Floating like a butterfly, stinging like a bee

Fifty years after the famed 'Rumble in the Jungle,' Muhammad Ali is remembered not only as the heavyweight champ, but as a champion of civil rights

It is hard to imagine, but coming off of his more than three-year exile from boxing, Muhammad Ali spent four years regaining his position as the top heavyweight in boxing. He lost everything by taking his stance against being drafted into the Vietnam War -not just his boxing career and his promotional business, but also derailing his budding advertising and media career.

Ali was born in Louisville, Kentucky, winning the light heavyweight gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics before turning professional as a heavyweight. A myth emerged that he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after returning to his home city as Olympic champion and was still denied service in a restaurant .

His experiences negotiating racism and segregation as an Olympic hero would inform his outspoken approach to civil rights and make him a hero to millions across generations.

Ali won his first 20 professional matches-and became heavyweight champion-at age 22, defending the championship across nine challenges before he was stripped of his championship and exiled from the sport in 1966. He appealed his draft reclassification, which happened in spite of his dyslexia and his position as a conscientious objector. Other athletes who were draft-eligible were placed with National Guard units or protected by their teams, as in the NFL , so it was particularly curious that the most popular athlete in the country was reclassified and drafted.

Conscientious objector

After winning the heavyweight championship against Sonny Liston in 1964 , the boxer then known as Cassius Clay changed his name first to Cassius X and then to Muhammad Ali. He had befriended Malcolm X and joined the Nation of Islam , but did not reveal his conversion until he was secure in his boxing career after winning the championship. He fell out with Malcolm X after the civil rights leader left the Nation following revelation that leader Elijah Muhammad had children out of wedlock; Malcolm assumed Ali would support him, but Ali remained loyal to the Nation.

In 1966, Ali founded Main Bout Inc. to promote his fights and oversee the closed-circuit broadcasting of his fights. The Nation of Islam held many of the shares in Main Bout Inc., including through Ali's manager, Jabir Herbert Muhammad, third son of the Nation's leader; other shareholders included football legend Jim Brown. To help forge relationships, boxing promoter Bob Arum was included and after the company folded due to Ali's arrest, Arum and Muhammad went on to found Top Rank Boxing.

Ali's religious conversion and his perspective that America should not be involved in the Vietnam War led to his refusal to be inducted. He was arrested and convicted of breaking Selective Service laws, and he continued to protest the war as he appealed. His conviction was overturned in June 1971 , although he returned to boxing in late 1970 as sentiment against him softened and boxing commissions granted Ali licenses to fight again. He fought three matches before the Supreme Court ruled in his favor, including the first loss of his career against Joe Frazier.

As Frazier and Ali worked toward a rematch, a young boxer rose up the ranks after winning the heavyweight gold medal at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games. George Foreman entered the fight against Joe Frazier at 37-0, emerging as champion and disrupting the planned rematch between Frazier and Ali . Ali also lost his second match, this time against Ken Norton, but after Foreman beat Norton, Don King signed contracts with both Ali and Foreman for a superfight promising each boxer a $5 million purse.

King did not have the money on hand, and the huge monetary promise to both boxers led other promoters to avoid working with King to organize the event. King, who had been released from jail in 1972 after being convicted of second-degree murder, forged a relationship with Ali after promoting a charity fight, but was unable to come to agreement with any venue in the United States to stage the fight. As a result, he looked at other countries to stage it. Fred Weymar, who was an advisor to Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, convinced Seko that funding and staging the fight would help garner support for his regime, an effort known today as sportwashing . King also pulled in funding from Risnelia Investment, the Hemdale Film Corp. and Video Techniques Inc. , with Hemdale and Video Techniques Inc. as official co-promoters. Color commentators included Brown, Frazier and journalist David Frost.

Rumble in the Jungle

Promoted as the Rumble in the Jungle, the fight was an incredible spectacle, even by today's sporting standards. Originally scheduled for Sept. 25, 1974 (it would have been broadcast Sept. 24 in the United States due to the time difference), it was pushed back to Oct. 30 due to a cut Foreman got while sparring . A three-day music festival called Zaire 74 took place between Sept. 22-24 , originally scheduled to precede the match, which included James Brown, Bill Withers, B.B. King, The Spinners and Celia Cruz alongside more than a dozen African artists.

Although Ali arrived in Zaire as a 4-1 betting underdog, he was the overwhelming favorite of the Zairean/Congolese people. Foreman arrived in Zaire with his German shepherd , which was the dog breed used by the Belgian occupying forces against the Congolese people, further cementing his status as the villain. Foreman and Ali were polar opposites, with Ali seen by many as unpatriotic in America, but a hero in Africa. Foreman, on the other hand, represented Cold War nationalism after beating Soviet Jonas Čepulis in the 1968 Olympic gold medal match, leading to the famous image of the very large Foreman waving a tiny American flag after his victory in Mexico.

Fans chanted "Ali boma ye," or "Ali kill him," throughout his visit and the fight . Although the event itself did not go as planned-King assumed hundreds of high-profile boxing fans would travel to Zaire, but only a few dozen ended up making trip-the fight is seen as one of the greatest. The match earned more than $100 million from closed-circuit broadcasts in U.S. theaters and other broadcasts rights globally, leading to an estimated audience of more than 500 million people worldwide.

The legendary status of the fight was cemented by Ali's upset win against the younger and stronger Foreman. Ali and his trainers understood that he would be unable to outpunch Foreman, so they relied on Ali's skill and speed. By the second, round Ali was leaning against the ropes, avoiding and absorbing blows with his arms and body, which did not earn Foreman points with the judges since they were not clear blows against Ali . Eventually, Foreman exhausted himself and Ali took advantage, knocking out the future grill entrepreneur in the eighth round.

Approaching retirement

In his next bout, Ali fought Chuck Wepner and was knocked down in the ninth round, at least partially due to a light training schedule. Ali still won, and the fight would inspire Sylvester Stallone to write Rocky , with the character Apollo Creed based on Muhammad Ali.

Ali retained the heavyweight title for more than three years, a run that included the Thrilla in Manila , the third match in the trilogy between Ali and Frazier that saw the champion employ the "rope-a-dope" again, as both fighters struggled in the heat of Quezon City, near the Philippine capital of Manila. Ali lost to Leon Spinks in February 1978 on a split decision, before beating Spinks in their rematch seven months later.

Ali sent his letter of retirement to the World Boxing Association before returning to the ring to face his former sparring partner Larry Holmes for the vacant World Boxing Commission title, reportedly taking the fight partially due to money issues . Before the fight, he was ordered to undergo examination at the Mayo Clinic because there was a concern as to whether he was fit to return to the ring-he had begun to display symptoms of what would be diagnosed as Parkinson's syndrome in 1984 .

The fight was so one-sided that Holmes reportedly voiced concern to the referee, who refused to stop the match. Holmes went on to win after Ali's long-time trainer finally stepped in to stop the fight. Stallone attended the fight in Las Vegas and compared it to "an autopsy on a man who's still alive." Ali fought one more time before ultimately retiring.

As time went on, Ali struggled with the impact that Parkinson's had on his health-a condition related to taking an estimated 200,000 hits over his amateur and professional boxing career . He continued to make public appearances, including his inspiring lighting of the Olympic torch in the 1996 Atlanta Games. He continues to be a revered sports and civil rights legend , considered the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time.

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies in the CU Boulder Department of Ethnic Studies .

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