The Greatest: Muhammad Ali

Content Warning: This section discusses racism.

“I look upon him as an American, as a fighter, as a seeker of justice, as someone willing to stand up against the odds, no matter how daunting those odds, no matter how big his foe.”

Writing for a young adult audience, Myers frames his subject as he perceived him during his own childhood, as a larger-than-life figure who dominated in the world of sports while crusading for racial justice. This may preclude the nuances of Ali’s story, but since other authors have covered this ground, Myers wants young people today to get a sense of what he meant to so many young people then.

“As Clay’s vision cleared, his confidence grew. Everything he had learned in his brief ring career, from the neighborhood gym in Louisville to his training as a pro, all came together. Suddenly it was Clay who was the master, the toreador, and Liston the clumsy buffoon.”

Myers prefaces the biography with a brief account of his shocking win over champion Sonny Liston in February 1964, when Cassius Clay went from being a brash and talented youngster to legend in the making. Myers hints at the story that prefaces this moment by referring obliquely to “[e]verything he had learned,” thus aiming to engage the reader in the ensuing backstory.

“The young man from the segregated South who was used to being banned from certain restaurants and parks because he was black, was now being celebrated. […] Before the Olympics and the gold medal, Clay had glimpsed the kind of attention a famous boxer could receive. When he returned he was getting much of the same attention. At eighteen, the world seemed his for the taking.”

This passage communicates the suddenness of Clay’s transition to national celebrity, particularly as Myers emphasizes his age. Once millions of Americans saw a gold medal draped around his neck in Rome (especially after beating someone from a communist country during the height of the Cold War), he immediately became a source of universal interest, and Clay would prove more than eager to lap up the attention.