Meet Muhammad Ali: The Fighter Who Gave Up His Title to Keep His Word

The rise

He took up boxing at twelve after his bicycle was stolen, won Olympic gold at eighteen, and in 1964 took the heavyweight title from Sonny Liston as a heavy underdog.

The cost of conviction

In 1967 he refused induction into the US Army. He was stripped of his title and barred from boxing for three and a half years — until the Supreme Court unanimously overturned his conviction in 1971. He lost to Joe Frazier that year, then came back to beat George Foreman in Kinshasa in 1974.

The last rounds

Diagnosed with Parkinson’s syndrome in 1984, he kept travelling — to Baghdad in 1990, where he secured the release of fifteen American hostages — and lit the Olympic cauldron in Atlanta with shaking hands.

Why they belong at your table

Seat Ali when a principle is going to cost you something real, and you need someone who paid that price and did not regret it.