CASSIUS Marcellus Clay Jr, better known as Muhammad Ali, was the first boxer to win the world heavyweight championship on three separate occasions. He defended this same title a total of 19 times over his stellar career.

Early in his career the charm and charisma for which Ali is very much remembered was a lot more obvious than his boxing prowess. It wasn’t until February 25, 1964, that Clay (not yet Ali) solidified his status as a top boxer, knocking out one of the fiercest boxers of the era — Sonny Liston — to become the heavyweight champion of the world. Soon after he accepted the teachings of Islam and took the name Muhammad Ali.

He dominated the sport for three years after as his mantra “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” became as infamous as the man himself. Ali was more than a boxer, however. He was a very outspoken proponent of black pride, resistance and civil rights. Ali was famously stripped of his titled after being convicted for refusing to go to a war he did not believe in for the US Army. The conviction was later unanimously overturned by the US Supreme Court.

His return to boxing was marked with notable wins over Joe Frazier and his adversary George Foreman in the country now called Congo as the nation’s blacks welcomed Ali as a hero and supported him over the more affable Foreman.

Ali is notable in black history as he spoke out against white discrimination and was the first major personality to say no to the Vietnam War — a war generally seen as wrong, when drafted to go by his government.