English practice 57

The Greatest

[1]

In

Cassius Clay’s bike was stolen. to beat up the thief if he ever found him, and someone

suggested that Cassius boxing lessons before making such boasts.

[2]

[1] It would not be the last time he would prove

everyone wrong, but even lay ahead.

[2] [3] He turned out to be a very gifted boxer, and decided to stick with the sport, working his way up through the amateur ranks.

[4] Liston had been heavily favored, and Cassius’s called himself “too fast” and “too pretty” to lose—had made people think he was in for a rude awakening.

[3]

After the victory, Clay announced that he had converted

to Islam, and changed his name to the today: Muhammad Ali. In addition to defeating one challenger after another, Ali became

active in the Black civil rights many conservative boxing fans. In 1966, the U.S. government tried to draft Ali into service in the Vietnam

War. religious grounds, he refused to go, and was stripped of his title and imprisoned.

[4]

Released in 1970, against the undefeated George Foreman. Foreman seemed invincible, and fans feared that Ali might be seriously hurt or even killed. Ali spent the beginning of the fight on the ropes, and seemed to be losing badly, but then his strategy became

clear: Ali sprang to life, knocking out the younger fighter in the eighth round.

[5]

Ali retired in 1981, and was eventually diagnosed

with Parkinson’s disease, He lit the Olympic flame before an adoring crowd in 1996, and Sports Illustrated magazine later named him “Sportsman of

the
Ali himself still prefers the familiar title he correctly predicted he would hold: “The Greatest of All Time.”