For almost thirty years, Muhammad Ali has held the Guinness World Record as the most written-about person in history. Although John Lennon once claimed that the Beatles had become bigger than Jesus, Ali is the one who really deserves such distinction! Muhammad Ali, originally known as Cassius Clay, has been an iconic legend to millions of people all over the world. Ali was able to touch the hearts of people through his deeds as champion in the ring and through his humanitarian roles outside of it.

No sport has chewed athletes up and spit them out - especially Black athletes - quite like boxing. Boxing was for the poor, for people born at the margins of society. There was a long era of deep racism, particularly in the US, with a shared view that Blacks were mentally and physically inferior to whites. Despite this, boxing was unique among sports as it was one of the first to become desegregated. This was not for equality reasons. Quite the opposite. The brutality of the sport itself gave promoters a stage to make money off the rampant racism in American society. This would actually lead to white supremacist ideas of society being challenged by the Blacks dominance of the sport. Muhammad Ali would take centre stage during this dramatic change in society.

During early part of Ali's career, he became increasingly disillusioned in a white dominated racist society. He soon converted to Muslim where he changed his name from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali. These were all brave moves to take for a black man in a white dominated world. He would use his fame to spread the message of equality across the world and was the catalyst for bringing the issues of racism and war into professional sports.