04/06/2016 BBC Weekend News

Muhammed Ali - boxing legend and a giant of 20th

I want everybody on TV to know it, I am the greatest.

The Kentucky boy who rose from humble beginnings went

on to become a three-time world heavyweight champion.

He talks too much, he is ugly, he is pretending, I am the true champion,

they make me the underdog. I'm going to show them they are all wrong,

because I am the champion, I am the real champion, there will never be

one like me. Away from the ring -

his stand against Vietnam split public opinion -

but he earned global respect In his later years he fought a long

battle with Parkinson's disease. Good evening - and one story

dominates the news tonight - Outspoken but rarely outfought, he

transcended his sport to become a global icon for black civil rights.

He was also a controversial political figure.

Today President Obama said "he shook up the world, and the world

Our Sports Editor, Dan Roan, looks back at his life.

I want everybody out there on TV to know it, I am the greatest. Muhammad

Ali simply voiced his own punch lines. He could tell you he would

float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, and then he would do it.

With a speed and agility never seen before in a heavyweight boxer, Ali

was a genius in the ring and a cultural icon out of it. His

charisma and his beliefs establishing him as a true superstar

who came to transcend sport. Born Cassius Clay in Louisville, Kentucky

in 1942, the first achieved fame when he won gold at the Rome

Olympics in 1960. Three years later he was famously floored by a left

hook from Sir Henry Cooper. Cooper stole the moment but he lost the

fight. Clay was left with a shot at the world title held by the fearsome

Sonny Liston, a fight he considered invincible, rank outsider Muhammad

Ali first mocked his opponent and then he beat him. An outspoken force

of nature, his Brache boastful antics did not endear him to

everyone, but the so-called Louisville lip was a blisteringly

powerful expression of freedom at a time of control. He converted to

Islam, swearing allegiance to the Elijah Muhammad. That is the name

given to my teacher. Cassius Clay was my slave name. I am no longer a

slave. On religious grounds he refused to obey his call-up to the

war in Vietnam. At that stage and vilified as much as he would as

Myatt, his territory went way beyond boxing, he was stripped of his title

and sentenced to jail time. -- as much as he was admired. His beliefs

costing more than three years out of the ring. In the 1970s he makes a

memorable appearances on Sir Michael Parkinson's chat shows. He is no

doubt the most beautiful and complete athlete. To others he is a

political leader, a figurehead between black and white, and more

people, who care little about sport and even less about politics, he is

one of the world's greatest entertainers. He revealed his

showmanship and taste the publicity were inspired by a wrestler called

gorgeous George. When I used to see people come to see him. They all

paid to get in, and he beat them. I said this is a good idea. The way

you look back over a career such as I have had, you look at all of the

people you have interviewed, a few standout. He was the one who stands

out most of all. Extraordinary man. Lucky to have met him. That is the

sort of thing. His image will live on. His memory will live on for the

rest of time, I suppose. If one fight to find Ali, it was in 1974,

his epic battle against the mountainous George Foreman, The

Rumble In The Jungle. You wait until I get George Foreman, he talks too

much, the years are becoming is pretending, I am a true champion,

they make me the underdog, I am going to show them all I am wrong,

because I am the champion, the real champion, there will never be one

like me. All you in Britain who raped me as the greatest come I will

prove -- all you in Britain who rate me as

the greatest, I will prove to you I am the greatest, we are going to

prove to the world I am the greatest.

COMMENTATOR: He has won the title back. He beat himself out. He was so

tired. He was falling on the ropes. I said, man, this is the wrong place

to get tired. Today, George Foreman paid this tribute. He was probably

one of the greatest human beings are ever met. It was like we were one

guys. A part of me has gone. Ali predicted Zaire would be his last

fight, but he was wrong, he carried on for seven years. He got Parkinson

is. And with dignity he lit the Olympic flame in 1996. When it came

to sports personality of the century, there was no contest.

Meanwhile, his body was failing him, the famous wit still sparkled. I

enjoyed it. And I'm a comeback. LAUGHTER

Go anywhere in the world and people about Muhammad Ali. -- I will come

back. He was, quite simply, a phenomenon. To use his words, he was

the greatest. I am the king of the world. I shook up the world. I shook

up the world. Though he was born and raised

in Louisville, Kentucky - New York was the place where Ali

trained and where he fought some New York's most famous boxing gym

also doubles as a shrine to Muhammad Ali. He trained here in the 1960s

where his super-size charisma made him an electrifying presence. But it

is not just as a megastar that they remember him here, it is also as a

friend. He would give me the shirt off his back. Just a nice person. He

would stop and talk to anybody. Not only stop and talk to the guy

standing in the corner with the suit and tie on, he will talk to the bomb

lying on the ground, half drunk, or half dead, he will. And talk. You

start talking to him he will talk to you. One thing about Muhammad Ali,

he loved to talk. Two things that are hard to see, just a spooky ghost

and Muhammad Ali. People would queue up even to see him train. At a time

when boxing was in danger of being relegated to a backstreet sport he

ushered in its golden age. It wasn't about the money or the fame... His

star power could fill Madison Square Garden a hundred times over. But it

was his intimacy his photographer recalled. He spent a year on the

road with Ali in the 1970s and has memories of a special trip to South

America. He went to a hospital full of polio victims and lent a helping

hand to the poor. Everyday we were there, beggars were up in the

hallway. He would... Sorry... He gave each one of them $100. I said a

champ -- I said, "Champ, why are you doing that?" And he said," because

$100 here is worth $10,000 back at home", and that was him. Champion,

Superstar, the superlatives seem inadequate. But his own famous boast

also serves as an epitaph, he was quite simply the greatest.

We can go live now to Jon Sopel who is in Louisville, Kentucky.

We're at the Muhammad Ali Museum will stop you can probably see a

stream of people who have been coming in to lay flowers to pay

their respects. -- at the Muhammad Ali Museum. He was probably the

world's most famous boxer. Outside of the ring he was also a giant. He

waded into two of America's potent political controversies in the

1960s, race and the Vietnam War, changing his name, as we heard, and

bracing the nation of Islam, and also refusing to fight in Vietnam.

That made him a polarising figure, revered by young black America,

reviled by many conservatives. Barack Obama has tweeted today, he

shook up the world and the world is better for it. RIP champ.

Thank you. As we've been hearing,

Ali was a prominent figure both In the 1960's he became a leading

civil rights activist - and his influence on racial

equality was felt far beyond the United States,

as Elaine Dunkley now reports. Britain in the 1960s was deeply

divided. New arrivals from the Commonwealth were denied housing and

work. It was to America that black Britons would look the cultural

icons and they did not come much bigger than Muhammad Ali. The black

man has been brainwashed. It is time for him to learn something about

himself. Somebody like Muhammad Ali came on the scene, you know, he made

us feel so good as young people. He was a great significance for

somebody like myself who was involved in radical, revolutionary

politics. I met him later on... In 1963, activist Paul Stevens

successfully to lead a campaign against a company that was refusing

to hire black and Asian drivers. He made a friendship with Muhammad Ali.

He wanted to see it. We spoke about how we can deal with racism. And how

he could be used to get England talking about racism. In 1974

Muhammad Ali's visited Brixton brought the streets to a standstill.

Photographer Neil Callan lock caught on camera pivotal moment in black

British history. He was just fantastic. But he decided to leave

America, to come to Brixton, to support our community. And that is

what really touches me. He played with the people. He would talk to

anybody. He would touch them. He was an incredible person. Muhammad Ali

will be remembered as one of the greatest boxers of all time, but to

many his greatest legacy was his fight for civil rights.

That's it for now - our next news on BBC One

But before we go we'll leave you with thoughts of Muhammad Ali.

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.

Never make me the underdog. Never talk about who is going to stop me.

Nobody is ever going to stop me. Why do you insist on being called

Muhammad Ali now? My slave name as Cassius Clay, I am no longer a

slave. Everything was white. Santa Claus was white. And everything bad

was black. The black cat was a bad one. If I threaten you I am going to

blackmail you. CHUCKLES

Why did they call it white mail, they lie too.

CHUCKLES -- why don't they.