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.

here is robert lipsitz in the "new york times" muhammad ali the three-time world heavyweight boxing champion who helped define his turbulent times as the most charismatic and controversial sports figure of the 20th century died on friday. he was 74 years old. as i was saying earlier this evening, our friend matt lauer had the great luck and good fortune in life to have been a friend of muhammad ali and remained a friend later in life. matt was close, as well to members of the ali extended family. and tonight, for us, matt lauer has a look back. >> i am the king of the world. >> hold it, hold it, hold it. >> i'm a mad man. >> he called himself the greatest. he was both adored and at times scorned. >> he had a lot of threats against him.

>> but with superior skill and a unique style of boxing. >> float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. >> -- muhammad ali became a cultural icon. >> i'm so great. i'm so great. >> angelo dundee, ali's trainer and corner man for 21 years passed weighed in 2012 but was with ali during some of his most memorable fights. >> all you had to do was put a mike in his puss. he was sensational. he was so good, muhammad. >> he was born cassius clay on january 17th, 1942, in louisville, kentucky. when he was 12 years old, his buy cycle was stolen. he was so angry, that he vowed to whoop whomever stole it. that determination propelled clay to win two national golden glove titles and qualify for the u.s. team at the 1960 olympics in rome. >> i met cassius in 1958.

in '58 he told me he was going to win the olympics. he won the olympics in '60. >> clay wore his gold medal for two days straight though he would later throw it into the ohio river disillusioned by his second-class treatment when he returned home. with the olympics behind him, he began his professional boxing career. his first big test was against heavyweight champion sonny liston. it was also the first time many would hear clay's effortless ability to compose a rhyme. >> if you like to lose your money, then be a fool and bet on sonny. >> liston was heavily favored but in the end, clay proved prophetic. >> that might be some, that might be all. >> at 22 years old, clay become the youngest heavyweight champion. >> i shook up the world. i shook up the world. >> he quickly shook up the world again by announcing he had joined the nation of islam and changed his name. >> cassius clay was my slave name. i'm no longer a slave. >> ali's declaration became a

lightning rod with many refusing to acknowledge his new name. >> why would you say that? >> but howard cosell, a rising sportscaster fiercely defended ali's decision saying they wanted another joe louis, a white man's black man. instead, they got ali. a man who would not conform regardless of the consequences. at the height of the vietnam war, ali refused to serve. declaring himself a conscientious objector and quarrel with them vietcong." >> this is this choice and you know every man has a choice of his own religion and beliefs. >> convicted of draft evasion, he was stripped of his heavyweight title and banned from boxing. > muhammad teaches us. >> for the next three years, he traveled around the country preaching the principles of islam. and speaking out on race relations. >> we black people in america are fighting the same common enemy. >> in 1970, his conviction was

overturned. and ali now 30 years old, was allowed back into the ring. >> ali! >> with a couple of wins under his belt, his next opponent, current heavyweight champion joe frazier. >> an explosive left to the jaw and muhammad ali goes down. >> ali suffers his first professional defeat. determined to reclaim the title, he trains harder than ever. and epic fights soon follow. in zaire, the rumble in the jungle. >> james foreman crumbling. >> ali wins the title back. >> ladies and gentlemen. >> then the thrilla in manila. the third and final fight with fradzier. >> this is muhammad ali at his best. >> ali would eventually become boxing's first three-time heavyweight champion, and in 1981, with 56 wins and only 5 losses, he retires at the age of 39.

his agility and speech pattern now noticeably different. >> didn't realize how scientific and quick i was. >> just three years after retiring, ali was diagnosed with parkinson's. and for the rest of his life, that disease would affect his movements and eventually silence his voice. >> i believe all of you remember muhammad's pre-parkinson's days when he moved millions with his vibrant voice and his poetic expression. ♪ >> the greatest. >> his surprise appearance at the 1996 olympics would move the world once again. >> oh, my! >> 3.5 billion people watched as the champ delivered another great moment. >> this was a moment where the whole world was saying thank you. >> ali was married four times. including current wife lonnie. his partner for more than 25 years.

he also had nine children. seven daughters and two sons. all of them, he called a gift from god. ali wrote that he would like to be remembered as a man who tried to be a good father, who stood up for his beliefs. muhammad ali, the greatest. >> those of you who generationally may be new to the life and times and legacy of muhammad ali are going to hear that term a lot over these next few days, the greatest. believe those of us who were there then who watched it all and hopefully this is part tutorial. you'll learn over the next few days why that title is appropriate and right and real. and perfect. knowing about muhammad ali, being a fan of muhammad ali, being kind of enthralled by him

is what people in the world had in common for generations in this country. i -- our thoughts also turn to the current president of the united states. how he would sum up the life of muhammad ali. what ali meant to him. say nothing of the other living former presidents of the united states. everyone who, again, came up during that era, he was the subject of great fascination. dave ziron remains with us. and dave, kind of nicely left out of that affectionate look back by matt lauer, again, one of the subjects that will come up is very few people in life know how and when to leave the stage perfectly. >> right. >> and one of the nicks on the

reputation of muhammad ali was his departure from the sport. it wasn't all at once. it was gradual. there were some embarrassments. and then after that came the physical degradation. >> and this is part of the ali legend about what he sacrificed. and who he was. because there really are two muhammad alis. in terms of boxing. there's the ali before 1967 when he was suspended for standing up to the draft and saying he would not go to war. he had no quarrel with the vietcong, as he said. there was the ali who came back three years later. what happened in that intermediate period? we discusseded it a little bit earlier but it's worth saying. the ali before 1967, his plan was as he said, to retire at 30 years old, rich, pretty, the best of all time. and yet, that wasn't the plan. and so before 1967 though, his amazing ability was he was never hit. it was actually thought in boxing, it's hard to believe

before 1967, it was thought that he didn't have a good chin. it was thought that he couldn't take a punch because he never had to take a punch because he was so fast. the punch numbers are insane. a full boxing match where he would be hit eight times in ten rounds. it was unbelievable. then when he came back, you know, he was in financial duress. he needed to come back and box. he was also certainly, as bob lipsite puts it so well, addicted to the warm. in other words, he misses the glow of the crowd, affection, the love. but at the same time, it also was because he had to come back and fight after that three-year layoff. when he came back, he found to his own surprise that he had a jaw made of granite, maybe the best jaw in the history of boxing. and maybe he didn't have his speed but he could do the rope-a-dope. he could take punches. you could tire yourself out punching him and he would still stay on his feet. of course, he paid just a horrific price for that over the next decades of his life.

but even though he did lose that power of speech, i mean my goodness, you talk to people who were close to him as i have, and you would not meet a more serene, more happy person, and that's the part about it which i think for all of us is that he was always at peace inside his own body. he had a tweet sent out about a year ago, i think it was october 2014 where he said i wish people of the world loved each other as much as they loved me. and that's kind of the lesson i'm thinking about in my own head. there's never been anybody this country has ever produced that i can think of who was as comfortable in their own skin as muhammad ali. >> absolutely. mike lubica, you forget the dual cruelty of a man who was so physically beautiful and verbally beautiful. his 6'3" frame and if memory serves 78-inch reach, stooped in

the end by disease. his fluid tongue. he was the father of trash talk. the father of sports poetry. >> guarantees. >> you got it. both of them were faded by time and illness. >> and it's funny, i was listening to dave talk about it. for all the punishment he inflicted on opponents, his defining moment really became the thrilla in manila and the punishment he took that night. i was telling you earlier, i went the back and read mark cram's amazing piece about that fight in "sports illustrated" where he goes and he sits with frazier in a darkened room after the fight that night. and frazier said to cram, i hit him with punches that would have knocked down the walls of a city. and then he said, lordy, lordy, lordy, what a champion. and ali after that fight said that was as close to dying as i've ever been.

>> we hope that among our viewers, again, this news having come in tonight of the death of the champ, muhammad ali, at the age of 74, we hope our viewers include good old-fashioned boxing fans and those joining us will appreciate our next guest. larry merchant, a hall of fame boxing commentator. the mention of his name just thrilled mike lupica. i can tell you that because i'm sitting next to him. larry is with us and really if you were a boxing fan, if you watched it especially hbo's coverage, it was like you had a dedicated corner man explaining to you what was going on. he sat ringside to cover ali/frazier 1, madison square garden, march 3rd, 1971. larry, it's kind of you to join us. what are your thoughts at this hour? >> thank you very much, brian. well, as my wife put it, we learned about this while we were

out having dinner, and she said, even though we knew it was coming, it was a punch in the gut. ali was a genius. a great athlete. and a man of his times who became an international symbol of those times. and i doubt that there's been somebody in pop culture anywhere near his -- near him who had that kind of worldwide impact. >> as you've been talking, larry, we're watching this endless parade and we could watch them all night and actually we may end up watching them all night of still photos mostly of muhammad ali, one of

them we just went by is ali meeting jimmy carter at the white house. jimmy carter famously had him over for dinner at the white house. in the background is the painting of abraham lincoln. it's all just some killer imagery. and as i said earlier, he's kind of a figure former presidents have in common. everyone watched him. no one had ever heard or seen anyone like him before. >> and i once interviewed nelson mandela who himself had been an amateur boxer. and we talked about ali. and mandela was in prison during most of ali's career. and yet, he told me how he had been known by every human being in africa and how, what, an inspiration he was.

and it's hard to measure the -- the impact he had on the world. i mean, this was at a time when colonization was ending in africa and along came this brilliant, handsome athlete from america speaking up during that whirlwind time of social change when the establishments of governments all over the world were being challenged. he had changed his religion. he had been this controversial lightning rod socially. and this extraordinary showman at the same time.

so i think it's fair to say there's never been anything -- anyone like him before or since. >> about the man who's been kind enough to join us by telephone to our viewers who may not know him, larry merchant covered boxing close enough to be covered in his lifetime with the perspiration of muhammad ali in the ring. because larry was ringside and by extension, he brought us all there, too. larry, a real pleasure. sorry this brings us together at least in a broadcasting sense. thank you very much and we're sorry about your friend. >> thank you, brian. >> let's go now to phoenix, arizona. muhammad ali had many homes in his lifetime. for a while, he was in the philadelphia suburb of cherry hill, new jersey, for a while he was in suburban michigan. and for a long time late in life, he called the state of arizona home, specifically in and around the suburbs of phoenix, arizona.

correspondent ron mott is there where there will no doubt be a lot of remembrances there. he was a favored citizen of that place, ron. >> reporter: a fixture in this community in the valley of the sun. you know, brian, everyone wants to take some ownership of muhammad ali. he was such that kind of an attractive character. he has raised a lot of money here for parkinson's with his foundation that he started with some friends here in the phoenix area. they hold this celebrity fight night every spring here that has become quite the event in phoenix bringing "a" list celebrities, athletes, actors, you name it, from around the world to come here to pay their respects to him. he was always the honored guest. and this started back in 1994. they have raised, according to the charity, more than $118 million not just for parkinson's but for some other charities, as

well over the years. so folks who have gone to bed here tonight in the valley are going to wake up with some pain in their heart, as well as are people all around the world. if i could just take a moment for personal reflection and you guys have been talking about it on the air here. as a young black kid growing up in the midwest in the '70s and '80s, what struck me about muhammad ali is i always felt like he was not only in the ring to fight for himself, not getting rich and famous for himself, but actually fighting for me and other people who look like me growing you. that's why i was crushed when he stepped into the ring against leon spinks in 1978 and actually lost because i didn't think such a thing was even possible. i was too young. i was 10 years old at the time to understand that he was at the end of his boxing career and that it was very possible for him to lose a fight to a younger guy who had very little boxing experience. and i remember crying most of that next night and having to talk to my mom about how crushed i was that i felt like the world had gone off the tracks because

this icon, this man that i so looked up to had lost in the ring. and, of course, he went on to do many, many more things in those years since that fight. he actually won that title back a few months after 1978 as you guys were just talking about, the end of his boxing career was not nearly as glorious as the prime. that's the case obviously with a lot of athletes but what he did after he left the ring and you guys have talked about the atlanta olympics, it still brings a tear to my eye watching that moment with him at the top of that lighting that cauldron. >> i'm glad you said what you did. i always say on april 12th, 1945, children of age 12 in this country would have every reason to believe we'd had a permanent president, just one guy who is going to have the job that was fdr and the world changed on that day just as a child of 10 on the day of that loss, the night of that loss and subsequent nights would be so sad to see this man really

carved out of stone who meant that to all of our childhoods and all of our lives in obviously different ways. this man actually lost. ron mott in phoenix, arizona. now to correspondent morgan radford who is in louisville which is, of course, the real hometown of a young man who left there as cassius clay is remembered as a legend and louisville, morgan, is where the funeral will be held. correct? >> that's right, brian. in fact, before he was the greatest of all time, he was the louisville lip. it started right here in his hometown here in kentucky. you can see behind me the muhammad ali center. that opened ten years ago specifically dedicated to preserving his legacy. the mayor has ordered all flags across the city to be lowered to half-staff. and tonight, the people here in louisville are reminding the world that this is a legend borne and bred of kentucky soil. it all started here when cassius

clay was born in 1942, and when was just 12 years old, his bike was stolen and a police officer came by and saw him agitated and asked him what was wrong and muhammad ali, furious, said i'm going to whoop him. and the police officer said, if you're going to whoop him, you're going to need to learn how to box first. that's exactly what he did. we're talking the son of a man who painted billboards here in louisville. his mother was a domestic. he won his first heavyweight title at 22. shortly after that, that's when the he converted to the nation of islam. even when he was here tonight talking to people, one woman said she grew up born, bred here in louisville and she had never heard of such a thing. she said honestly, i'd never heard of a black muslim. he made conscientious on objection conscionable. she never even heard of such a thing. and i spoke with another man who said, in his opinion, he said, my opinion of him changed as

america's opinion of the war changed. he said, i'll be honest, he came on the scene, he was young, he was tall, he was handsome, he was black. but he was arrogant and he was brash. he said but as the war changed and americans sentiments towards the war changed, it shifted. suddenly he became colorful and confident and all these things that he was once criticized for, he became lauded for and he represented a nuance within black american culture. tonight the people here in louisville are saying even though they share this legend with the world, he was their hometown hero here first. >> morgan radford reporting from louisville tonight. morgan, thank you very much for that. morgan just mentioned this life of muhammad ali intertwined with wartime. a particularly unpopular conflict in vietnam. fast forward to another modern day wartime in this country. 2005. a different president in the white house, george w. bush.

presidents get to award the medal of freedom to notable americans. here now a snippet of that day whether he president bush placed the medal around the neck of muhammad ali. >> only a few athletes are ever known as the greatest in their sport. or in their time. but when you say the greatest of all time is in the room, everyone knows who you mean. that's quite a claim to make. but as muhammad ali once said, it's not bragging if you can back it up. and this man backed it up. from the day he won the gold medal at the 1960 olympic games, we all knew there was something special about this young fighter from louisville, kentucky. in his record of 56-5 including 37 knockouts and 19 successful title defenses hardly begins to tell the story. far into the future, fans and

students of boxing will study it the films and some will even try to copy his style. but certain things defy imitation. the ali shuffle. the lightning jabs, the total command of the ring and, above all, the sheer guts and determination he brought to every fight. this is a man who once thought fought more than ten rounds with a fractured jaw and he fought to complete exhaustion. and victory. in that legendary clash of greats in manila. the real mystery i guess is how he stayed so pretty. probably had to do with his beautiful soul. he was a fierce fighter and he's a man of peace. just like odessa and cassius clay sr. believed their son could be. across the world, billions of

people know muhammad ali as a brave, compassionate and charming man and the american people are proud to call muhammad ali one of our own. [ applause ] >> there he was 2005 sitting there alongside carroll burnett, another american icon from a very different walk of life and a very different occupation. you heard president bush there say his record was 56-5, the more important number, that is 61 professional bouts. in a punishing profession. that's a lot of punishing blows. even as good as muhammad ali was, things like the ali shuffle, this enormous man who was at the same time so graceful had such fluid movement. we now know the price he paid for those crushing blows.

he delivered scores more than that. it is just part of the life and legacy we're covering tonight with news of the death this evening of muhammad ali at the age of 74. back with more right after this. >> of all boxing, that's why i'm the greatest of all times. any of them this pretty, this colorful, this intelligent, this fast, this witty, no. not as charitable.

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