WHAT MADE MOHAMMED ALI THE GREATEST?

 "I am the greatest."
It's easy to say -- but much harder to convince millions of people around the world that you're right.
A conversation about Muhammad Ali could go on for hours before even beginning to touch on the sporting legacy he left in the ring.
His charisma, charm, quick wit and ability to turn a phrase were just some of the qualities that made him a truly global icon.
He transcended boxing.



It says a lot about him that many sporting icons look up to Ali in much the same way as his hordes of "ordinary" fans.

"Muhammad Ali, when I started boxing, was one of my inspirations," Manny Pacquiao, another of boxing's all-time greats, told CNN after Ali's death was announced.
"I always admired him and I always thought 'This is my inspiration, why I am here in boxing.'
"We all know what he has done and accomplished. He's an inspiration to all boxers."

Pacquiao said Ali's death, at the age of 74, following years of ill health was "a big loss for boxing," but that his legend would live on.
"He passed away, but the memory of Muhammad Ali and his accomplishments we will never forget."
While mourning is inevitable when someone of Ali's stature passes away, it also has served as an opportunity to celebrate his life.

"Every fiber of his being was great," said David Haye, a fellow former heavyweight world champion.
"His personal and religious beliefs were so strong that he lost three and a half of his best years because of a decision he made not to go to Vietnam.

"At the time it was a very unpopular decision, he lost an amazing amount of his fan base, the American media turned on him but he stuck by it and years later people look back and think what an amazing stand.
"The fact that he believed so strongly about that, shows he wasn't only the greatest in the ring, he was the greatest outside of the ring as well."

Three-time heavyweight champion
Many boxing fans and journalists might tell you Ali isn't the best boxer in history -- that honor often goes to Sugar Ray Robinson. But comparing boxers across different eras and weight classes is a fruitless exercise.

His unorthodox style, quick feet and lightning-fast reflexes saw Ali crowned world heavyweight champion an unprecedented three times and won him legions of admirers along the way.
Ali took on all challengers -- even when onlookers didn't give him a chance -- and beat most, recording just five losses over the course of his professional career.

Most laughed at the idea of a 22-year-old Ali defeating the fearsome and hard-hitting Sonny Liston, but that's what he did when the fighters met in 1964 -- and then again a year later.
But Ali's athletic achievements didn't define him -- they were just part of a package and it was perhaps what he did outside of the ring that turned him into the man we know.

  

What made Muhammad Ali 'The Greatest'?

• Ali toys with the finely combed hair of television sports commentator Howard Cosell before the start of the Olympic boxing trials in August 1972.

• Ali and Frazier appear on The Dick Cavett Show January 1974. The two got into a brawl in New York studio and were fined $5,000 each.

• Ali passes a cheering crowd in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), on September 28, 1974. Ali was in the country to fight George Foreman, who had recently defeated Frazier to win the title.

• Ali and Foreman fight October 30, 1974, in what was billed as Ali, a huge underdog, knocked out Foreman in the eighth round to regain the title that was stripped from him in 1967.

• Ali addresses a Nation of Islam meeting in London in December 1974. The following year, Ali left the Nation and embraced a more mainstream Islamic faith.

• Ali offers advice to future opponent Richard Dunn in March 1976. Ali defeated Dunn in the fifth round two months later. It was his last knockout win.

• Ali and his third wife, Veronica, second from right, visit the Kremlin in Moscow in June 1978. The two were married from 1977 to 1986. Ali has been married four times.

• Ali takes a hit from Leon Spinks during their title fight in New Orleans on September 15, 1978. Ali won by unanimous decision, regaining the title he lost to Spinks earlier that year.

• Ali came out of retirement on October 2, 1980, for a title fight with Larry Holmes and a guaranteed purse of $8 million. Holmes won easily, beating up Ali until the fight was stopped after the 10th round.

• Ali and Trevor Berbick weigh in for their fight in the Bahamas in December 1981. Berbick won by unanimous decision. It was Ali's last professional fight.

• In 1990, Ali met with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to negotiate the release of 15 American hostages in Iraq and Kuwait. Here, Ali leaves Iraq with the hostages on December 2, 1990.

• Ali lights the Olympic torch at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

• Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Committee, gives Ali a replacement gold medal in 1996. Ali had thrown his 1960 gold medal into the Ohio River after he was criticized for not fighting in Vietnam.

• Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger raises Ali's hand during the Celebrity Fight Night charity event in Phoenix in March 2002. Schwarzenegger was presented with the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award for his work with the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Research Foundation, the Inner-City Games Foundation and the Special Olympics. The award was presented by former CNN host Larry King, left.

• Ali arrives in Kabul, Afghanistan, in November 2002 for a three-day goodwill mission as a special guest of the United Nations. He was appointed as a U.N. Messenger of Peace in 2000.

• U.S. President George W. Bush presents Ali with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, on November 9, 2005.

• Members of the media watch a video of Ali before the grand opening of the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky, in November 2005.

• On May 24, 2011, Ali appears at the National Press Club in Washington to publicly appeal to Iranian officials for the release of captive hikers Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal. The hikers were released in September 2011, more than two years after their detention.

• A boxing robe worn by Ali, which belonged to the late country singer Waylon Jennings, went up for auction in 2014.

• Since winning a gold medal in the 1960 Olympics, Muhammad Ali has never been far from the public eye. Take a look at the life and career of Ali, the three-time heavyweight boxing champion who called himself The Greatest.

• Ali boldly predicted it would take him five rounds to knock out British boxer Henry Cooper ahead of their bout in London in 1963. The fight was stopped in the fifth round as Cooper was bleeding heavily from a cut around his eye.

• Patrick Power, 6, takes on Ali in the ring in 1963. Patrick was taking boxing lessons after getting bullied.

As a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War, Ali refused induction into the U.S. Army in April 1967. Here, top athletes from various sports gather to support Ali as he gives his reasons for rejecting the draft. Seated in the front row, from left to right, are Bill Russell, Ali, Jim Brown and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Photos: Boxing legend Muhammad Ali.

On November 2, 1970, Ali returned to the ring for his first professional fight in three years. He defeated Jerry Quarry in the third round.

    Muhammad Ali universally acknowledged as "The Greatest" boxer of all time
    He was a global icon whose fame spread far beyond the sporting arena

"I am the greatest."
It's easy to say -- but much harder to convince millions of people around the world that you're right.
A conversation about Muhammad Ali could go on for hours before even beginning to touch on the sporting legacy he left in the ring.
His charisma, charm, quick wit and ability to turn a phrase were just some of the qualities that made him a truly global icon.
He transcended boxing.

It says a lot about him that many sporting icons look up to Ali in much the same way as his hordes of "ordinary" fans.

    We lost a giant today. You will always be GOAT. Our hearts and prayers go out to the Ali family. May God bless them.
    — Manny Pacquiao (@mannypacquiao) June 4, 2016

"Muhammad Ali, when I started boxing, was one of my inspirations," Manny Pacquiao, another of boxing's all-time greats, told CNN after Ali's death was announced.
"I always admired him and I always thought 'This is my inspiration, why I am here in boxing.'
"We all know what he has done and accomplished. He's an inspiration to all boxers."
Pacquiao said Ali's death, at the age of 74, following years of ill health was "a big loss for boxing," but that his legend would live on.

"He passed away, but the memory of Muhammad Ali and his accomplishments we will never forget."
While mourning is inevitable when someone of Ali's stature passes away, it also has served as an opportunity to celebrate his life.

All about Muhammad Ali

"Every fiber of his being was great," said David Haye, a fellow former heavyweight world champion.
"His personal and religious beliefs were so strong that he lost three and a half of his best years because of a decision he made not to go to Vietnam.

"At the time it was a very unpopular decision, he lost an amazing amount of his fan base, the American media turned on him but he stuck by it and years later people look back and think what an amazing stand.
"The fact that he believed so strongly about that, shows he wasn't only the greatest in the ring, he was the greatest outside of the ring as well."



Many boxing fans and journalists might tell you Ali isn't the best boxer in history -- that honor often goes to Sugar Ray Robinson. But comparing boxers across different eras and weight classes is a fruitless exercise.
David Haye: Ali too great to be humble

His unorthodox style, quick feet and lightning-fast reflexes saw Ali crowned world heavyweight champion an unprecedented three times and won him legions of admirers along the way.
Ali took on all challengers -- even when onlookers didn't give him a chance -- and beat most, recording just five losses over the course of his professional career.

Most laughed at the idea of a 22-year-old Ali defeating the fearsome and hard-hitting Sonny Liston, but that's what he did when the fighters met in 1964 -- and then again a year later.
But Ali's athletic achievements didn't define him -- they were just part of a package and it was perhaps what he did outside of the ring that turned him into the man we know.
 
A crowd of 60,000 packed into the 20th of May Stadium to see Ali, renowned for across the ring, change his tactics for the fight, a move which ultimately undid the powerful Foreman. The idea it was some premeditated plan is nonsense, renowned British sportswriter Hugh McIlvanney opined. "It was more of a triumph that such a brilliant improvisation had come to him in a crisis." The tactic spawned the expression rope-a-dope as Ali lay on the boxing rings ropes, thereby diminishing the power of Foreman's punching.

In 1967, Ali's refusal to be inducted into the U.S. armed forces -- due to personal and religious beliefs -- subsequently earned him a three-year ban from boxing, robbing him of his peak years as a professional fighter.
Initially reviled for his anti-war stance, Ali was branded a traitor but began to gain sympathy during his exile as criticism of the Vietnam War intensified.
Ali famously claimed, "I have no quarrel with the Viet Cong," and by the time his boxing ban was overturned in 1971, most of America didn't either.
As CNN political commentator and professor Marc Lamont Hill put it: "Ali didn't change, the world did."