I ’m certain you ’re intimate with Muhammad Ali , the famed American heavyweightchampion boxerwho coined the catch musical phrase " drift like a butterfly , sting like a bee . “But there might be some thing you do n’t get it on about the sporting figure nicknamed " The Greatest , " who was the first fighter to conquer the heavyweight claim three times and to win a total of 56 times in his 21 - year professional career .
For instance , did you be intimate Ali was the first packer to seem on aWheatiescereal box in February 1999 ? And he was featured on the back ofSports Illustratedmagazine 38 time ( second only to basketball superstar Michael Jordan ) .
While his story as a pugilist is long and illustrious , we ’ve compiled nine more heavy - hitting facts you might not know about the man who is considered one of the greatest sports figures of all sentence .
1. He Was Named After a White Abolitionist
Muhammad Ali was bornCassius Marcellus Clay Jr.in Louisville , Kentucky , in January 1942 . He got the moniker from his father , who was nominate for a livid emancipationist . Theoriginal Cassius Marcellus Claywas a wealthy nineteenth - C plantation owner and politician who not only published an anti - slavery newspaper , but also liberate every slave he inherited from his Father-God . He also serve as a parson to Russia underPresident Abraham Lincoln .
2. A Stolen Bicycle Got Him Into the Sport of Boxing
As the story extend , 12 - year - old Clay pedaled his red - and - white Schwinn bike to the Louisville Home Show in 1954 to savour some costless popcorn , live dogs and confect . When it came time to pull up stakes , he hear that his prized self-command had beenstolen . He reported the stealing to Louisville constabulary officer Joe Martin and vowed to shell up the perpetrator who was creditworthy . Martin — who also just happened to be a pugilism trainer at a local community center — suggested that the upset youngster first learn how to fight before search retaliation .
Martin took the skinny kid under his backstage , and six hebdomad later on , Clay won his first bout in a split conclusion . Clay never got his cycle back , but by age 18 , he had captured two national Golden Gloves titles , two Amateur Athletic Union national titles and 100 victories against eight deprivation . After calibrate high school , he traveled to Rome , Italy , and won the light heavyweight golden medallion in the 1960 Summer Olympics .
3. He Was Terrified to Fly
According to Ali ’s 1975 autobiography , " The Greatest : My Own Story , " his fear of flying rise during anhourlong flightfrom Louisville to Chicago in the late 1950s , when theturbulencewas so spoilt that " some of the seat were tear from their bolts on the base . " That lead to his womb-to-tomb fear , and he almost did n’t fly to the 1960 Olympics in Rome .
Ali had to be convince to trip for the biz by both his coaches and the U.S. Air Force — and he never flew without aparachute . " What I was afraid of most was the aeroplane crashing , and nothing would gratify me until I called the Air Force and inquire them to give me a record of plane flights between Rome and America,“he wrote in his leger . " They say they could n’t even commemorate the last time one had break apart . That calmed me down enough to take the flight to Rome . " Ironically , old age later , theLouisville Muhammad Ali International Airportwas name in his honor .
4. One Tribute Book to Ali Tips the Scales at 75 Pounds
The monolithic tribute book,“GOAT : A Tribute to Muhammad Ali " by Jeff Koons , was print in 2004 clad in silk and bound by the prescribed bindery for the Vatican in pink Louis Vuitton leather . ( Yes , pink leather . ) Its 792 page are filled with 600,000 words and more than 3,000 mental image of art , photos and memorabilia . The collector ’s variation was limited to 9,000 numbered copies — each contract by Ali and Koons — with the first 1,000 sell for $ 7,500 a piece , and the terminal 9,000 for $ 3,000 each . By the way , GOAT stands for " Greatest of All Time . "
5. He Was a Bona Fide Superhero
In 1978 , DC Comics published"Superman vs. Muhammad Ali,“which depicted the pugilist defeatingSupermanand save the world . Of naturally , that ’s just fable , but in substantial life , Ali actually didsave a 21 - yr - honest-to-god man from self-destruction . It was in 1981 when the man threatened to leap from the ninth story of a building in L.A. ’s Miracle Mile region . Ali ’s friend Howard Bingham witnessed the blossom drama and send for the retired boxer . Ali , who lived nearby , arrived on the vista , stimulate into the construction and successfully babble out the man down from the ledge . Superhero indeed .
6. He Headlined a Broadway Show
You read that right . Boxer extraordinaire Muhammad Ali starred in aBroadway musicalat New York ’s George Abbott Theatre in 1969 . bill by his birthing name , Cassius Clay , Ali play a warring black lecturer who address a confluence direct by a black political grouping in Oscar Brown Jr. ’s musical adaptation of Joseph Dolan Tuotti ’s off - Broadway dally " Big Time Buck White . "
Written in Ali ’s playbill bio : " He is now appealing his five - year prison condemnation and $ 10,000 amercement for resist to record the armed divine service on religious primer . The ' Big Time Buck White ' role that he has go for is much like the sprightliness he lives off stage in realness . " Although Ali was n’t known as a singer , he ’s listed as singing almost every Sung dynasty in the score , including title such as " We Came in Chains " and " Get Down . " The show ran for seven performances .
7. Ali Also Dabbled in Magic
One of Ali ’s favorite whatchamacallit was make silk hanky vanish into thin air . He also could make a key somerset over in his palm , restore a fourth part he ’d bitten in half and turn scarves into cane . His mostfamous deception ? His levitating act , in which the champion would wrick his back to his audience , put his heels together , swim off the footing and hover several inches above the rug . The effort was so good that David Copperfield even called it a " classic . "
8. He Was Married Four Times
Ali we d hisfirst wife , Sonji Roi , in 1964 , and the pair went on to divorce just one year later when she refuse to espouse the Nation of Islam frock and customs . He then wed his second wife , 17 - yr - old Belinda Boyd , in 1967 , and they had four fry before splitting ways in 1976 . Veronica Porché became his third spouse in 1977 . The pair had two daughters together — includingLaila Ali , who followed in Ali ’s footstep by becoming a champion boxer — and dissociate in 1986 . Ali was betrothed to his fourth and final wife , Yolanda ( " Lonnie " ) , in 1986 . The couplet had fuck each other since Lonnie was 6 and Ali was 21 ; their mother were best friends and raised their families on the same street . The couple had one son and remained married until his death June 4 , 2016 , of Parkinson ’s disease .
9. Parkinson’s Disease Didn’t Slow Him Down
Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson ’s in 1984 , three years after he retired from a boxing . Despite his declining motor skills , as well as circumscribed motion and speech , the former champ stayed in the public spotlight , traveling the world to make human-centered , goodwill and sympathetic appearances . He gather with Iraqi loss leader Saddam Hussein in 1990 tonegotiate the release of American hostages , and he traveled to Afghanistan as a United Nations Messenger of Peace in 2002 . He also was the surprisal honoree who unhorse the cauldron at the opening ceremonies of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta , and President George W. Bush present him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005 .
