Muhammad Ali dead: The boxing icon explains his 'recipe for life'

Muhammad Ali: A life in pictures

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  Despite taking his first booking lessons with a local policeman, Clay was simultaneously coached by the more experienced Fred Stoner. Under him, the young boxer won six Kentucky Golden Glove titles, two national Golden Glove titles, and an Amateur Athletic Union National Title. His amateur success culminated when Cassius won the Light Heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. After that, Clay decided to start off his professional career.

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  Clay won his first professional fight against Tunney Hunsaker in a six-round decision on October 29, 1960. After that, he went on to establish a record of 19-0 fights, with a total of 15 knockouts. Thanks to his high stature (1.91m), he developed a highly unorthodox style for a heavyweight boxer, relying on foot speed and carrying his hands low rather than on heavy punches.

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  By 1963, Clay had not only built a reputation for his boxing technique, but also for correctly predicting the round in which he would "finish" the opponent. Here, he predicts (correctly) the round in which he will knock-out British boxer Henry Cooper. Other boxers Clay defeated prior to his first title fight included Doug Jones, Lamar Clark and Jim Robinson.

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  In his first title fight, Cassius Clay opted for world heavyweight champion Sonny Liston. Though few observers thought the 22-year old could defeat an ex-con with ties to organized crime, Clay proved them wrong: in the legendary sixth round of the fight, he landed spectacular combinations of punches, seemingly at will. When Liston told his cornermen he couldn't continue to the seventh round, Clay sprang to the center of the ring, and repeatedly yelled "I’m the greatest!" and "I shook up the world". Cassius Clay had made history for the first time.

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  The day after the fight, Cassius Clay announced that he was changing his name to Muhammad Ali for religious reasons. Although he had already been member of Nation of Islam prior to the fight, he was advised not to declare this publicly, in order not to jeopardize his chances. At that time, the Nation of Islam was often viewed with outright suspicion by mainstream America, and Ali did little to counter these impressions: the boxer once stated, for example, that "Integration is wrong. We don't want to live with the white man; that's all." However, after the death of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad in 1975, Ali converted to mainstream Sunni Islam. Later in his life, he came to embrace spiritual practices of Sufism.

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  Muhammad Ali also aroused controversy through his outright opposition to the Vietnam War. When notified of his army classification as 1A in early 1966, the boxer declared that he would refuse to serve, as he considered himself a conscientious objector. He also famously declared about the war: "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong ... They never called me nigger." When refusing to step forward at his scheduled induction, Ali was arrested and found guilty after a 21-minute trial in June 1967, as a result of which his boxing license was suspended. Refusing to accept the verdict, Ali took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. In June 1971, with public opinion already against the war, the highest court of the United States reversed his conviction by unanimous decision.

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  In 1971, with the case still on appeal, Muhammad Ali was allowed to fight again - in what would become the Fight of the Century against Joe Frazier. It was a heavily promoted fight, with massive popular interest: Frank Sinatra, for example, took pictures for Life magazine. For Ali, it became one of his most crushing defeats. Despite dominating the first third of the fight, he later struggled to keep the pace and, indeed, was put on his back for only the third time in his career. Though he managed to stay on his feet for the rest of round 15, Frazier was declared winner by unanimous decision. In January 1974, however, Ali defeated Smokin' Joe in a non-title rematch.

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  In October 1974, Muhammad Ali regained his title in what was to become of the biggest upsets in boxing history. Taking place in Congo, Ali’s fight against champion George Foreman was fittingly promoted as the Rumble in The Jungle. Almost no one gave Ali a chance of winning. Foreman and Ali became friends after the fight, and the movie When We Were Kings, a documentary of the fight in Zaire, even won an Oscar.

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  The Thrilla In Manila was Ali's third, an final, fight against Joe Frazier. Leading up to the fight, Ali enraged Frazier through frequent insults and slurs, for example remarking: "It will be a killa ... and a chilla ... and a thrilla ... when I get the gorilla in Manila." It was a tedious fight, with both boxers battling each other into near incapacity. When Frazier's coach refused to allow Frazier to continue, Ali was declared winner by technical knockout. Later on, Muhammad Ali would declare that this was the closest to dying he had ever been, as well as stating that Joe Frazier was "the greatest fighter of all times, next to me." It also inspired the fight scene from Sylvester Stallone's 1976 Oscar-winning film Rocky.

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  After the Thrilla In Manila, Ali beat Coopman as well as Jimmy Young and Richard Dunn. Following these wins, he staged an exhibition match with professional wrestler and Mixed Martial Artist Antonio Inoki (picture). This match would seriously jeopardise Ali's health, as both of his legs were bleeding after the fight, leading to an infection. He also suffered two blood cloths in his legs.

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  As Ali had briefly lost the heavyweight title to Leon Spinks in February 1978, the Greatest fought a rematch in September, winning the title for a record third time (picture). Even after his retirement, Ali decided to return and win the title for an unprecedented fourth time, but lost against current champion Larry Holmes. As his coach, Angelo Dundee, refused to let Ali come out for the 11th round, it became Ali's only loss by anything other than a decision. Ali also lost his final fight against Trevor Berbick in 1981 by unanimous decision after ten rounds.

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  Muhammad Ali is considered to be one of the greatest heavyweights of all time. In total, he won 56 of his 61 fights, 37 by KO. He was also the first person to win the heavyweight title three times. Consequently, he was named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated as well as Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC.

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  Ali became known as a global champion of civil rights, including his friendship with Malcolm X

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  His legacy continues to arouse interest up to this day, the most famous example being the biographical film Ali (2002). When Ali found out Will Smith was to play the young boxer, his first reaction was: "You ain't pretty enough to play me." Ali himself published an oral history, entitled Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times, in 1991.

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  Muhammad Ali also received a vast number of honours and awards, such as the Spirit of America Award which called him the most recognized American in the world. In 1996, he had the honour of lighting the flame at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. For his work with the US civil rights movement and the United Nations, Ali received the Presidential Medal of Freedom as well as the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold.

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  Muhammad Ali with his daughters Laila (9 months) and Hanna (2 years 5 months) in London in December 1978

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  The boxer has been married four times, with his large family includes seven daughters and two sons. One of his daughters, Laila Ali, has also made herself a name as boxer, despite Ali's early comments against female boxing in 1978: "Women are not made to be hit in the breast, and face like that ... the body's not made to be punched right here. Get hit in the breast ... Hard ... and all that."

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  Much of Ali's life after retirement was overshadowed by his suffering from Parkison's Syndrome disease, which was diagnosed in 1984. Nevertheless, he remained a beloved and active public figure right towards the end of his life. He continued to work for humanitarian causes, for example through his appointment as "U.N. messenger of Peace" to Afghanistan in November 2002. During these final years, Ali travelled on average more than 200 days per year. In 2005, he also opened the $50 million non-profit Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, displaying his boxing memorabilia as well as focussing on core themes of peace, social responsibility, respect and personal growth.

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  Muhammad Ali became a goodwill ambassador for the UN, seen here at Kabul airport in November 2002 during a three-day mission

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  Muhammad Ali became known for his charity work including the annual Celebrity Fight Night, seen here on April 8, 2016 in Arizona

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