Muhammad Ali

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Narrator

One day in October of 1954, 12 year old Cassius rode his bicycle into downtown Louisville while Rudy sat on the handlebars. It began to rain and the boys took cover in the Columbia auditorium where a home appliance show was underway. After the rain stopped, they emerged to find that the bicycle was gone. He had a brand new Schwinn, beautiful red bicycle that he shared with his brother. And he went running around looking for his bicycle and then ran back into the community center asking for help. Someone told him there was a police officer in the basement. -

Robert

He went down and the cop in the basement was this Joe Martin, who was running a little boxing school. -

Jonathan

Cassius told the story years later that for a minute he forgot about his bike because the sight of this boxing gym, the smell of the leather and the sweat and the excitement, the action of boys in a ring hitting each other, black and white together. And he reported the crime and I'm gonna get the guy and I'm gonna, you know, to kill him. Joe Martin said, "Well, do you know how to fight?" Fight? And that was the beginning. -

Narrator

Though his father was reluctant to let his son train with a white police officer, the lessons were free and Cassius was eager to learn. At first, the young boxer did not impress Martin, "He was just ordinary", the trainer recalled, "and I doubt whether any scout would have thought much of him". -

Jonathan

Cassius didn't show any special talent right away, but he showed enormous passion. He knew instantly that this was what he wanted to do. Boxing was perfect for him because there's just two guys in the ring and your eye is always gonna be drawn naturally to the one who's doing the most moving, who's doing the most punching, who's moving the fastest, and that was him and he knew that he could get the most attention that way. -

Narrator

Just six weeks after he walked into Joe Martins gym, Cassius Clay had his first amateur fight. -

Joe

And I at that time was putting on a local television show here in Louisville and I had the amateur bouts every Saturday afternoon. First bout I put him in, he weight 87 pounds. -

Narrator

After defeating 14 year old Ronnie O'Keeffe in a split decision, Clay immediately announced to everyone that one day he would be called the greatest of all time. -

Owen

He was always being a little bragger, I'm the greatest and all that before he even got to be the greatest. We'd say, "Oh shut up, busy just running your mouth". But as he got better and better, we had more respect for him.