Do we like Muhammad Ali?
Our score: 8 out of 10. He risked his career over the Vietnam draft, spoke up for Muslims late in life and apologised to Joe Frazier, but his earlier taunts and remarks leave real marks.
Born Cassius Clay in Louisville in 1942, he won Olympic gold in Rome in 1960, then took the name Muhammad Ali after converting to Islam. He finished with 56 wins and five losses, including the 1974 Rumble in the Jungle against George Foreman. Nobody is arguing about the boxing.
The defining stoush was Vietnam. In 1966 he told reporters he had no quarrel with the Viet Cong, and in 1967 he refused induction, citing his faith. He was arrested, stripped of his titles and licences, and kept out of the ring for years while he fought the case. The Nation of Islam disavowed him and Jackie Robinson criticised him, per the Daily Star. The Supreme Court overturned his conviction in June 1971, and public support for the war had dropped sharply by then.
The harm check is where it gets uncomfortable. In a 1975 Playboy interview he reportedly said a Black person who got involved with a white partner should be killed, and the Irish Times notes his support for separatist views in that era. He later moved away from all that, but it's on the record. Nothing turned up from him against LGBTQ+ people, and there's no climate or conspiracy stuff either. That's the honest list.
Then there's Joe Frazier. Ali called him an Uncle Tom and worse to sell fights, and the Irish Times says he treated Frazier disgracefully and the taunts stuck with Frazier and his family for years. Ali later apologised, and the pair reached an uneasy peace, but Frazier never forgot. It's the clearest case of a bloke learning too late what his mouth had done.
Late in life he put his name to a message that Islam is not what extremists say it is. In December 2015, after the Paris and San Bernardino attacks, he urged political leaders to use their position to bring understanding about Islam. Outlets read it as aimed at calls to ban Muslim immigration, though he named no one.
In 1990 he flew to Baghdad despite criticism from the Bush administration. He met Saddam Hussein for about 50 minutes and flew home with 15 American hostages, per the Irish Times. In 2026 the new Ali Act fight is about fighters' protections, and his grandson wants his grandfather's name off the bill unless that changes.