He then starts taking boxing lessons at a neighborhood gym in Louisville, Kentucky.
He will learn to “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee,” and in due course defeat Sonny Liston in two sequential championship fights, first in February 1964, and then in May 1965. He will emerge as the undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World.
In between the two Liston fights, on March 6, 1964, Cassius Clay rattled America when he assumed the Nation of Islam name Muhammad Ali.
In 1999, Sports Illustrated and the BBC will crown him “Sportsman of the Century.”