When it comes to boxing, Muhammad Ali knew he was the greatest. He knew it, his opponents knew it, and the whole world knew it. But that is just a small part of what made Muhammad Ali famous. His courage to stand up for his religious beliefs was his greatest victory. His refusal to be inducted in the US Army and participate in the war against Vietnam at the risk of a prison sentence, the loss of his Heavyweight Boxing Championship title, the confiscation of his passport, and a potentially ruined career inevitably made him a legend in his own time.
Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight focuses on his battle with the United States government to be accepted as a conscientious objector and his struggle with the World Boxing Association to regain his confiscated boxing title. After a few introductory chapters covering his childhood and a brief history of boxing, the book’s primary content is based on the ten year period of time when this occurred… the 1960’s.
If you’ve already read Thomas Hauser’s Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times you may find sections quite repetitive. In fact, entire paragraphs are exactly the same. Some examples: from Hauser’s book Chapter 7 titled Exile – pages 181, 186, 187, and 192 paragraphs match the content of this book in Chapter 8 – also titled Exile- on pages 189, 178, 190, and 202. However, for anyone who is not interested in reading hundreds of pages of his entire biography but wishes to understand the significance of Muhammad Ali’s fame, this is a good book; short, concise, and to the point with great detail about the Black Muslims, the Vietnam war protests, his connection to Malcolm X and association with Martin Luther King Jr., and Muhammad Ali’s unwavering religious faith and sincere concern about civil rights.
Rated 3 Stars.
I use a rating scale of 1 to 5. Books rated 1, I seldom finish. Books rated 2, I usually finish but would never recommend to anyone. 5 is the highest rating.
