The Greatest: Muhammad Ali

The Greatest: Muhammad Ali is a biography by Walter Dean Myers and was originally published in 2000. It recounts the life of Muhammad Ali, the heavyweight boxing champion, pop culture icon, and social activist who, at one point, was one of the most famous people in the world. The book was completed in 2000, many years before Ali’s death in 2016, but he only made a handful of public appearances in the last years of his life.

Written for a young adult audience, Myers states at the beginning of the book that he wants young people to understand Ali as a legendary figure who both defined and transcended his own time. Myers wants the next generation to have a sense of what it was like for him as a young man to witness a Black man dominate the sporting world and stand up for his religious and political beliefs, making himself a figure of racial pride at a critical time in American history. The book won many awards, including the American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults (as well as Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers), and was the Booklist Editor’s Choice Selection.

This guide refers to the first hardcover edition published by Scholastic Press in 2001.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain descriptions of racism.

Summary

Myers gives a brief account of Muhammad Ali (who, at the time, was still named Cassius Clay) winning a shocking upset victory over Charles “Sonny” Liston to win the heavyweight title in 1964, the arena erupting into pandemonium as Liston refused to stand up for the seventh round. Myers then describes Ali’s childhood in Louisville, Kentucky, where he had a loving family and adult role models in the community while also enduring the cruelty and humiliation of segregation. He began boxing at the age of 12, and at 18, he became a national celebrity by winning a gold medal at the 1960 Olympics in Rome. As a professional, he gained a reputation for motormouthed trash-talk, earning the moniker of “The Louisville Lip” (23), as well as criticism for his affiliation with the Black nationalist organization the Nation of Islam, which was fiercely critical of both the white power structure in America as well as the nonviolence of civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr. After his win over Liston, Ali announced his membership in the Nation, shortly thereafter taking the name Muhammad Ali. After making several title defenses, Ali was stripped of the title in 1967 for refusing induction into the army on the grounds that his Muslim beliefs forbade his participation in the Vietnam War. Ali returned to the ring in 1970 but lost his first professional bout against Joe Frazier, who had won the championship in his absence. Frazier then lost the title to George Foreman, whom Ali then defeated in another upset in Kinshasa, Zaire. After winning a grueling rematch with Frazier in 1975, Ali’s career went into decline, and shortly after retirement, he began exhibiting symptoms associated with Parkinson’s disease, although the precise connection between his illness and boxing career is unclear. After retiring in 1981, his public profile gradually diminished as the symptoms of his illness became more severe. He died in 2016, which gave rise to an outpouring of admiration that proved that his legend would far outlast his physical decline.