cassius clay, became muhammad ali, became a living legend. our thanks to all our guest who have helped us through our coverage. and that will do it for this hour of our coverage. muhammad ali gone at the age of 74. ♪ i am the greatest. >> he knew it before the world did. >> i will be the youngest heavywieght champ in history. >> knew it when he was cassius clay. >> i'm bad. i'm pretty. i can't be beat. >> charismatic. and brash. >> i'm dynamite. >> he brought spectacle and theater to the ring. >> then, changed his name. >> cassius clay is my slave name. >> i don't think you could have gotten a worse response.

>> became muhammad ali. see how he became the self-proclaimed greatest. >> he was so good. so bright. >> it was plain crazy. >> in this hour, his historic fights in the ring. >> joe frazier versus muhammad ali. >> against the draft. >> there's difference in fighting and going to vietnam. >> against a crippling disease. >> the syndrome caused from too many blows to the head. >> i wouldn't sit home and watch people labeled muslims. >> hollywood had its version of the story. here's how it rally unfolded. the greatness behind the greatest. muhammad ali. >> ladies and gentlemen.

♪ this is "headliners and legends" with lester holt. >> he has been called by many the greatest athlete of the 20th century. if you're not old enough to remember muhammad ali's era, it's almost impossible to convey what a force he was. but his combination of being a hero in the ring and out, made him a legendary figure. how ali advantage wished opponents. spoke truths that people didn't want to hear. and always seemed to be ahead of his time. >> who you think the champ is? >> the whole world tunes in with the name of muhammad ali on the billing. >> he was one of a kind. >> he's an american hero. if you're going to measure what america has been during his

adult lifetime, he's the perfect person to do it for you. >> i am the greatest. ♪ >> float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. >> rumble, young man, rumble. >> i'm young. i'm handsome. i'm fast. i'm pretty. i can't be beat. >> every time you turn around, you heard this voice. i'm cassius clay. i'm going to do this. look how pretty i am. >> let me see your mouth closed and keep it closed. >> that's impossible. i'm the greatest. you get too smart, i'll knock you out. i'm not only vital, i'm a poet. i'm a prophet. i'm a resurrector. >> this is one of the most vocal, entertaining people to

ever come along, on the american scene, regardless of being in music or sports or politics. >> i'm the savior of the boxing world. if it up with for me, the sport would be dead. >> what you would say about his personality, is there was nothing to take seriously. he was the kid next door, but louder. >> people say i'm cocky. some say i need a good whoopen. some say atalk too much. anything i say, i'm willing to back up. >> if you would have told me then, this would be the most recognizable face in the entire world. muhammad ali would born in louisville, kentucky, in 1942. he started boxing at the age of 12. he went on to win the golden gloves. and suddenly, he stepped center stage in rome at the 1960 olympics.

>> in rome, courtside ceremonies bring to close a 17th modern olympiad. >> dwight eisenhower was the president of the united states. we're in the 1950s, even though the era was 1960. the athletes were quiet and humble. here's this young, attractive young man. >> if you keep talking jive, i'm going to cut it to five. >> he was so good. so bright. he lit up, charisma. the media was happy as heck i would do this. >> what do you like about boxing? what appeals to you? >> not to be bragging. i'm not the kind that likes to brag. >> i had noticed. >> i like boxing because it weren't for boxing, i wouldn't be here. i could fight you tomorrow and fill up a crowd of 10,000 people because of my talking and ability.

>> he began to get a lot of publicity, through his relentless and creative self-promorgs. one story that sticks out in my mind, went down to photograph muhammad for "sports illustrated." he mentioned to muhammad, he did most of his photography for "life" magazine. if you make it into the pages of "life" magazine, you had made it big-time. well, i do a lot of underwater photography. and casius' eyes lit up. with great pride, casius told a big secret that the reason he was so fast was that he trained underwater. each morning, he would get up in secret, go down to a swimming pool and throw punches

underwater. and that built up his strength. and he said, that's fantastic. you have to let me photograph it for life. it was great publicity. and it was a total nonsense story. cassius has never thrown a punch under water in his life. and he didn't know how to swim. he came along as a fighter, with a very different approach, making it a showbusiness game. >> i'm modest. he's not a talker. >> this was enormously lab rating for people. to see a public figure acting this way. >> i will be 21 january 17th. i predict by the end of 1963, i

will be the youngest champion in history. the only reason i won't be, is this fella, sonny liston, will be ducking and dodging me. >> sonny liston, being compared to jack dempsey and joe lewis, goes to train. >> liston was a destroyer of flesh. if liston was around today, he would eat up every heavywieght. he would have eat them up, knock them out. i seen him hit a guy with a jab, knock his teeth out. >> i saw sonny liston a few days ago. >> he's too ugly to be the world's champ. the world's champ should be pretty, like me. >> this is a guy who had been to jail several times. for armed robbery, for beating up a cop.

he was managed by the mob. his three previous fights had resulted in first round knockouts. >> forget it. they're looking at my kid. oh, my god. he's going to get killed. they didn't realize the transition from 60 to 64. this kid became a man. he loved to train. loved to spar. he could star like you and i take a hot shower. >> my new year's resolution is to knock out that big, ugly bear. shake up the whole world in 1964 and talk no more. >> will you look right into the camera and wish sonny liston a happy new year. >> he's going to need happiness after i annihilate him. i'm going to beat him so bad, he's going to think he robbed a bank. >> we did homework on this liston. i brought muhammad to a lot of

his fights. one fight in particular, liston knocks this guy out. hi puts his arm around muhammad and says, i'm going to beat you like your daddy. >> what percentage of your fans do you feel will be coming to see you? >> 100% will be coming to see me. 99% will come to see me get beat because they think i talk too much. but i got these. >> and they represent your thinking. >> these represent dynamite. there he is. ♪

♪

before cassius clay, weigh-ins were quiet staid events. when cassius clay fought sonny liston, it was chaos. >> it will take a good man to whoop me. i'm loaded with confidence. i can't beat me. 108 amateur fights, 22 professional fights and i'm pretty as a girl. >> guys like liston, tough guys are afraid of crazy guys. he thought my guy was nuts. that was the edge we had. we fooled a lot of people. >> my dream has come true. i've been talking and talking and predicting. >> it must be remembered. it wasn't that ali was a

showman. and he realized that in order to make money as a boxer, he had to make people go to the fights. >> the public didn't like liston. they liked cassius clay because he was great copy. ♪ but there was a disturbing undercurrent. and cassius clay's popularity to the press was about to plummet. in the early 1960s, several years before the sonny liston fight, cassius clay went to nation of islam meets. >> he wasn't letting anybody know. there was an agreement that he would not say he was a muslim until after the fight. >> promoters were disturbed by

this. they couldn't care less. they scacared that nobody was gg to come to the fight. >> all of a sudden, you have a whole bunch of black muslims, as they were known to the establishment media, surrounding cassius clay. and the most visible among them was malcolm x. >> his relationship was friend. ali had invited him to miami. >> malcolm x was attracted to ali. he liked him as a person. he thought if he could bring ali into the fold as a muslim, what an enormous thing for black people. and what a thumbing of the nose it would be to the white establishment, if that could happen. >> people understood that cassius clay was not going to renounce what he believed in. the promoter told malcolm, this

fight is in danger of being canceled. there's a lot of folks down here in florida who don't like what's going on. and you've got to get out of here. or casius might not have the opportunity to fight for the heavywieght championship. malcolm agreed to leave. but he said he would be coming back for the fight. >> 15 rounds, for the heavywieght championship of the world. the challenger from louisville, kentucky, wearing white trunks with red stripes, weighing 210 1/2 pounds, the former olympic light heavywieght champion, cassius clay. >> i remember the night of that fight, listening to it on the radio. >> the man who is down must take an eight count. >> get through the first rounds. >> there's jabbing all over

body. and a right hand. the best punch of the fight so far. >> mohammed nailed him in the first round, with a good right hand. >> he was faster. hit much harder than sonny expected. there was one moment in the third round when he was really beating liston up. sonny's face was starting to look like he was put through a meat grinder. >> what happened was, he busted him up with a good right hand on the cheekbone. that's when i think either the solution or they had put some alcohol on the shoulder of liston. >> clay's eyes began to burn. he went back to his corner, and he believes that one of liston's cornermen put a solution on sonny's gloves to get in clay's eyes. >> he wants to get up and tell the referee, there's dirty work afoot. and the referee started to come to the corner.

i said, get up. and he got up and the referee went back to the neutral corner. and, i said run. his eyes cleared up halfway through the round. took a horrible licking. in that round, he took a bad licking, the body licking. but his condition was so great, he overcame it. when his eyes started to clear up, he started to do a number on liston again. >> sonny liston was beaten badly. refused to come off his stool and answer the bell. and cassius clay leaped up and leaned over where we were sitting and said, you and you and you, i fooled you. it's my destiny. i'm the champ. i'm the greatest. >> so great, i don't have a mark on my face. and i just turned 22 years old. i must be the greatest.

♪ after winning the championship, clay explains to the press, that he has embraced

the religion of islam and he wishes to be called by his new muslim name muhammad ali. >> he announced he had joined the nation of islam. and that made him very, very unpopular. >> i don't any you could have gotten a worse response than if he said he joined the communist party. >> they viewed it as something that is radical. something that is bad. something that is different than mainstream america. >> it was a time of serious political upheaval. the voting rights act and civil rights act were still new. one of them hadn't been enacted yet. a lot of change was happening at that time. >> the nation of islam had a doctrine that's different than orthodox islam, what muhammad embraced today. the nation of islam was found by elijah mohammed.

>> it said that black people were superior to white people. they said heaven and hell is here on earth. the white man is having his heaven now. you're having your hell now. you have to change that. >> it came out of a need to bring black people out of the gutters of america, and to try to make them independent and stand on their own and give them dignity. >> once he joined the nation of islam and said, you have to accept me on my terms. no black athlete had said to the white public or the black public, you have to accept me on my terms. >> shortly after the first sonny liston fight, cassius clay started signing autographs cassius x. the x was for the african name that had been lost. and elijah mohammed was giving him a new name. >> when ali changed his "a" name

and "b" adopted his black muslim faith right after the sonny liston fight in '64, there was a tremendous aversion, not only to him and to the faith, but to elijah mohammed and herbert mohammed. and they didn't accept it in the beginning. it was another reason to dislike ali. >> why do you insist on being called muhammad ali. >> that's the name given to me by my leader and teacher. that's a black name. cassius clay was my slave name. i'm no longer a slave. >> what does it mean? muhammad means worthy of all praises and ali means most high. >> do you intend to fight with that name? >> i want to be known all over the world with that name. >> he took, basically, many of

the same characteristics he had has cassius clay. but now, he had a different framework in which to cast his personality. he now had this religion and this set of politics. >> everything good in authority was made white. we look at jesus, we see a why man with bland hair and blue eyes. angels, white with blonde hair and blue eyes. if there's a heaven in the sky, and where is the colored angels? may must be in the kitchen preparing the milk and honey. >> islam came along at a time for certain, young, bloack people, you had a set of answers to questions that seemed better. more honest and more militant. >> the media and really mark in general was not willing to accept the name muhammad ali for a long time.

>> cassius? >> you know my new name. why do you keep calling me that? >> floyd patterson was reluctant to call him by his new name. >> it was slap at his adopted name. on a slap at his religion. >> they told me that mr. muhammad -- how do you say? >> you have floyd patterson, the soft-spoken naacp member. it's yes, sir. no, sir. he knows his place. >> my only interest in fighting him is not for the money. it's merely to take the championship away. and to put it back where it belongs, not just for black muslims. >> this infuriates muhammad ali, who says, if uh you don't think

i am america, look who i am paying taxes to. >> you want to fight him now? >> i want him bad. >> when he fought patterson, he said, what's my name, sucker. >> ali went into that fight really with the idea of humiliating floyd patterson. and he did that. in the first round, he didn't throw a punch. he glided around the ring. and then, he jabbed him silly. on the 12th round, the referee stopped the fight because patterson was taking too much of a beating. >> ali's next fight would be fought against the backdrop of vietn vietnam, when this contribute to muhammad ali continues. >> i'm alex trebek. if you're age 50 to 85, i have an important message about security. write down the number on your screen, so you can call when i finish. the lock i want to talk to you about

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muhammad ali has died after a 32-year battle with parkinson's disease.

he was in a phoenix hospital where he was being treated for a respiratory issue. president obama commuted 42 prison sentences. he has provided clemency to 308 people. one of the cars caught fire in oregon's river gorge. sendsing black smoke into the air. back to our program. ♪ this is "headliners & legend." once again, lester holt. >> by the mid-1960s, the boxer who debuted as cassius clay, is at odds with american mainstream. he has joined islam and has changed his name to something foreign-sounding, muhammad ali. but the pretty prince of boxing is about to jab big-time, ali refuses to fight for his country

in vietnam. a decision that would nearly k.o. his ring career. ♪ >> last week, more americans died in south vietnam than any previous week of the war. >> there was in the 1960s, a war going on, in vietnam. and most americans really didn't want to go over and fight it. a lot of them felt the war should be fought. very few people actually wanted to go there. and the result is that people were being drafted. in order to be eligible for armed services, you had to pass a physical examination. you had to pass an i.q. test. when ali took the test, he flunked it. it became harder and harder to get people into the army. the government lowered the score

that was necessary for induction. >> i just can't understand how they could reclassify me as 1-a. when the government officials were the ones who said that i was 1-y and i wasn't qualified. it was their decision. now, i'm 1-a, without any test, without notifying me or checking to see if i'm wiser than i was the last time. >> he was a magnet for black people to gather around and to follow. they had to do something. >> whites can get together and discuss a common cause. but when a few of us come together, the world is shook up. >> they thought of muhammad as a threat. just like martin luther king was a threat. >> this was a guy that was heavywieght champion of the world. he thought he had put the draft behind him. all of a sudden, reporters show up at his house and say, you've just been drafted. >> what does the muslim religion

say about the armed forces the. >> everyone knows i'm a muslim. and the religion of islam means peace. >> muhammad had strong feelings. it wasn't about the vietnam war. it was about war. he was a genuine conscientious objector. >> there were prominent black americans, like joe lewis and jackie robinson, who were very critical. >> he's hurting, i think, the morale of a lot of young negro soldiers over in vietnam. and the tragedy is that cassius has made millions of dollars off of the american public. and now, he's not willing to show his appreciation to a country that's giving him, in my view, a fantastic opportunity. >> the government took the position that ali's belief was not a religious belief because it did not recognize the nation

of islam as a religion opinion. >> the heavywieght champion cassius clay, at a federal court in houston, is found guilty of violating the u.s. selective service laws. he is sentenced to five years in prison and fined $10,000, the maximum penalty for the offense, which is a felony. the sentence was appealed by clay's lawyers. ♪ clay contended his status as a black muslim minister, made him exempt from the draft. released on bail, he faces an 18-month wait for an appeal decision. >> immediately, without a trial, without due process of any form, he was stripped of his championship. he was precluded from fighting in all 50 states. his passport was taken away, so he couldn't leave the country. >> he could not earn a living like he had planned and actually

was acukuccustomed to in the la six years. >> he had to make money. and the only way to make money was to go around to college campuses giving talks. >> those were the days when someone of ali's stature could get $1,000 or $2,000 for a speaking engagement. >> there's one hell of a lot of difference in fighting in the rain and going to war in vietnam. my intention is to box, to win a clean fight. but in war, the intention is to kill, kill, kill and continue killing innocent people. >> when ali refused to be drafted in '67, he became a real hero for a lot of young people, young black people. with the rise of black power, there was a greater sense of militancy. a greater sense of revolution. >> we met with ali in june of 1967, to try to see if we could figure out a way to help him

deal with his political/legal problems, in going against the will of the united states and refusing to fight in vietnam. >> nine top negro athletes meet with cassius clay to discuss his anti-draft stance. says brown after the meeting, the champ is sincere in his religious beliefs. he believes in his religion and his stand is based on that. clay's induction refusal cost him his tight. and he faces a possible five-year prison sentence. he claims exemption as a minister of the black muslim faith. >> he could have accommodated the desires of the country and continued his professional career. but he chose to stick by his convictions on that issue. and have a lot of respect for him for that. >> it was important that he

didn't fold. that he didn't make a deal. he stood up for his beliefs. it was important for black people and white people to understand that a black person could stand up for his or her beliefs and willing to pay the price for that. >> it was such an injustice what they did. they didn't realize this kid was for real. his religion was for real. >> muhammad gave up the prime of his career. for what he believed in, it wasn't that big of a price. he never has regrets for what he has done. >> it took three years for his case to wind through the courts until finally the united states supreme court unanimously overturned the conviction. we needed 30 new hires for our call center. i'm spending too much time hiring and not enough time in my kitchen. (announcer) need to hire fast? go to ziprecruiter.com and post your job to over 100 of the web's leading job boards with a single click.

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♪ what's going to bring it back to life? >> joe frazier versus muhammad ali. i would say if this ever came up, it would be the biggest sporting event in the history of planet earth until now. i'll hear no more about joe frazier because i will totally destroy him. he was an illusion champion. he was a tramp. he got the title because the draft took my title. ♪ ♪ funky beat funky, funky beat ♪ ♪ funky beat funky, funky beat ♪ >> float like a butterfly, sting

like a bee, oh. >> well, just nice being back, you know? right now, i'm only concentrating on conditioning, after a three-year layoff and a six-week notice to meet the number one contender is almost a miracle thing to do. >> there's two factors in the buildup leading to the first ali/frazier fight, that made it different than any fight and made it emotional in people's minds. one of it was the country. and money had fascinates them. this was spectacular. >> the fight, march 8th, 1971, was called the fight. it was a comeback for ali. he had two fights in his comeback after 3 1/2 years of being defrocked for failing to come forward for the draft in housto houston. he was now a hero to those

people who were against the vietnamese conflict. conversely, joe frazier was adopted by the hard hats, let's call them. those people in favor of our participation in the vietnamese conflict. >> this is the first time in the history of boxing that two undefeated world heavywieght champions meet for the sole possession of world title. >> this fight was too soon for him. rather than rely on his legs and his physical skills, he leaned against the ropes. taunted frazier. hope frazier would punch himself out. >> i don't know how he survived the 11th round. remarkable round. he had a thing about sucking it up and coming back. he came back. until that 15th round, where he got nailed with that sucker left hook. >> he actually lost it. and i was devastated.

just devastated. you don't expect him to lose. you think he isn't going to lose. when he lost, i didn't understand it. >> and you know what? he was fine after the fight. i was concerned about the swelling of the jaw. took him to the hospital. they wanted him to stay overnight. wouldn't stay. came out and talked to the media. >> did that hurt you? >> no. that was a surprise. the body punishment wasn't nothing. i was in such good shape here. >> ali believed he would fight frazier again and get his title back. but not so. a third character, came into the picture. george foreman. >> the highlight of foreman was the bad guy. how do you say, kill him? and the guy said, boomaya.

an of course, they knew what he was -- they loved it. and they go. and it drove foreman nuts. ali turned africa against him. by the time george came to the fight, i mean, he wanted to kill ali, which is the way ali had it planned. >> muhammad took charge. muhammad took foreman's best shots. >> the prevailing view was that muhammad ali was past his prime. he understood he couldn't dance all night. he went to the ropes. it's been known as the rope-a-dope. >> i thought he was the dope on the rope. it worried the devil out of me. he was on my corner. >> foreman hit ali with punches that would have forced any other fighter to crumble.

he let foreman empty his tank. foreman ran out of gas. mohammed took him out of it. sensational. ♪

he became a mainstream hero, that d.c. comments put out a special edition of ali fighting superman. it's a story of ali helping superman. and part of the plot is that he beats superman in the rink. here's the great white cultural hero. and ali beats him in the ring. you're talking about mainstream acceptance. ♪

♪ this is the story of muhammad ali ♪ ♪ he knows how to talk and he knows how to fight ♪ ♪ and all of the contenders were beat out of sight ♪ ♪ muhammad ali >> it was agitation for a black person who stood up against the war. considered unpatriotic. and was calling my people out about racism. >> it came to pass, muhammad ali and joe frazier fought again. you couldn't have kept them from fighting again with a gun, a whip and a chair. this was destiny. >> the fight had huge implications between these men. and they weren't fighting for the heavywieght championship in the world in manila.

it was more important than that. >> had there been no joe frazier in his life, we wouldn't have seen the best of ali. >> muhammad ali, lying on the floor. ali is still the heavywieght champion of the world. >> he is walking slowly, being supported on either side. >> it was the only time to strain to hear ali. it's like a siren. and he leans over and he almost croaks, that's the closest thing you'll ever see to death. >> i'm so tired, i don't want to do nothing. i want to rest for one week. my hips are sore. >> i was hoping he would never fight again after that, after winning for the third time. that was enough. >> ali continued to fight for a number of reasons. partly, it was the money. partly, it was ego.

he loved the spotlight. he fought because that's what he defined himself by. >> i thought that ali should have retired earlier than he did. and it really bothered me to see him taking the risk that he did. this is the fight. >> he had said when he was fighting. i didn't know it. the doctors didn't know it. at the end of his career, he couldn't talk. and i used to give him hell. i would say, sit up. i figured he was slouching. but he had parkinson's. it was affecting his speech. people couldn't hear him. he would be talking in a whisper. so, i got on his case for that. and i feel bad about that. >> in muhammad's case, the syndrome was caused by too many blows to the head. but there's no intellectual deficits. >> muhammad ali. >> i think there is also a touch

of martyrdom that this man who we knew because of his mouth as much as by his skills in the ring, called the louisville lip, has been silenced by an affliction. >> representing the family flag, you might say. >> i think that laila ali wanted to be a boxer, as much to win the attention and affection of her father, as anything else. the problem was, ali didn't really, "a" respond to it and "b" approve to it. it was against all of the ten t tenants of his faith. besides the concern as a father that she would be hurt. >> i don't have much to say right now. i feel good. and i'm ready for more. >> i think come september 11th, and there was a tremendous change in the attitude of

americans, particularly when it came to viewing the islamic faith. >> the name islam is involved and muslim is involved and causing trouble and starting all the hate and violence. and islam is not a -- islam means peace. >> muhammad ali, to deflect criticism, and put it in perspective, this act of terrorism, was not part of the religion he knew. they don't make heroes like they used to. and if they don't make heroes like they used to, maybe it's time to revisit some who were. muhammad ali, assuredly, whether it was his skilled in the ring

as a sports figure, or his standing up to a war, the vietnamese conflict -- whatever it is, muhammad ali is one of those heroes who appeals to people. so, maybe one of the reasons for the movie is to capture that, when there are no other heroes of that magnitude around today. ♪ >> i saw ali at the olympics, i didn't think of him as a man who was ill. i thought of him as a man that survived. ♪ >> look who gets it next. >> the greatest. oh, my. ♪ >> the phenomenon muhammad ali can be explained, here is a guy

who came along at a certain historical moment. he came along as a gregarious nice-looking extremely talented athlete, who in an age, when america is convulsed by politics, he thrust himself on to the stage and became political, too. he is a guy who stood up against his country and said his country would survive to tell the tale. that's the tough of myth. >> as muhammad ali's steps grew slower and his voice grew quieter, the accolades never stopped coming. he continued to be recognized for his remarkable achievements. at 2005, at a white house ceremony, the man who had been vilified for refusing to join the army in the vietnam war, was

presented with the presidential medal of freedom. the nation's highest civilian honor. i'm lester holt. thanks for watching. ♪ ♪ ♪ we are covering the death of the champ, announced tonight, surrounded by his family in arizona. the end of the journey for muhammad ali. death came at the age of 74 for a man who, as we've been saying,

could not go anywhere in the world in his adult lifetime without people knowing his name. he called himself the greatest. and his true. he called himself the king of the world. and eventually his work in the ring and his largeness as a human made that title come true. born cassius clay, known to the world as muhammad ali. what an american journey for the man who was easily the most famous man in the world for decades at a time. and a singular sport star we haven't really seen the likes of and may not for a long time to come. as we said, death came earlier this evening. a lot of journalists are reacting to this.