Mohammed Ali - fifteen rounds with the greatest - Hugh MacDonald

Part of the Inspirations series of short books introducing big characters.

Muhammad Ali is said to exude ‘the very spirit of the twentieth century’.

Award-winning sports writer Hugh MacDonald asks what makes Ali so intriguing to the world far beyond boxing?

Cassius Marcellus Clay was his ‘slave name’, and Muhammad Ali is the name he took when he embraced the Islamic religion.

He lived through a revolutionary time in America where old prejudices about race were questioned by a generation of blacks.

And Ali stuck to his principles in the face of prejudice – an inspiring figure.