"I'm the greatest! I'm the greatest!" Cassius Clay shouted from the center of the ring. The 22-year-old boxer danced about the canvas as the defeated heavyweight champion of the world, Sonny Liston, slumped on his corner stool. Liston had just refused to answer the bell at the start of Round 7 of their February 1964 title bout in Miami.
The referee raised Clay's right fist, and the winner by a TKO continued shouting, "I'm the king of the world!"
The boxing press and many knowledgeable fans were familiar with Clay's bombast and hyperbole, but the new champion introduced another facet of his life to the news media the following day.
In Miami's Convention Hall, Clay began to speak of religion and social values. Moreover, he talked of the media's expectations of a heavyweight champion, and, to make his point, he cited practices followed by Black Muslims, formally the Nation of Islam, which gave him direction. "I know where I'm going ... I'm free to be what I want."
"Are you a card-carrying member of the Black Muslims?" a reporter asked.
"Card-carrying, what does that mean?" Clay asked. "I believe in Allah and in peace. ... I'm not a Christian anymore."
Nine days after the Liston fight, Clay told reporters in New York he was changing his name to Cassius X Clay, with the "X" representing his missing African identity. That same day, the head of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad, bestowed a wholly new name on Clay _ Muhammad Ali.
The public and the national news media seemed OK with Clay's public brashness, but his name change and association with the Black Muslims didn't sit well. Author and journalist George Plimpton commented on the public reaction years later, according to Howard Bingham and Max Wallace in their 2000 book, "Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight."
"People seemed to believe this man was a threat to America's values because of his affiliation with the Muslims," Plimpton said, "which was seen as a racist organization."
However, many years before Ali's 2016 death, American had grown to view him as one the country's greatest sports heroes. Yet his name change in 1964 paled in comparison to his actions three years later _ his refusal to enter the U.S. armed forces' draft on April 28, 1967, 50 years ago this week.
