10 Reasons Why Muhammad Ali Really Was The Greatest

Many journalists predicted that Cassius Clay would be no more after sharing a ring with Sonny Liston, and they were right. Just not in the way they thought.

Prior to the fight, Cassius Clay Sr. had told the press his son had joined the Nation of Islam; a militant African American group sometimes referred to as the Black Muslims. Clay Jr. refused to comment at the time, though he was frequently seen with political firebrand and NOI front man Malcolm X, who rejected the integrationist leanings of Martin Luther King in favour of separatism.

Not long after defeating Liston, Cassius Clay announced his membership of the Nation of Islam and the new name given to him by its leader Elijah Muhammad. From then on, he demanded to be known only as Muhammad Ali as opposed to the “slave name” of his forebears. Few initially complied, but Ali was insistent on his new name and the conviction of his religious beliefs, though Malcolm X would soon leave the Nation of Islam, reject their doctrine and be assassinated for his troubles.

Ali himself would eventually feel the same, but at the time – slap bang in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement – it was enough to alienate a good portion of his own race and compatriots at large. It was also a powerful statement that demonstrated, as Ali himself put it, “I don’t have to be what you want me to be. I’m free to be what I want”.