Why The Late Boxing Champ Changed His Name To Muhammad Ali
His former wife has a very different story to tell behind the reason why Ali changed his name.
By Sadho Ram — 04 Jun 2016, 07:41 PM
But before the world came to know the greatest sporting figure of all time as Muhammad Ali, he was Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr, named so after his father. A name which he dubbed as "my slave name".
As Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr, the 3-time heavyweight champion had already made a name for himself by winning several fights under his former name.
However, Ali – who in the 1960s was working with the African American Islamic religious movement with aims to improve the condition of African Americans in the US – became a spiritual and political student of Malcolm X, a key figure in the movement, and started referring to himself as Cassius X.
He was then renamed Muhammad Ali (Praised one) in a recorded statement by Elijah Muhammad, the group's leader in 1964, according to The Independent.
Later, Ali would go on to announce: "Cassius Clay is a slave name. I didn't choose it and I don't want it. I am Muhammad Ali, a free name – it means beloved of God, and I insist people use it when people speak to me."
However, a less sensational reason, as per Ali's former wife, Khalilah Camacho-Ali, the real reason Muhammad Ali became Muhammad Ali from Cassius Clay is because she "rejected his autograph by his former name, prompting Ali to choose a "name of a culture", she claimed in this video interview to HuffPost Live
Well, whatever the reason, there's no denying that Muhammad Ali — the man who floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee — worked hard to achieve the highest level of athletic celebrity unlike any and did more than anyone else to nurture black pride! RIP, Ali.
