit 5,600 times. 00:45:16.559 --> 00:45:20.880 And there's this great line from one of his biographers, Jonathan I, he wrote this. 00:45:21.039 --> 00:45:27.519 His extraordinary gift for boxing will cement his greatness and make the met and make the many contradictions of his life possible. 00:45:27.679 --> 00:45:30.800 Yet this will be the bitterest irony of a lifetime full of them. 00:45:30.960 --> 00:45:34.079 His great gift will also instigate his downfall. 00:45:34.239 --> 00:45:37.760 His great gift will also also instigate his great downfall. 00:45:37.920 --> 00:45:40.719 His great gift was his instincts. 00:45:40.800 --> 00:45:42.480 He had these unbelievable reflexes. 00:45:42.559 --> 00:45:49.440 It's why he was able to box with his with his hands low and rely purely on his instincts and reflexes to dodge his opponent's punches. 00:45:49.599 --> 00:45:51.519 But that gift wouldn't last forever. 00:45:51.599 --> 00:45:58.400 And when he returned, his reflexes were a little slower, a little worse, and he would start to take some more punishment. 00:45:58.559 --> 00:46:03.119 In 1970, he began to pay a price for his relatively weak grasp of boxing fundamentals. 00:46:03.280 --> 00:46:07.199 He had never learned to properly box or duck punches because he hadn't needed to. 00:46:07.360 --> 00:46:10.480 As a result, as he slowed, he absorbed more punishment. 00:46:10.719 --> 00:46:16.079 Ali came back and his legs weren't like they'd been before, Pacheo told a rider, one of his trainers. 00:46:16.239 --> 00:46:19.920 And when he lost his legs, he lost his first line of defense. 00:46:20.159 --> 00:46:23.039 And it's after his return to boxing that Ali would still have some success. 00:46:23.199 --> 00:46:25.280 He would rewin the heavyweight title twice. 00:46:25.360 --> 00:46:27.039 He would hold it three times throughout his career. 00:46:27.119 --> 00:46:28.480 He would put on some great shows. 00:46:28.559 --> 00:46:37.679 But the things that made Oli great in the early days, his focus, his discipline, his preparation, became the things that started to hurt him because he went from this missionary to this mercenary. 00:46:37.840 --> 00:46:47.920 And we see this perfectly in the buildup to his fight against Joe Frazier, considered at the time the fight of the century because it was the first time two heavyweight champions had ever met in the ring. 00:46:48.079 --> 00:46:52.480 But Ali fell into the same trap that Liston fell into when he first fought Ali. 00:46:53.199 --> 00:46:54.559 And that was getting lazy. 00:46:54.719 --> 00:46:58.159 Ali didn't take his preparations seriously, and he didn't take Joe Frasier seriously. 00:46:58.320 --> 00:47:05.280 He trained in Miami, saying he was trying to lose 10 pounds from his 228-pound frame, but he was easily distracted, surrounded by a traveling circus. 00:47:05.360 --> 00:47:08.239 Oli had a bunch of people in his entourage always around him. 00:47:08.320 --> 00:47:10.320 There were newspapers and TV reporters too. 00:47:10.480 --> 00:47:12.639 Less than two weeks later, Ali turned 29. 00:47:12.719 --> 00:47:17.199 He celebrated with a giant birthday cake with two chocolate boxing gloves made of icing on top. 00:47:17.360 --> 00:47:23.679 When he dove into a second big slice, he drew a big warning from Jack Kent Coke, the big investor behind Ollie's upcoming fight. 00:47:23.840 --> 00:47:24.800 Will you stop eating that? 00:47:24.960 --> 00:47:26.639 Coke said in a mock core. 00:47:26.800 --> 00:47:29.519 Ali brushed off saying, I don't have to train too hard for Frazier. 00:47:29.679 --> 00:47:32.159 Frasier's only chance, Ali said, was to score a knockout. 00:47:32.320 --> 00:47:35.039 But he added, I don't get knocked out or even hit a lot. 00:47:35.199 --> 00:47:37.280 Frasier is an amateur compared to me. 00:47:37.440 --> 00:47:38.880 The fight was seven weeks away. 00:47:39.119 --> 00:47:42.159 Ali said he would begin training in a few days. 00:47:42.320 --> 00:47:43.360 And what happens? 00:47:43.679 --> 00:47:46.000 Ali loses to Frasier. 00:47:46.079 --> 00:47:51.840 There's this great quote, or there is the great quote by Benjamin Franklin where he says, by failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. 00:47:51.920 --> 00:47:55.039 And without a doubt, Ali fell right into that trap. 00:47:55.199 --> 00:48:01.039 There's another example of this in a fight with a man named Ken Norton, where we see Ali's lack of discipline in action. 00:48:01.280 --> 00:48:09.599 Ali had another bout schedule with a man who seemed to pose little threat, a former Joe Fraser sparring partner with decent power and solid but unspectacular skills. 00:48:09.679 --> 00:48:10.960 His name was Ken Norton. 00:48:11.039 --> 00:48:12.800 Ali had no heart on for Norton. 00:48:12.880 --> 00:48:14.159 He wanted Joe Frazier again. 00:48:14.239 --> 00:48:15.280 He wanted George Foreman. 00:48:15.360 --> 00:48:20.559 But Norton, Norton's most recent fight, had been in front of a crowd of 700 and had paid only$300. 00:48:20.960 --> 00:48:23.039 Norton didn't belong in the same ring as Ali. 00:48:23.360 --> 00:48:27.039 Ali was a 10-to-1 favorite, and that's what Ali believed. 00:48:27.199 -->

00:48:28.960 The night before the fight, Ali attended a party. 00:48:29.119 --> 00:48:31.599 Two hours before the fight, he was in bed with two hookers. 00:48:31.760 --> 00:48:36.719 After an hour had passed, Reggie Barrett knocked on the door, telling Ali the fight started soon. 00:48:36.800 --> 00:48:39.840 Oh shit, Ali said, I gotta take a shower. 00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.639 And what happens that night, Ken Norton defeats Ali and breaks his jaw. 00:48:44.800 --> 00:48:51.360 But one of the beautiful things that that would happen as a result of that humiliation is it did seem to humble Ali for a moment. 00:48:51.440 --> 00:48:56.719 He said after that fight, after the fight he lost in Norton, best thing that ever happened to me, I needed that. 00:48:56.880 --> 00:48:57.599 Thank you very much. 00:48:57.760 --> 00:48:59.679 Losing that fight was just what I needed. 00:48:59.760 --> 00:49:00.480 It made me humble. 00:49:00.559 --> 00:49:02.480 I'm going into the woods and will train at my camp. 00:49:02.639 --> 00:49:04.480 No more fooling around. 00:49:04.719 --> 00:49:14.320 Now, one of the beautiful things about studying history is you can learn many of the things to do from others, but you can also learn many things that you shouldn't do, the traps to avoid, decisions to resist. 00:49:14.480 --> 00:49:22.159 And in the story of Ali, near the end of his career, we we can learn a very important lesson from him on something that we must avoid. 00:49:22.239 --> 00:49:28.559 So Ali, after he returned to boxing and started to age, as we mentioned earlier, just wasn't the same fighter. 00:49:28.639 --> 00:49:32.320 He was dishing out less punishment and he was taking more punishment, he wasn't winning as often. 00:49:32.480 --> 00:49:38.320 And something Ali said again and again after his fights is that he planned to retire in the near future because of all the damage he was taking. 00:49:38.400 --> 00:49:42.559 And it even got to a point where Oli's behavior and demeanor seemed to start shifting. 00:49:42.639 --> 00:49:45.360 He talked slower, he started to slur some of his words. 00:49:45.440 --> 00:49:53.199 And many believe that if he didn't quit the sport soon, he was going to have earlier permanent and irreversible brain damage for the rest of his life if he didn't have it already. 00:49:53.360 --> 00:49:57.280 And Oli vowed again and again that he would eventually retire fight after fight. 00:49:57.440 --> 00:50:02.159 Before the George Foreman fight that he won, he said, one more and I'll be finished, he said. 00:50:02.320 --> 00:50:06.960 After beating Joe Frazier in their third bout, he's described as follows He was done, finished. 00:50:07.039 --> 00:50:07.519 He meant it. 00:50:07.599 --> 00:50:10.960 He had beaten everyone, he had he had beaten everyone worth beating. 00:50:11.039 --> 00:50:12.880 He had proven everything he could possibly prove. 00:50:12.960 --> 00:50:14.159 It was time to quit, he said. 00:50:14.239 --> 00:50:18.639

But a few weeks passed, I've changed my mind, he told Howard Cassell, and I feel I can go in another few years. 00:50:18.800 --> 00:50:20.079 The fans want to see it. 00:50:20.239 --> 00:50:24.800 Here's another example after a third bout with Ken Norton, the men who beat him in their first fight. 00:50:24.960 --> 00:50:26.960 When it was over, Ali made a big announcement. 00:50:27.039 --> 00:50:33.760 At the urging of my leader, I declare that I am quitting fighting as if as of now, and from now on, I will join the struggle of the Islamic cause. 00:50:33.920 --> 00:50:37.039 But even so, Ali was not sure he was ready to give up boxing. 00:50:37.119 --> 00:50:39.840 As he flew home from Turkey, the boxer began to waffle. 00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:46.000 He told others he had already spent most of his income from the Norton fight, and he knew he would face considerable pressure to continue boxing. 00:50:46.159 --> 00:50:51.199 Two weeks later, while filming a scene in Houston, Ali told reporters he was ready to end his retirement for boxing. 00:50:51.360 --> 00:50:54.400 I went foreman, he said, I will destroy Foreman. 00:50:54.559 --> 00:50:57.280 After a few more matches, Ali said this, I'm through boxing. 00:50:57.360 --> 00:51:00.559 He vowed, you will never see me in the ring again. 00:51:00.800 --> 00:51:03.119 But a month later, Ali said he wanted to box again. 00:51:03.199 --> 00:51:06.159 The news of a possible Ali return thrilled some members and dismayed others. 00:51:06.320 --> 00:51:08.880 Ali had gained 20 pounds in retirement. 00:51:09.039 --> 00:51:15.599 Time and time again, Ali vowed to retire, vowed to quit the sport, and even would have a brief retirement for a few months. 00:51:15.679 --> 00:51:19.599 But then again and again, he kept coming back to the sport and compromising himself in the process. 00:51:19.679 --> 00:51:26.079 And the number one reason Ali kept coming back, despite others urging him to quit, was because of the money he kept making. 00:51:26.239 --> 00:51:27.360 I really want to quit, he said. 00:51:27.440 --> 00:51:29.840 But if someone offers you$10 million, it ain't easy. 00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:34.559 He said he wanted to go out on top with his health, but he also wanted to go out with$10 million in U.S. 00:51:34.639 --> 00:51:35.360 Treasury bonds. 00:51:35.440 --> 00:51:40.559 So I can have a check that says$85,000 tax-free in my mailbox every single month. 00:51:40.719 --> 00:51:42.960 And his trainer explained why Ali couldn't quit. 00:51:43.039 --> 00:51:44.880 There is no fucking cure to quick money. 00:51:45.039 --> 00:51:46.400 There is no cure. 00:51:46.559 --> 00:51:48.719 And Ali would reap the rewards of continuing to fight. 00:51:48.800 --> 00:51:56.000 He would earn millions and millions of dollars, maybe more than any fighter in history up to that point, but he had to deal with the consequences. 00:51:56.159 --> 00:51:59.840 In October 1983, Ali returned to UCLA for more tests. 00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:03.039 This time, the sign of damage damages were impossible to ignore. 00:52:03.199 --> 00:52:07.199 A brain scan revealed an enlarged third ventricle in the brain, atrophy of the brainstem. 00:52:07.360 --> 00:52:09.360 Ali had trouble learning new material. 00:52:09.599 --> 00:52:16.400 Ali, because he was unwilling to quit, would have permanent brain damage for the rest of his life. 00:52:16.559 --> 00:52:20.159 And throughout all of this, someone who urged him to quit was his father. 00:52:20.320 --> 00:52:23.039 He constantly told Ali, quit son before you get hurt. 00:52:23.199 --> 00:52:25.119 Quit son before you get hurt. 00:52:25.280 --> 00:52:32.880 I think we all have something in our own lives probably that we're struggling with, something that we need to improve or adopt, or like Ali, maybe we need to quit. 00:52:33.039 --> 00:52:36.559 Maybe it's some habit or some sort of desire or some sort of dangerous behavior. 00:52:36.719 --> 00:52:46.800 But if you're unable to have the will or strength, or you're unable to listen to others or those around you, or you're unable to seek help help, like Ali, bad things can and will happen. 00:52:46.960 --> 00:52:48.719 So take all the good from Ali. 00:52:48.960 --> 00:52:51.840 Stand up for your beliefs, be confident, even hype yourself up like Ali did. 00:52:51.920 --> 00:52:52.480 Be a fighter. 00:52:52.559 --> 00:52:53.280 Go make a mark. 00:52:53.440 --> 00:52:57.599 But also be willing to quit on things you need to quit before it's too late. 00:52:57.760 --> 00:52:58.719 I'm gonna end it there. 00:52:58.800 --> 00:53:01.360 If you want to learn more about Ali, there's two great books I read. 00:53:01.440 --> 00:53:06.320 One is called Ali by Jonathan I, and the other is by David Rebnik, and it's titled King of the World. 00:53:06.480 --> 00:53:08.400 Both are absolutely fantastic reads. 00:53:08.480 --> 00:53:11.039 And if you're interested, you can check them out in the show notes below. 00:53:11.199 --> 00:53:14.159 The support means a ton, and until next time, peace. 00:53:28.159 --> 00:53:33.119 Nothing in life is worthwhile unless you take races.