:00:07. > :00:09.Muhammed Ali - boxing legend and a giant of 20th
:00:10. > :00:22.I want everybody on TV to know it, I am the greatest.
:00:23. > :00:25.The Kentucky boy who rose from humble beginnings went
:00:26. > :00:28.on to become a three-time world heavyweight champion.
:00:29. > :00:35.He talks too much, he is ugly, he is pretending, I am the true champion,
:00:36. > :00:40.they make me the underdog. I'm going to show them they are all wrong,
:00:41. > :00:41.because I am the champion, I am the real champion, there will never be
:00:42. > :00:43.one like me. Away from the ring -
:00:44. > :00:45.his stand against Vietnam split public opinion -
:00:46. > :00:47.but he earned global respect In his later years he fought a long
:00:48. > :00:51.battle with Parkinson's disease. Good evening - and one story
:00:52. > :01:27.dominates the news tonight - Outspoken but rarely outfought, he
:01:28. > :01:31.transcended his sport to become a global icon for black civil rights.
:01:32. > :01:33.He was also a controversial political figure.
:01:34. > :01:35.Today President Obama said "he shook up the world, and the world
:01:36. > :01:43.Our Sports Editor, Dan Roan, looks back at his life.
:01:44. > :01:51.I want everybody out there on TV to know it, I am the greatest. Muhammad
:01:52. > :01:55.Ali simply voiced his own punch lines. He could tell you he would
:01:56. > :02:02.float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, and then he would do it.
:02:03. > :02:05.With a speed and agility never seen before in a heavyweight boxer, Ali
:02:06. > :02:09.was a genius in the ring and a cultural icon out of it. His
:02:10. > :02:15.charisma and his beliefs establishing him as a true superstar
:02:16. > :02:19.who came to transcend sport. Born Cassius Clay in Louisville, Kentucky
:02:20. > :02:24.in 1942, the first achieved fame when he won gold at the Rome
:02:25. > :02:28.Olympics in 1960. Three years later he was famously floored by a left
:02:29. > :02:32.hook from Sir Henry Cooper. Cooper stole the moment but he lost the
:02:33. > :02:38.fight. Clay was left with a shot at the world title held by the fearsome
:02:39. > :02:41.Sonny Liston, a fight he considered invincible, rank outsider Muhammad
:02:42. > :02:48.Ali first mocked his opponent and then he beat him. An outspoken force
:02:49. > :02:52.of nature, his Brache boastful antics did not endear him to
:02:53. > :02:55.everyone, but the so-called Louisville lip was a blisteringly
:02:56. > :03:00.powerful expression of freedom at a time of control. He converted to
:03:01. > :03:09.Islam, swearing allegiance to the Elijah Muhammad. That is the name
:03:10. > :03:14.given to my teacher. Cassius Clay was my slave name. I am no longer a
:03:15. > :03:18.slave. On religious grounds he refused to obey his call-up to the
:03:19. > :03:22.war in Vietnam. At that stage and vilified as much as he would as
:03:23. > :03:29.Myatt, his territory went way beyond boxing, he was stripped of his title
:03:30. > :03:33.and sentenced to jail time. -- as much as he was admired. His beliefs
:03:34. > :03:40.costing more than three years out of the ring. In the 1970s he makes a
:03:41. > :03:44.memorable appearances on Sir Michael Parkinson's chat shows. He is no
:03:45. > :03:48.doubt the most beautiful and complete athlete. To others he is a
:03:49. > :03:51.political leader, a figurehead between black and white, and more
:03:52. > :03:54.people, who care little about sport and even less about politics, he is
:03:55. > :04:02.one of the world's greatest entertainers. He revealed his
:04:03. > :04:06.showmanship and taste the publicity were inspired by a wrestler called
:04:07. > :04:11.gorgeous George. When I used to see people come to see him. They all
:04:12. > :04:18.paid to get in, and he beat them. I said this is a good idea. The way
:04:19. > :04:23.you look back over a career such as I have had, you look at all of the
:04:24. > :04:28.people you have interviewed, a few standout. He was the one who stands
:04:29. > :04:32.out most of all. Extraordinary man. Lucky to have met him. That is the
:04:33. > :04:38.sort of thing. His image will live on. His memory will live on for the
:04:39. > :04:42.rest of time, I suppose. If one fight to find Ali, it was in 1974,
:04:43. > :04:48.his epic battle against the mountainous George Foreman, The
:04:49. > :04:52.Rumble In The Jungle. You wait until I get George Foreman, he talks too
:04:53. > :04:55.much, the years are becoming is pretending, I am a true champion,
:04:56. > :05:00.they make me the underdog, I am going to show them all I am wrong,
:05:01. > :05:03.because I am the champion, the real champion, there will never be one
:05:04. > :05:04.like me. All you in Britain who raped me as the greatest come I will
:05:05. > :05:20.prove -- all you in Britain who rate me as
:05:21. > :05:23.the greatest, I will prove to you I am the greatest, we are going to
:05:24. > :05:29.prove to the world I am the greatest.
:05:30. > :05:37.COMMENTATOR: He has won the title back. He beat himself out. He was so
:05:38. > :05:41.tired. He was falling on the ropes. I said, man, this is the wrong place
:05:42. > :05:46.to get tired. Today, George Foreman paid this tribute. He was probably
:05:47. > :05:55.one of the greatest human beings are ever met. It was like we were one
:05:56. > :06:02.guys. A part of me has gone. Ali predicted Zaire would be his last
:06:03. > :06:06.fight, but he was wrong, he carried on for seven years. He got Parkinson
:06:07. > :06:12.is. And with dignity he lit the Olympic flame in 1996. When it came
:06:13. > :06:16.to sports personality of the century, there was no contest.
:06:17. > :06:26.Meanwhile, his body was failing him, the famous wit still sparkled. I
:06:27. > :06:29.enjoyed it. And I'm a comeback. LAUGHTER
:06:30. > :06:37.Go anywhere in the world and people about Muhammad Ali. -- I will come
:06:38. > :06:42.back. He was, quite simply, a phenomenon. To use his words, he was
:06:43. > :06:50.the greatest. I am the king of the world. I shook up the world. I shook
:06:51. > :06:53.up the world. Though he was born and raised
:06:54. > :06:55.in Louisville, Kentucky - New York was the place where Ali
:06:56. > :07:15.trained and where he fought some New York's most famous boxing gym
:07:16. > :07:22.also doubles as a shrine to Muhammad Ali. He trained here in the 1960s
:07:23. > :07:26.where his super-size charisma made him an electrifying presence. But it
:07:27. > :07:31.is not just as a megastar that they remember him here, it is also as a
:07:32. > :07:39.friend. He would give me the shirt off his back. Just a nice person. He
:07:40. > :07:42.would stop and talk to anybody. Not only stop and talk to the guy
:07:43. > :07:48.standing in the corner with the suit and tie on, he will talk to the bomb
:07:49. > :07:52.lying on the ground, half drunk, or half dead, he will. And talk. You
:07:53. > :07:57.start talking to him he will talk to you. One thing about Muhammad Ali,
:07:58. > :08:02.he loved to talk. Two things that are hard to see, just a spooky ghost
:08:03. > :08:06.and Muhammad Ali. People would queue up even to see him train. At a time
:08:07. > :08:12.when boxing was in danger of being relegated to a backstreet sport he
:08:13. > :08:17.ushered in its golden age. It wasn't about the money or the fame... His
:08:18. > :08:23.star power could fill Madison Square Garden a hundred times over. But it
:08:24. > :08:27.was his intimacy his photographer recalled. He spent a year on the
:08:28. > :08:32.road with Ali in the 1970s and has memories of a special trip to South
:08:33. > :08:37.America. He went to a hospital full of polio victims and lent a helping
:08:38. > :08:47.hand to the poor. Everyday we were there, beggars were up in the
:08:48. > :09:00.hallway. He would... Sorry... He gave each one of them $100. I said a
:09:01. > :09:07.champ -- I said, "Champ, why are you doing that?" And he said," because
:09:08. > :09:12.$100 here is worth $10,000 back at home", and that was him. Champion,
:09:13. > :09:17.Superstar, the superlatives seem inadequate. But his own famous boast
:09:18. > :09:20.also serves as an epitaph, he was quite simply the greatest.
:09:21. > :09:27.We can go live now to Jon Sopel who is in Louisville, Kentucky.
:09:28. > :09:33.We're at the Muhammad Ali Museum will stop you can probably see a
:09:34. > :09:39.stream of people who have been coming in to lay flowers to pay
:09:40. > :09:42.their respects. -- at the Muhammad Ali Museum. He was probably the
:09:43. > :09:48.world's most famous boxer. Outside of the ring he was also a giant. He
:09:49. > :09:53.waded into two of America's potent political controversies in the
:09:54. > :09:57.1960s, race and the Vietnam War, changing his name, as we heard, and
:09:58. > :10:02.bracing the nation of Islam, and also refusing to fight in Vietnam.
:10:03. > :10:06.That made him a polarising figure, revered by young black America,
:10:07. > :10:12.reviled by many conservatives. Barack Obama has tweeted today, he
:10:13. > :10:16.shook up the world and the world is better for it. RIP champ.
:10:17. > :10:18.Thank you. As we've been hearing,
:10:19. > :10:21.Ali was a prominent figure both In the 1960's he became a leading
:10:22. > :10:25.civil rights activist - and his influence on racial
:10:26. > :10:27.equality was felt far beyond the United States,
:10:28. > :10:43.as Elaine Dunkley now reports. Britain in the 1960s was deeply
:10:44. > :10:49.divided. New arrivals from the Commonwealth were denied housing and
:10:50. > :10:52.work. It was to America that black Britons would look the cultural
:10:53. > :10:56.icons and they did not come much bigger than Muhammad Ali. The black
:10:57. > :11:00.man has been brainwashed. It is time for him to learn something about
:11:01. > :11:05.himself. Somebody like Muhammad Ali came on the scene, you know, he made
:11:06. > :11:11.us feel so good as young people. He was a great significance for
:11:12. > :11:19.somebody like myself who was involved in radical, revolutionary
:11:20. > :11:26.politics. I met him later on... In 1963, activist Paul Stevens
:11:27. > :11:32.successfully to lead a campaign against a company that was refusing
:11:33. > :11:41.to hire black and Asian drivers. He made a friendship with Muhammad Ali.
:11:42. > :11:46.He wanted to see it. We spoke about how we can deal with racism. And how
:11:47. > :11:52.he could be used to get England talking about racism. In 1974
:11:53. > :11:56.Muhammad Ali's visited Brixton brought the streets to a standstill.
:11:57. > :12:01.Photographer Neil Callan lock caught on camera pivotal moment in black
:12:02. > :12:07.British history. He was just fantastic. But he decided to leave
:12:08. > :12:17.America, to come to Brixton, to support our community. And that is
:12:18. > :12:21.what really touches me. He played with the people. He would talk to
:12:22. > :12:25.anybody. He would touch them. He was an incredible person. Muhammad Ali
:12:26. > :12:29.will be remembered as one of the greatest boxers of all time, but to
:12:30. > :12:33.many his greatest legacy was his fight for civil rights.
:12:34. > :12:36.That's it for now - our next news on BBC One
:12:37. > :12:43.But before we go we'll leave you with thoughts of Muhammad Ali.
:12:44. > :12:53.Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
:12:54. > :13:02.Never make me the underdog. Never talk about who is going to stop me.
:13:03. > :13:08.Nobody is ever going to stop me. Why do you insist on being called
:13:09. > :13:14.Muhammad Ali now? My slave name as Cassius Clay, I am no longer a
:13:15. > :13:20.slave. Everything was white. Santa Claus was white. And everything bad
:13:21. > :13:26.was black. The black cat was a bad one. If I threaten you I am going to
:13:27. > :13:34.blackmail you. CHUCKLES
:13:35. > :13:40.Why did they call it white mail, they lie too.
:13:41. > :13:42.CHUCKLES -- why don't they.