The unauthorized copy...
Dedicated to The Greatest
{I am the king of the world!}
{Never talk about who's gonna stop me
Cause NOBODY gonna stop me!}
{I must be the greatest!}
My name Shaun Boothe
{I'm a BAD man! I STHE WORLD!}
Born Cassius, Clay Jr
January 17th in '42
Louisville, Kentucky he grew up
A little boy doing what a little boy do
'Til somebody stole his bike
Swearing up and down they would pay the price
A police officer overheard
Laughed at the child and gave advice
Told him to take that rage to fight
"Come to my gym and train to fight"
Little did he know that would change his life
Make him a star, put his name in lights
As an amateur, he would bandage up, anyone he faced
Due to his, tutelage, even then, you knew the kid
Was destined to be great
Golden child - 8 Golden Gloves
On the road to Olympic gold, in Rome
Everything he dreamed
Got his ticket then his feet got cold
Praying in the aisles on the way to the fight, he made it!
And in that 1960 Olympics' victory
He declared himself The Greatest
Critics watched and frowned, at his boxing style
Said he couldn't keep his guard up
He wasn't pro and they still couldn't knock him down, uh!
Hands low, damn he can dance though!
Made em look too stiff to box
A punch too quick to clock
You get hit before you get from tick to tock
Uh, and by '64 he was giving knockout predictions
What round they would hit the floor, ridiculing his opposition
Dismissed as the Louisville Lip, outspoken but never out-boxed
Liston finally gave in, and Clay got his first title shot
He even put out an album
Threw a few Sonny poems together
And called it "I Am the Greatest"
Some say the first battle raps ever
He said he'd knock him out in eight
But nobody believed, nobody listened
...'Til the headlines came, "Cassius Clay beats Sonny Liston"
And after that, huge upset he upset the world
When he announced he was a member of the Nation of Islam
He lashed back like, "What was it I did wrong, huh?"
And in the fashion of Malcolm X, for whom he had profound respect
From his slave name he said, "I'm free"
And he became young Muhammad Ali
Then the love for him got outweighed by outrage
And fear of his new devout faith
To an organization perceived as only being about hate
Years later, he refused the draft, denounced the war
On the grounds of religious beliefs, then they hated him more
They told him go to jail or go to Vietnam
Then they took his title, and his boxing license
So he took it to court and fought three years long
Now somewhere in that time America realized the war was wrong
And he went from, traitor to hero
And in a year or so he was coming back strong
Uh, moving with such grace and ease
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee
Hand can't hit what your eyes can't see
Then came the fight of the century
Ali, Joe Frasier
As far as match-ups there were no greater
First professional loss, but he would beat him in a rematch later
But by then Frasier lost the belt
To a man by the name of George Foreman
Much stronger and younger than Ali
Still he said, "I'm in. if you're in"
Then came the "Rumble. in the Jungle", promoted by Don King
In '74 they went to Zaire
He got out the plane like What do I hear?
They were saying {ALI, BOMA YE! ALI, BOMA YE! ALI, BOMA YE!}
It was much more than some ego stroke
He knew he gave the poor people hope
Against the odds, toe to toe
Swarming crowds, overflow
But no matter how hard he fought
They said Foreman would never be stopped
But instead of going blow for blow
He let him go for broke, punched himself out
Later they would call it the Rope-a-dope
And in the eighth round everything turned around!
Ali springs from the ropes, swinging fearlessly and Foreman goes down
And the whole crowd erupts in amazement when he can't beat the count
And a new King is crowned, fighting for the poor and oppressed
His victory, made history
But it was more than just being the best
It was character, it was charisma
Being someone that cares for us
You see, he redefined the word CHAMPION
To a category that the rest can't be in
The unauthorized biography of Muhammad Ali
The next seven years of his legendary boxing career were not without its price
And in the early 80s' he would go on to develop Parkinsons disease
Presumably due to all of the punishment he had endured
But that didn't stop Ali from what he called his true life calling
In humanitarian endeavours
Travelling around the world as the goodwill ambassador, to us all
The End
Next chapter: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barack Obama