Muhammad Ali was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1942. His name then was Cassius Clay. When he was twelve, someone stole his bicycle. He told a policeman that he wanted to fight the thief. The policeman was also a boxing trainer, and he answered: first, you must learn how to fight. That is how Ali found boxing.
He trained every day and became fast — unbelievably fast for a big man. At eighteen, he won a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Rome. At twenty-two, he shocked the world and became world champion. He danced around the ring and shouted, 'I am the greatest!' Soon after, he joined a new religion and changed his name to Muhammad Ali.
In 1967, during the Vietnam War, Ali refused to join the army because of his beliefs. It was a hard choice. They took away his title, and for more than three years he was not allowed to box. Many people were angry at him; many others called him a hero. In the end, the highest court in the country agreed that he was right.
Ali came back. In 1974, in Africa, he fought the younger and stronger George Foreman. Almost nobody believed in Ali. For seven rounds he leaned on the ropes and let Foreman punch, until the big man grew tired. Then Ali struck, and he won. About his style he said the famous words: 'Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.' He won the world title three times — more than any boxer before him.
After boxing, Ali became ill with Parkinson's disease, and his body slowly grew weak. But he did not hide from the world. In 1996, with shaking hands, he lit the Olympic flame in Atlanta, and millions of people watched with tears. Ali died in 2016. He once said, 'Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.' Many still call him the greatest of all time.