All language subtitles for In.Their.Own.Words.S01E02.Muhammad.Ali.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-KAIZEN_track3_[eng]

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ACTOR: (AS ALI) This is the
legend of Cassius Clay,

the most beautiful
fighter in the world today.

There'll never be another
Muhammad Ali.

He was something fresh.

He was something
we'd never seen.

ACTOR: (AS ALI)
This I predict
and I know the score,

I'll be champ
of the world in '64.

NARRATOR:
Since he first fought his way
to public attention,

he's been among
the most charismatic

and polarizing
cultural figures
on the world stage.

Big mouth, loud mouth,
Louisville lip.

BOTH: Float like a butterfly,
sting like a bee. Ahhh!

You said, "Muhammad Ali,"
you said, "Voice, mouth."

And this might shock
and amaze ya,

but I will destroy
Joe Frazier.

Ali is the people's champ.

Ali is the revolution.

Cassius Clay is a name
no more, is that right?

Yes, sir, it's Muhammad Ali.

Here was this young
kid from Louisville

telling the truth about
the way things were.

He was gonna be very vocal
about the problems
this country had.

NARRATOR: In a turbulent time,
he fearlessly fused sports,

politics, race and religion.

When Ali refused induction
into the United States army...

So many people were
ready to crucify him
for his stance.

NARRATOR:
Stripped of his title
and exiled from the ring,

he became a symbol
of principled defiance.

LL COOL J:
Three and a half years

out of the game
because he did what he
believed was right.

NARRATOR: In an epic comeback,
he beat the odds,

his stunning victories
transcending the sport itself.

JIM BROWN: When have you
ever had a fighter

become bigger than life,

defy the government and win

and then come back
and become champion
of the world again?

NARRATOR: This is the story
of Muhammad Ali.

ACTOR: (AS ALI)
I am the greatest!

NARRATOR: On the night
of July 19th, 1996,

the whole world watches as
54-year-old Muhammad Ali

sets the cauldron ablaze

at the Olympic games
in Atlanta.

The sight of the Olympic
gold medalist

and three-time heavyweight
boxing champion

defying Parkinson's disease
to light the Olympic flame

warms public affection

for a man who,
three decades earlier,

was a racial and political
lightning rod.

BROWN: It was a great thing
for the country,

and it was a great
thing for Muhammad Ali.

But if he were not sick,

would America have
allowed him to do
the same thing?

Muhammad Ali has
been beatified in some ways

because he's
no longer threatening
to the establishment.

People forgot

that there was a time

when Muhammad Ali
was very dangerous.

NARRATOR:
He was dangerous in the ring.

ANNOUNCER:
If he goes down again,
it's over!

Hey, I'm the greatest
thing that ever lived!

I shook up the world!

I shook up the world!

NARRATOR: But some
saw him as dangerous
outside the ring.

Out of all people, it takes
a Uncle Tom negro

to keep continually
calling me by a slave name,

which is white name,
Cassius Clay.

He was against the war when
for the first time,

we, as Americans,
actually said,
"No this isn't right."

He was a champion when
we were gaining black pride

and civil rights.

He was our moral conscience,

he was our athletic dream.

Muhammad Ali epitomized

what we were all about
in the '60s.

He was on a spiritual quest.

Breaking out,
coming out of Louisville,

going on that
search for meaning,

going to the Olympics,
coming back, meeting
the dark forces.

Three and a half
years of exile

while he's fighting
for his life.

And then coming out on top.

It's the hero's journey, man.

ACTOR: (AS ALI)
I'm going to save boxing.

I'm good looking,
clean living,

cultured, and I am modest.

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

NARRATOR: The man who would
become Muhammad Ali

is born Cassius Marcellus Clay

in Louisville, Kentucky
in 1942,

the era of the segregated
Jim Crow South.

You know, a black man
was always supposed
to be subservient.

Always supposed to say,
"Yes, sir, boss."

And you're supposed
to just, you know,
play that game forever.

When we woke up
in the morning,

the first thing that
comes to your mind

is that your blackness

is gonna be what white America
is gonna look at

and judge you by.

THOMAS HAUSER:
Blacks, if they were lucky,

could aspire to be teachers,

but that was the top
of the social strata.

Most often it was the
black citizens of Louisville
who raked manure

into the backstretch
at Churchill Downs.

NARRATOR: Cassius and his
younger brother, Rudy,

are raised in Louisville's
struggling black middle class.

Cassius Clay didn't
grow up in a ghetto.

His family lived in
a very modest but
comfortable house.

He had two parents at home.

There was always
enough to eat.

He always had money
for clothes.

NARRATOR:
Clay's father is a skilled
sign painter.

A proud and volatile man.

MAY MAY ALI:
You know, my grandfather,
Cassius Clay Sr,

you know, he's kind
of my father's genes,
you know?

Very extroverted
and bold and loved himself,

so he got a lot
of that from his father.

HAUSER: Odessa Clay was
a very sweet nurturing woman.

And when you
looked at Cassius,

you saw the two parents
fused into one personality.

NARRATOR:
As with many classic heroes,

the origin of Muhammad Ali
involves a twist of fate.

In 1954,

12-year-old Cassius Clay
rides his brand new bicycle

to a black business expo
in downtown Louisville.

Cassius spent some time
walking around,

getting free candy,
seeing what was there.

When it was time to leave,
he went outside,

and his new red and white
Schwinn bicycle
had been stolen.

Somebody told him
there was a policeman

in the basement
of the building

teaching youngsters
how to box.

NARRATOR:
Furious young Clay finds
Officer Joe Martin

in the Columbia Gym.

Clay is ready to fight
whoever stole his bike.

Martin calms him down

and suggests that
if he wants to fight,

he should first learn how.

Martin teaches the
89-pound Clay how to box.

And his teenage student
is eager to learn.

Within weeks, young Clay
wins his first amateur bout.

It's the start
of something bigger

than either of them
can possibly imagine.

There was another
black trainer

at a black gym
named Fred Stoner
who he also worked with.

But Joe Martin was the person

that was held up
and put out front
for the publicity.

Here's the white policeman.

He taught this young
fellow how to box.

It's a feel good story.

NARRATOR: Ambitious,
driven, Cassius Clay

becomes a National
Golden Gloves champion.

ANNOUNCER: It's a
TKO decision for Cassius Clay.

NARRATOR: Rock and roll
pioneer Lloyd Price

often gigs in Louisville.

But despite the fact
that his song,

Stagger Lee is topping
the charts,

he's got to find lodging
in a guest house

on the black side of town.

LLOYD PRICE:
There was a corner spot
called Rivers Lounge.

And I would go there
because it wasn't far
from the guesthouse.

And this young Cassius Clay

would always come by there.

And him and his brother,
Rudolph was his name.

And, uh, he said
that he's gonna be
the champion of the world.

He always had a big mouth,
you know.

"I'm gonna be the champion
of the world."

You know,
he had all this energy.

And he was ambitious and
young guys at that time, uh,

wasn't thinking like
he was thinking.

NARRATOR:
John F. Kennedy is running
for President in May of 1960

as 18-year-old Golden Gloves
champ Cassius Clay

wins the US Olympic trials
in San Francisco,

then goes on to take
the light heavyweight
gold medal

at the summer games in Rome.

1960, I'm in the
Olympic Village in Rome,

and this person
is sitting on some steps,

and he's got a gold medal
around his neck,

and he's talking about what
he's going to do with his life
in very loud terms.

And the thing that caught me
about him, I noticed,

all the women turned around
when they got five yards away

to take a second look.

NARRATOR:
But despite all the attention
he gets in Rome,

Clay finds that Olympic gold
still won't buy him
a place at the table

in his own hometown.

Here we were being idolized as

competing athletes

on one hand,

and then on the other hand
there were certain restaurants
you couldn't go in.

You know, it's not fun
for people to tell you,

"Yo, you can't eat here."

It's irritating when people
try to hold you down.

You don't get up and
start chanting, you know.
(CHUCKLES)

You know, you get up
and start swinging.

NARRATOR:
Boxing in 1960 has been
a notoriously corrupt sport,

rife with mob influence
and crooked managers.

Into this cesspool
step 11 prominent
Louisville businessmen,

backing their hometown
Olympic hero.

BOB ARUM:
The Louisville
Sponsoring Group,

were composed of white men,

uh, who had good intentions.

DAVE KINDRED:
They were gonna help Clay
be something,

keep him out
of the clutches of evil.

NARRATOR:
With the sponsoring group
in his corner,

the former amateur
Olympian begins

his professional career
on October 29th, 1960.

Tunney Hunsaker is
the first to fall victim
to Clay's raw talent.

Realizing their promising
young fighter

needs an experienced
professional trainer,

the group sends Clay to Miami
to work with Angelo Dundee,

who had trained world
champion Carmen Basilio.

BOBBY GOODMAN:
Few people in the history
of our game were ever

finer cornermen
than Angelo Dundee.

Angelo used to say,
"This kid does
everything wrong,

"does everything wrong.

"But it comes out right."

He did everything, what they
would characterize as being
wrong fundamentally.

He kept his hands down,
he swayed back and forth.

He'd just pull out punches
just by millimeters.

NARRATOR:
Over the next two years,

Dundee guides
the unorthodox Clay
to 19 victories in a row

against a parade
of heavyweights.

Some are a challenge
for the flashy young fighter.

Most are not.

Heavyweights were not known
to be that fast

and that mobile
and that fluid.

And guys couldn't hit him,
especially heavyweights.

He might be big
and he might be tall,

but if he mess with me
he sure will fall.

NARRATOR:
Gaining self-confidence,

Clay starts predicting
the round his
opponents will fall.

PRICE: That he's gonna
knock 'em out in the fourth.
He did it.

He's gonna knock 'em
out in five. He did it.

Seven, he did it.

You know,
that self-confidence,

it's amazing
what it will do to you.

You want to make
a prediction in rhyme

or are you gonna work on that
for a while?

Well, it'll have to be
in rhyme every time.

MAY MAY: My father had
to market his fights

and doing poetry and making
rhymes and...

I'll never forget.
I said, "Dad, where did
you get that from?"

And he says, you know...

He goes, "There was
a wrestler, Gorgeous George."

BELINDA ALI:
Gorgeous George.

He would say, "He was
pretty and he would
comb his blond hair

"and have two
chicks on his arm..."

"And people would
just hate him."

"They would just fill
the whole auditorium
just to see this guy get hit."

NARRATOR:
Inspired by Gorgeous George,

Clay creates his own
supremely confident persona.

BOTH: Float like a butterfly,
sting like a bee! Ahhh!

Rumble, young man, rumble!
Ahhh!

LL COOL J:
Ali's the archetype
for a rapper.

Cockiness, the brashness,

the offensiveness,
the abrasiveness.

Hip-hop is about revolution.

Hip-hop is a voice
for the people.

Ali is the people's champ.

Ali is the revolution.

The real dive will come
on November, the 16th

and in your heart
you know I'm right.

He's new to this game,

he's got all these
microphones and
cameras in his face.

He knows that there's
a portion of the country

that despises him
and hates him.

Ali was completely hip-hop.

NARRATOR: By 1963,
Clay's audacious antics

make him unpopular
with many sportswriters
and boxing fans.

There wasn't much that
the older generation liked

about Cassius Clay.

The way he dissed them,

laughed at their questions.

A hint to the wise
is sufficient.

I remember seeing
a Joe Lewis fight.

Um, they asked him
his reaction, he said,
"I glad I win."

Suddenly there was this guy
who was not only articulate,

but almost poetic

and with a great deal
of braggadocio to boot.

ACTOR: (AS ALI) I am the man
this poem is about,

the next champ of the world,
there isn't a doubt.

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

If he told funny poems,
it would be one thing,

but he tells funny poems,
he tells you how great he is

to have written them
and how great a fighter he is.

And he's the greatest
of all time.

That rubbed some
people the wrong way.

He was the best at everything,

he was the most beautiful
and he hadn't really proven
himself yet.

So all the people are
looking at him like,
"Who does he think he is?"

NARRATOR:
But the example of a proud,
confident black man

appeals to a young
generation who admire the fact

that Clay isn't afraid
to represent.

To African Americans,
he was a source of pride

in that he took great delight
in who he was

and in broadcasting
it to everyone.

Just to say that you
love yourself
and have self-pride,

showed people that
they can do the same.

He made me feel proud
to be a black man.

He just represented
a symbol of strength to me.

ACTOR: (AS ALI) I am going to
make boxing popular again,

me with my beautiful,
colorful personality.

NARRATOR: 21-year-old Clay
is eager to prove

he's more than
a pretty face.

Now a top
heavyweight contender,

he campaigns to fight
the reigning champ,

Sonny Liston.

He went after Sonny
with a vengeance.

I want that bear.

-And what's going
to happen to him?
-I want that bear.

REPORTER: What's gonna
happen to him?

He might be great,
but he'll fall in eight.

He's driving a bus
onto Sonny's lawn

and he's yelling,
"I want the bear!

"Get the bear out here.
Come on, bear."

It was starting to get
under Sonny's skin.

That big, ugly bear.
I'm tired of hearing this.

And everywhere I go
they're talking about Liston.

I can't wait for him and
he's gonna fall in eight.

HAUSER:
He really tormented Liston.

And finally Liston said,
"Yeah, I'll fight him.

"It'll be easy money."

Everybody believed that Liston
would annihilate this guy

because he was all talk.

If Sonny Liston
whoops me, I'll kiss
his feet in the rain!

NARRATOR:
With a record of 36-1,

Liston is a fearsome champion,

a former mob
enforcer with ties
to organized crime.

BRYANT GUMBEL:
He was frightening.

Sonny was a guy
who was meant to hurt people.

Sonny Liston was Godzilla.

Sonny Liston was going
to reign for 1000 years.

NARRATOR:
Adding to the foreboding
sense of drama

was the presence of members
of the controversial
Nation of Islam.

Nation of Islam was
an isolationist group.

Uh, Elijah Mohammad wanted
his own nation

inside the United States.

You know, so it was...
It was scary.

NARRATOR:
For the past few years,

Clay has been
studying the tenants
of the Nation of Islam,

as espoused by its leader,
Elijah Muhammad,

who preaches that
white people are devils
created by an evil scientist.

But Clay is drawn
to the basic message
of black empowerment.

It made him understand
and promote,
"What is your history?

"What is your African history?
Who are you?

"What is your name?
Why do you have that name?"

I'd never heard anything
like I heard going
to the meetings with Ali.

About, you are somebody.

A black man got
as much right to live
as any other man.

For the first time in my life,

as a grown man who had
been a star, had sold
millions of records,

you start to feel like
you are somebody.

And I can understand
how he got hooked.

NARRATOR: Clay is inspired
by the Nation's assertion
of black pride,

but the presence in his
camp of the Nation of Islam's
controversial Malcolm X

threatens the Liston fight.

Malcolm X, I want to talk
with you briefly

about your affiliation
with Cassius.

How long have you known him?

About three years.

NARRATOR:
Just months before,

Malcolm X caused an uproar

by suggesting that
President Kennedy's
assassination

was a case of quote,
"The chickens coming
home to roost."

REPORTER: You did not say
that you were glad
the President was killed?

No, that's what
the press said.

NARRATOR:
The promoter fears that
negative publicity

will kill ticket sales.

So Clay's camp gets Malcolm
to leave Miami

until the day of the fight.

February 25th, 1964.

Boxing experts and fans
agree that

Liston will clobber
the Louisville Lip.

They thought, "Well,
even if it's gonna be fast,

"it's gonna be really
ugly and bloody,

"just what we
fight fans want."

NARRATOR: It was fast
and it was bloody,

but it was not what most
fight fans expected.

ANNOUNCER: The challenger from
Louisville, Kentucky,

Cassius Clay!

ROBERT LIPSYTE:
When the two men
entered the ring,

we suddenly realized that
David was bigger than Goliath.

ANNOUNCER:
Another jarring
right hand attack.

There goes another one!

Sonny wobbles! Sonny wobbles!

Cassius has him hurt.

NARRATOR:
Clay dominates Liston
from the bell,

dancing around
the slower champion,

and opening a cut
under his left eye.

After seven punishing rounds,

Liston claims
an injured shoulder

and won't come out
for round eight,

making Cassius Clay
the new heavyweight champ.

I don't have a mark
on my face,

and I upset Sonny Liston,

and I just turned
22 years old.

I must be the greatest.

I told the world.

There were a number of people
who immediately said,

"Oh, the fix was in."

HAUSER:
Sonny Liston quit against
Cassius Clay.

He was just getting beaten up.

He didn't like it.

He was a bully
and he couldn't take it.

NARRATOR:
After his stunning
upset of Liston,

Clay holds a press
conference that would
only amplify the shock factor.

Somebody said, "Are you
a card-carrying member
of the Black Muslims?"

And he blew up.

NARRATOR: Clay confirms
that he's a member
of the Nation of Islam.

And he said,
"I don't have to be
what you want me to be.

"I'm free to be who I want."

This is about as revolutionary
a statement as I've ever
heard in sports.

NARRATOR: Now the heavyweight
boxing champion, Cassius Clay,

is free to be himself.

No one could get their mind
around the idea

that this great kid
from Louisville

raised by a Baptist mother

was suddenly announcing

that he was a member
of the Nation of Islam.

NARRATOR:
A few weeks later,

public opinion of the new
heavyweight champ

goes from bad to worse.

Cassius Clay is a name
no more, is that right?

Yes, sir, it's Muhammad Ali.

Muhammad means
"worthy of all praises"

and Ali means "most high"
in a Asian-African language.

LIPSYTE:
This was the toughest guy
on the planet.

He turns his back
on Christianity.

He turns his back
on his family name.

And it began the split

between people who loved him
and people who hated him.

My name is Muhammad,

you all keep
calling me Cassius.

I'm tired of telling you.
You know, you're intelligent.

My name is Muhammad Ali.

Not Cassius.

Is there anybody special
who gave you the name?

Yes, sir, my leading teacher,
the most honorable,
Elijah Muhammad.

NARRATOR: Elijah Muhammad's
influence is growing.

Not only does he give
Ali his new name,

he introduces him
to Sonji Roi,

who becomes Ali's first wife
in August of '64.

IZENBERG:
Muhammad Ali had four wives.

Sonji,

Khalilah, Veronica

and now Lonnie.

I found the first wife,
in a strange way, maybe
the most interesting.

She was very
firmly in love with him.

Their honeymoon
is short-lived.

HAUSER:
We no longer had Cassius Clay.

We now had Muhammad Ali

who was a member
of the Nation of Islam,

which made him very unpopular.

It was getting very hard
to find a place
where he could fight.

Originally the Liston rematch
was set for Boston,

then Muhammad
suffered a hernia.

The fight was postponed.

Boston washed its hands of it,

and it finally wound up
in Lewiston, Maine,

which is one of the few
places that would take it.

NARRATOR: Then, two months
before the rematch,

Malcolm X, who had
broken with Elijah Muhammad
to embrace orthodox Islam

is gunned down by members
of the Nation of Islam

on February 21st, 1965.

HAUSER:
Muhammad Ali had
broken from Malcolm

and sided
with Elijah Muhammad,

so there was concern that
Malcolm's followers

might exact retribution
against Ali.

The rumor had been spread

that there was
a carload of gunmen

coming up from New York

to kill Muhammad Ali
in the ring.

HAUSER:
Ali-Liston Two was a mess.

It was a mess outside the ring
and it was a mess once
the fight started.

NARRATOR:
Midway through round one,

Ali hits Liston with a blow

that would become
infamous as
the "Phantom Punch."

ANNOUNCER:
Did you see the punch?
Did you see it?

Was it the punch heard
around the world?

It wasn't even a punch
seen around the world.

HAUSER:
The punch was hard enough
to knock Liston down,

but he thought Liston
could've gotten up.

IZENBERG:
It took about eight seconds
after nine and 10

that the crowd
began to chant,
"Fix! Fix! Fix!"

NARRATOR:
Ali's second disputed
win over Liston

does little to win over
his boxing critics.

He has other critics as well.

BROWN:
A certain portion of black
America loved him.

Another portion
of black America
did not love him.

The black community
was divided,

those who thought integration
was a great thing

and those who did not think
of integration in that way,

but thought of equal rights

and our freedom,
equality and justice.

I'm not out there marching
and going places
I'm not wanted.

Those of us who were young,

who understood our manhood

and who took pride in it,

we were not asking to be
a part of white America,

but demanding our rights
just like any other citizen.

NARRATOR:
Ali's support of the Nation
of Islam's separatist policy

alienates many in the
Civil Rights Movement,

including Floyd Patterson,

who turns his
November '65 bout with Ali

into a social, political
and religious battle.

LIPSYTE: He said
that a Black Muslim

has no place being
heavyweight champion
in America.

And that he, as a Catholic,

was going to bring the title
back to this country.

BROWN: Floyd was a nice man,

but his approach
was what we call
an Uncle Tom approach,

doing all the things
that white America
wanted you to do.

You ain't nothin',
but an Uncle Tom
for white people.

What's my name
Uncle Tom negro?

I'll jump on you now.
What's my name?

When Muhammad Ali
got him in the ring,

he became pretty cruel
in his beating of Floyd.

He was really giving him
a lesson, talking to him.

Hitting him
and talking to him.

HAUSER:
Ali would disable Patterson,

then step back,
admire his work,

and then beat on him
some more.

ANNOUNCER: I believe
they're gonna stop it.

NARRATOR:
Ali beats Patterson
by technical knockout.

Two months later,
he sues his wife Sonji
for divorce.

She'd lost favor
with her husband's
increasingly influential

Muslim
inner circle.

IZENBERG:
They said it was 'cause
she wore makeup.

She wore daring dresses.

They didn't want her
'cause they had already
picked out Khalilah,

who was working in
a Nation of Islam restaurant.

NARRATOR:
His brief marriage now over,

so is his six year contract
with the Louisville
Sponsoring Group.

Herbert Muhammad
becomes Ali's manager.

KINDRED:
Herbert Muhammad was the son
of Elijah Muhammad

who Muhammad Ali

counted as his
spiritual father.

Uh, Herbert was
an extension of that.

NARRATOR:
Herbert Muhammad joins with
pro football superstar

Jim Brown and
lawyer Bob Arum

to form their own boxing
promotion company, Main Bout.

What we said was

the heavyweight champion
of the world is boxing

and we should
control basically boxing.

NARRATOR:
But Main Bout can't control
the US draft board.

Ali was rejected
for service in '64

when he failed
the written test.

But the Vietnam war is
escalating in February of '66

and the army has
lowered its standards.

Weeks before his bout
with Ernie Terrell in Chicago,

Ali is notified that
Uncle Sam wants him.

The fight was doing
extraordinarily well when

the US government
reclassified Muhammad Ali

from 1Y and made him 1A.

And a television reporter

went to Ali who
was training in Miami

before anybody
could reach him.

I just don't understand
yet how I can be

reclassified as 1A

without testing me in no way,

just calling me like this

and I just don't
understand it.

In other words,
you think they called you

only because you're
the heavyweight champion?

And a Muslim, too.

And that's when Ali said,
"I got nothing against
the Viet Cong,

"they never called me
the N-word."

Everything hit the fan.

NARRATOR: Ali declares
that if he's drafted,

he won't fight in Vietnam.

KINDRED:
Ali put it in racial
and religious terms

that made him
a hero to millions of people

who thought that it
was a bad war.

When he basically said,

"I ain't goin."

Um, a lot of us were
kind of like, "Yeah baby,
I ain't going either.

"I'm just trying
to figure out another
way of doing it,

"so that I don't have
to go to jail in
the process."

MAN: You're not apologizing
for the unpatriotic statements
that you made?

That'll be taken up
with the government.

NARRATOR:
Ali's unpopular stand

causes Chicago politicians
to scuttle the Terrell fight,

leaving his management
looking for another
fight in a new venue.

We wanted to fight in, uh...

Pittsburgh and they ruled it
out there. And then
they tried Maine,

but they didn't want
us in Maine.

NARRATOR:
The growing controversy
over his anti-draft stand

makes Ali toxic in the US,

forcing him to win his
next four fights
in Canada and Europe

where he's a bigger
draw than ever.

A point not lost on one
Texas millionaire.

I got a call from
this real character,
Judge Roy Hofheinz,

who owned the
Astrodome in Houston.

And he said, "You bring
that boy down here.

"Nobody is gonna tell him
he can't fight here."

NARRATOR: Ali knocks out
Cleveland Williams

before a record-setting
indoor crowd.

Smelling another
box office bonanza,

New York hosts
Ali's next victory
over Ernie Terrell.

Ali is now 28-0 in the ring

and still 1A in the draft.

In April of '67,

he finally gets
his draft notice

and reports to the induction
center in Houston

to begin one of the longest,
toughest fights of his life.

JOURNALIST: Former
world heavyweight champion
Cassius Clay

refused to take the oath
of induction into the army.

The Black Muslim fighter,

who's also known
as Muhammad Ali,

was immediately stripped
of his title by the
World Boxing Association.

When a guy says he's not going
to fight for his country,

that irritates a whole
lot of people.

He moved from the sports
pages to the front pages.

NARRATOR: Within days,
Ali is stripped of his license
to box in all 50 states.

JOURNALIST: Nine top
negro athletes meet
with Cassius Clay

to discuss his
anti-draft stand.

Jim Brown and Bill Russell

organized a summit meeting
in Cleveland.

JOURNALIST:
Clay's induction refusal
cost him his title

and he faces a possible
five-year prison sentence.

BROWN: The army was willing
to make a deal.

They were willing to guarantee
that he would go
on Special Services

and he would be able to box.

Behind the scenes,

Herbert Muhammad,
as a businessman,

looked upon that
as a possible option.

The meeting started
with them talking to Ali
about accepting the deal.

You wouldn't have to worry
about being a soldier as such.

You can do public relations.

But Ali's attitude was, "Nope.

"Mmm-mmm.
Don't wanna deal."

NARRATOR:
Two weeks later,

Ali is convicted of draft
evasion in federal court.

Sentenced to five
years in prison

and banned from
boxing for three years,

he remains free while
his case is appealed.

Whatever suffering or
punishment I may have to take,

it'll all be because
of my religion.

He was unafraid of the
political repercussions,

unafraid of any
cultural repercussions,

unafraid of losing money.

He said he would probably
fight again,

but it was okay if he didn't.

Long as he believed that he
was the people's champ,

that was good enough for him.

NARRATOR:
A month after his conviction,

Ali marries 17-year-old
Belinda Boyd

with the approval
of Nation of Islam leaders.

She fully supports
her husband's refusal
to be drafted.

He said,
"I can't kill anybody."

I just said, "Trust me,

"you'll be greatest man ever
who lived if you don't go."

NARRATOR:
Facing five years in prison

and unable to fight while
appealing his case,

newly-wed Ali
needs to earn money.

So, he embarks on
a college lecture tour.

I would like
to hear this from you!

And I want the world
and the cameras to hear it!

Who's the heavyweight
champion of the world?

(ALL CHEERING)

HAUSER: The student audiences
loved his opposition
to the war in Vietnam,

but they were very much
opposed when he spoke to them

against the idea
of interracial dating,

against the idea of living in
the same community.

During those three and a half
years that he wasn't fighting,

basically the only two things
that he was doing,

uh, was going on
college campuses

and the other was
being on television
with Howard Cosell.

REPORTER:
What do you say to that?

ALI: I predict that the fans
will be angry at the experts

for misleading them so much.

I think that his relationship
with Howard Cosell

was critical
to his acceptance by America.

DON MISCHER:
Howard had the deepest
respect for the champ.

Howard many times privately,

um, defended Ali

and Ali's right
to express himself,

and the right to feel
the way he felt

about where we were
with civil rights
at those times.

But Howard also
didn't take any punches.

If he felt like Ali had
overstepped his bounds,

he would confront him.

It was part of the chemistry
of these guys.

You had two gigantic egos.

NARRATOR: After three
and a half years in exile,

Ali remains free
as his appeals proceed
in federal court.

And while politics cost
Ali his boxing license,

politics provides a chance
to fight again.

Georgia has no state
boxing commission.

Individual municipalities
can sanction a fight.

So, black state senator,
Leroy Johnson

strikes a deal with
Atlanta's white mayor,
Sam Massell.

Leroy Johnson said,

"I want this fight to happen.

"I carry a lot
of votes with me."

NARRATOR:
Thus, Ali's comeback begins,

surprisingly,
in the Deep South.

Here's an African American
reviled around America,

suddenly Atlanta
is embracing him.

BELINDA:
He said, "I got my license.

"And I'm gonna fight
in Georgia,

"I'm gonna fight in Georgia."

I said, "In Georgia?"
(LAUGHS)

I said, "Down south?"

He said, "Yeah."
I said, "Oh, Lord.

"We in trouble now."

NARRATOR:
Ali returns to the ring on
October 26th, 1970.

ANNOUNCER: I don't believe
that anybody is happier
than this young man

to once again
step into the ring.

NARRATOR: 28-year-old
Ali was stripped of his title,

but he's never lost a fight

and Jerry Quarry is not
considered competitive.

Ali opens a cut over
Quarry's eye in round three...

And the fight is stopped.

SUGAR RAY LEONARD:
Inactivity is deadly
for any fighter.

And for Muhammad Ali
to have come back

and still display the
incredible hand speed
and fluidity,

that he showed was amazing.

NARRATOR: While Ali's
draft evasion appeal

works its way up to the
Supreme Court,

the NAACP sues

the New York State Athletic
Commission in federal court,

arguing that their ban on Ali
is discriminatory.

Their ban is lifted.

Free to fight
in New York again,

Ali stops Oscar Bonavena
at Madison Square Garden
in December, 1970...

ANNOUNCER: It's over!
Ali is the knockout winner!

NARRATOR:
...setting up a title shot
against Joe Frazier

for an unprecedented
five million dollar purse.

And now we have a chance
to see who the real champion
of the world is.

That was revolutionary.

You know, 2.5 million apiece?
Wow.

Back then,
that was a vast sum of money.

Even Mickey Mantle was not
making that much money.

Let Joe Frazier
talk all he want.

We got a few miles
to straighten
all this mess up.

He brought people to the sport
that didn't even necessarily
follow boxing.

They just liked
Muhammad Ali.

I have fixed up the round
that Joe Frazier
will go down!

LAILA ALI:
You got this person
who's standing up

and he's been
stripped of his title.

People wanted to see,
"Who is this guy?"

His fights meant more than
just the sport of boxing.

His fights were
like a fight for justice.

Ali was carrying
the weight of everything.

I don't think it's possible
to overstate

how much Ali
embodied the hopes,
aspirations, beliefs

of young people in general
and young African Americans
in particular.

Joe's gonna come out smokin'
and I ain't gonna be jokin'.

NARRATOR: The bout is set
for March 8th, 1971.

As the fight approaches,

the battle between two
unbeaten heavyweights

becomes far more
than a boxing match.

Get your hands off of me!

If you were a liberal,
you were rooting for Ali.

If you were a conservative,
you were rooting for Joe.

GUMBEL:
It was a clash of cultures.

There were the people
who were, uh,
demanding civil rights,

who were against Vietnam

and the people who
thought Vietnam was right.

Then, "Damn it, we're gonna
put our views in the ring and
settle it once and for all."

March 8th, '71.

The world flat out stopped.

The apartment that
we lived in was going crazy
for that fight.

KINDRED:
We were glued to the radio.

I can still see Ali leaning
back over the ropes

saying, "No contest!"

Meanwhile Frazier's
pounding him,
you know, 20 times.

Ali absorbed an enormous
amount of punishment,

gave out an enormous amount
of punishment.

Yeah, and when
the 15th came
and they said

he'd been knocked down,
it was like...

"This can't be."

NARRATOR:
Ali gets quickly to his feet,
but the damage is done.

Ali suffers his first loss.

It's Frazier by
unanimous decision.

GUMBEL:
This can't have happened.
This is impossible.

And it was impossible
not because

we didn't believe Joe Frazier
could beat Muhammad Ali.

It was impossible because
his beating him meant
they were right.

And they couldn't be right.

And the right wing idiots,
and the hard hat guys,

and the ugly Americans,

they were standing
in the way of history.

They were standing
in the way of change.

They were on the
side of wrong.

And so they couldn't be right,
they just couldn't.

In the first blush of defeat,
Ali was gracious and elegant.

He was perfect
in giving Frazier credit.

I've been always
handing out the defeat,

so now I'm defeated,
and now I see how
other people felt.

And when I do come back,
if I ever do,

I'll have more of
a hungrier determination,

which is something you lose
in intoxication

of so-called greatness.

By the next morning,
he had been robbed.

IZENBERG:
He went on every
late night talk show.

He convinced
half of America or more

that he had won the fight,

and it killed Frazier.

He was the only
one who believed,
coming out of that fight,

that he would be
champion again.

NARRATOR:
Four months after his
unanimous loss to Frazier,

Ali wins a stunning, unanimous
decision in the Supreme Court,

which overturns his conviction
for draft evasion.

I mean, nobody
would've believed that that
could've happened

when Ali refused
to step forward.

NARRATOR:
With prison no longer looming,

Ali is free to renew his quest

to reclaim the title that had
been taken from him,

a title now held
by George Foreman.

Ali's momentous match
against Foreman

is an event unlike
anything boxing has ever seen.

In 1974,

promoter Don King
and a consortium
of backers

make a deal
with Zaire's strongman
President Mobutu Sese Seko

to host a worldwide live
satellite broadcast

of The Rumble in the Jungle.

Ali basically showed
that he could

transcend the sport.

He brought half
of the media of the world
to Kinshasa, Zaire.

NARRATOR:
10 long years after he first
shook up the world,

32-year-old Ali
is once again challenging
a heavily favored champion.

Foreman was, uh, the second
coming of Sonny Liston.

ARUM: Remember this wasn't
an ordinary heavyweight.

This was a guy
who could knock down walls.

Everybody felt that Ali
was gonna get hurt.

This was a... You know,
this was a monster.

I was so afraid that
George Foreman

was gonna kill Ali.

NARRATOR: Both fighters train
in Zaire for the bout
on October 30th,

but it's Ali who is embraced
by throngs of African fans.

PRICE: It's unreal the amount
of people,

ten to fifteen thousand
people in the crowd,

following him,
just shouting his name.

"Ali, bomaye!"

"Ali, bomaye!"

He'd say, "Stop the car."
And then he'd get out,

and he'd,
"Bomaye! Bomaye!"

He just wanted
to create a crowd.

Pretty soon you couldn't
even walk across the street.

LL COOL J: All of that worked
in Ali's favor.

I mean, he was
playing psychological games,

he's punching voodoo dolls,
he's got people
beating on drums.

"The champ is here!"
(IMITATING DRUMS)

"The champ is here."

Me and maybe one other
person thought he could
beat George Foreman.

He believed it.

He believed it.

NARRATOR: Ali's confidence
isn't shared by
many boxing experts.

But during the fight,
Ali would add "rope-a-dope"
to the lexicon,

and a great new
chapter to his legend.

ANNOUNCER: Ali stands back,
eyes this man up,
leans on the rope.

Ali goes back on the ropes,
and the ropes go back more.

And Foreman misses
by that much.

ANNOUNCER: That wild left hand
is not working.

Angelo sends his corner guys
around to the corners.

He says, "Tighten the ropes,
tighten the ropes."

And Ali's saying,
"No, leave 'em, leave 'em."
(CHUCKLES)

Ali formed in his mind,

he formed the rope-a-dope
right there and then.

To take that kind of
punishment from a guy
like George,

you know, who knocked
most guys out like
they were rag dolls.

I can't fathom taking
those kind of blows

from a guy who
punches that hard.

Those punches
could crack ribs.

How could you take
this in your body?

And Ali was taking it.

And Foreman was
punching himself out.

I had predicted that Foreman
was gonna annihilate him.

And inbetween rounds
when he started
to wear George down,

he said, "Hey, big fellow,
what do you think now?"

(CROWD CHEERING)

He knocked George out.

ANNOUNCER:
Muhammad Ali has done it!

LEONARD: When Muhammad Ali
put George down,

he had proven that
he is indeed the greatest.

ANNOUNCER:
This great man has done it!

Ali beats Foreman,
humiliates him.

He stops and he says,
"Fellas, you'll never know
what this means to me."

(CLICKS FINGERS)

That should've been
his retirement.

How can you top that.

BELINDA: You've went through
the trials, your ups
and your downs,

your glory times,

this is the time to retire.

He had proven the point,

you can't go any further once
you prove the point.

And, there's something about
the romance of athletics

that is hard for
people to give up.

For him every fight was
another drama, another circus,

and he loved
every minute of it.

LIPSYTE: All those
available ladies,

all this love and admiration,
it's very hard to
walk away from that.

NARRATOR: When Elijah Muhammad
dies in February of '75,

his son Wallace leads
the majority of
the Nation of Islam

toward traditional
Sunni Islam.

Ali, who has always had
white men in his corner,

embraces the change.

LL COOL J: Prejudice is a
two-way street, you know?

He was driving down
one side of it

at one point in his life,

not unlike Malcom X
who had a similar journey,

and he evolved.

He said, "Whites can
become Muslims now."

He says, "So you
can become a Muslim."

And he hugged me.

There wasn't any
racism in Ali.

NARRATOR: Later that year,
Philippine President
Ferdinand Marcos

plays host to the third
Ali-Frazier fight,

The Thrilla in Manila,
on October 1st, 1975.

GUMBEL: They'd been the two
most dominant fighters
of their time.

Towards the end
of their career,

oh, here they are
again in this big fight

and this is going to be
the culmination of it all.

NARRATOR: For both fighters,
it would also mark
the beginning of the end.

The fight took place at about
11 am Manila time.

Outside, the hot Philippine
sun was beating down.

And inside, this fight
between these two great
athletes was going on.

PRICE: And these two guys
was going at each other

like they was gonna
just kill each other.

They both took
an enormous beating.

They were both
heroic that night.

NARRATOR: After 14 rounds of
battle in the sweltering heat,

Frazier and Ali, both mentally
and physically spent,

go to their corners
to await the final round.

That moment that you're
sitting on your stool,

your eyes swollen shut,

your legs are gone.

(SIGHS) You're totally
exhausted.

You look across
and see your opponent

and he is just as in bad shape
as you are.

All of a sudden your
mind and your heart says,

"You ready to go?"

And either you answer
"yes" or "no."

Most guys say "no."

The special ones say "yes."

Ali was the one
who said "yes."

PRICE: Joe couldn't
answer the bell.

And Ali just
passed out in the ring.

And he said it was the nearest
thing to dying.

NARRATOR: In the year
after his punishing victory
over Frazier,

Ali defends his title
four times,

including a brutal
15-round win over Ken Norton.

His longtime ring doctor,
Ferdie Pacheco,

sees the writing on the wall.

KINDRED: Pacheco went
to Norton's locker room

and told him,
"Congratulations, you
just ended Ali's career."

Norton had lost, but Ali
was physically beat up.

NARRATOR:
The following year, his speed
and skills diminished,

Ali survives
a 15-round slugfest
with Earnie Shavers...

ANNOUNCER: Muhammad Ali,
not down but hurt.

NARRATOR:
...the hardest hitting
heavyweight in boxing.

He said that, Earnie Shavers
hit me so hard

that my ancestors in Africa

turned over in their graves.

Which was a fabulous line,
except the way that he said it

was just the beginning
of a slur in his speech.

NARRATOR: In February of '78,

Ali loses his title
to Leon Spinks,

a novice with just seven
fights under his belt.

But he's not done yet.

He fights Spinks again,
beats him, regains the title.

And then Don King
gets Ali to fight
Larry Holmes.

And I was
absolutely horrified.

NARRATOR: The Holmes bout
is set for October 1980,

a year after Ali's last fight
against Spinks.

His deterioration is evident.

Even to those of us
who'd never looked at
Ali with clear eyes,

it was clear that he was done.

NARRATOR: Holmes wins
by TKO in the 11th round,

the first time Ali has ever
failed to go the distance.

KINDRED: Whatever damage
had been done to Ali

in all of these
12, 15 round fights,

all of that had come together
to leave him a shell
of what he once was.

NARRATOR: A year later,
Ali steps into the ring
one last time

to fight Trevor Berbick
on December 11th, 1981.

MARYUM: The whole family went.

And up until the fight,
we were begging him
in his hotel room,

"Don't fight, you don't
need to do this anymore."

NARRATOR:
After the loss to Berbick,

Ali finally calls it a career.

LEONARD: It's hard
to tell a champ
that it's time, it's over.

Because we always believe
we can always win that fight.

Ali fought.
That's what he did.

And we who loved him
really had no say in it

and no right to say,
"No, we don't want you
to fight anymore

"because it ruins
our memory."

Well, he had a right to say,
"I will choose when I'm
gonna leave it."

And he did.

The first few years
of retirement
were hard for Ali.

He was no longer in the
spotlight as heavyweight
champion of the world.

But the worst thing

was that the
Parkinson's syndrome

was becoming
clearer and clearer.

LAILA: When you stay
in the ring too long,

it's gonna really start
wearing down on you.

And that's exactly what
happened to my father.

NARRATOR: Ali's Parkinson's
syndrome is made public
in 1984.

It's really hard for me and
everyone else to see a man

who used to be
so great with words,

and now that's one of
the things that he can't do.

It's a sad thing
because you wonder

what he would be saying now.

PRICE: We need that
Louisville Lip because

there's nobody speaking

for African-Americans
or Americans like Ali spoke.

That voice just isn't there.

When Ali stopped
really talking in public

and really doing
whole Ali thing,

he had said so much
that it still echoes.

I have enough inside
here and inside here
to replay it for life.

We're in a hotel room
in Las Vegas at an event,

and this is like '90s,
so the Parkinson's is...

He can still walk,
but he's talking very soft.

And he goes, "You know
I wanna make it to heaven,

"and I wasn't a perfect
person, and this Parkinson's
shut me down.

"I can't do nothin'
wrong now, you know!"

But he said,
"I'd rather suffer now,
than in the hereafter."

NARRATOR: By 1986,
Ali is five years
into retirement

and on his third marriage.

He and his second wife,
Khalilah, were divorced
in 1975.

KHALILAH: He was doing
a lot of cheating.
He's weak for women.

I just didn't know
how weak he was.

NARRATOR: Ali's next marriage
to Veronica Porsche,

would last 10 years.

My father would say
he was the best Muslim
he could be.

Given that he was
this gorgeous,
Adonis boxer,

(CHUCKLES) that all
the women loved.

NARRATOR: In the summer
of '86, Ali and Veronica
are divorced.

Later that year,
he marries his fourth wife,
Lonnie Williams,

who he first met in Louisville
back in 1963.

NARRATOR: In 1996,
Ali would make
a memorable return

to the global spotlight.

We were thinking, "Who would
be an American Olympian

"who could light the cauldron
that would mean the most

"to people watching
around the globe?"

Ali was the guy who
made the most sense.

And it was not met
with wide-open endorsement.

There were some
people who said,
"Well, you know...

"He was a draft dodger,
wasn't he?"

NARRATOR: Mischer
and Ali's longtime friend
Howard Bingham

work out a deal, in which
they agree to keep Ali's
torch-lighting role a secret.

Howard Bingham calls me,
"Your dad's lighting
the torch,

"don't tell anyone! Just call
your sisters and brothers."

And I'm in the control room
at the bottom of the stadium
with 26 cameras

and, you know,
directing the world feed.

But even down there,

in the bowels of the stadium,
I could hear what was
going on up there.

And I never dreamed
that it would be that strong
and that powerful.

You know, when my father
gets nervous, he shakes more.

So, he's shaking
the torch, and I'm like,

"Oh, Lord, Dad gonna
burn down the stadium!"

(LAUGHING)

There was a part of me
saying, "Oh, my God,
look at Muhammad."

Feeling sorry,

but then, the other
part of me said,

"For God's sake,
that's Muhammad Ali."

MISCHER: To have predicted
in 1967, how much Ali

and his personality would
resonate around the world,

twenty or 30 years later,

there were a lot of people
that would have said,
"That will never happen."

The transformation
of Ali from the most
hated man in America

to this beatified
Ali of today...

A complete reversal.

But those of us who believed
we were in the right back
in the '60s,

this simply validates it.

That, "Hey, you
finally came around.

"You know, you couldn't
stop the march of history."

"He saw where it was going.

"He pointed the way.

"You hated him for it,
but you couldn't stop it."

NARRATOR: Ali is awarded
the Presidential Medal of
Freedom in January, 2005.

Later that year,
the non-profit
Muhammad Ali Center

opens in downtown Louisville,

not far from where
his bike had been stolen
over 50 years before.

His legacy is that
when you believe in yourself,

no matter what the odds are,
if you're on the right
side of history,

and if you perfect your craft,

you can accomplish anything.

He stood up on a level
that nobody else stood up,

and he had a platform
that no one else had.

Risking his personal success
and his personal wealth

to basically tell the truth.

People today
are fond of saying,

"Yes, Muhammad Ali
stood up for his principles."

But there's been a determined
effort to wipe away

cognizance of what those
principles once were.

Don't wipe out the memories
of what Muhammad stood for
in the 1960s.

Take it, build on it,

and show how Muhammad Ali
and America both changed,

and came together in the end.

He was no saint.
He was no devil.

He was Muhammad Ali,

and nobody else ever was
or ever could be.