Elegy and eulogy for Mohamed Ali Clay

Every line of his poems was like a punchline 
this boxing legend shall remain in our hearts
He wrestled his way to the top
with a poetic motto 'sting like a bee, 
for no wrestler could box and pummel his dodging form whirring past
what was too swift for their eyes to see!

NB:
These below are the selected facts about Muhammad Ali that I personally found very interesting:
It felt nice that he had the same birthday as my beloved brother Alihur,

The info below is copy pasted from Wikipedia:
Muhammed Ali Clay
Other names
The Greatest
The People's champion
The Louisville lip 

Children9, including Laila Ali2]

Awards

5 time Ring magazine fighter of the year3-time lineal heavyweight championSports Illustrated 'Sportsman of the Century'BBC 'Sports Personality of the Century'CSHL Double Helix Medal Honoree (2006)Presidential Citizens MedalPresidential Medal of Freedom[4]International Boxing Hall of Fame[5]Hollywood Walk of Fame[6]

(192–236 lb)[7]Height6 ft 3 in (191 cm)[8]Reach78 in (198 cm)[8]StanceOrthodox boxing stanceBoxing recordTotal fights61Wins56Wins by KO37

Muhammad Ali /??'li?/[9] (born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American Olympic and professional boxer and activist. He is widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated sports figures of the 20th century. From early in his career, Ali was known as an inspiring, and polarizing figure both inside and outside the ring.[10][11]

Cassius Clay was born and raised inLouisville, Kentucky, and began training as anamateur boxer when he was 12 years old. At 18, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, and converted to Islam shortly afterwards. At 22, he won the WBAand WBC heavyweight titles from Sonny Liston in 1964. Clay then changed his legal name from Cassius Clay, which he called his "slave name", to Muhammad Ali, and gave a message of racial pride for African Americans and resistance to white domination during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.[12][13]

In 1966, two years after winning the heavyweight title, Ali further antagonized the white establishment in the U.S. by refusing to be conscripted into the U.S. military, citing his religious beliefs and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War.[12][14] He was eventually stripped of his boxing titles. He successfully appealed in the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned his conviction in 1971, by which time he had not fought for nearly four years—losing a period of peak performance as an athlete. Ali's actions as a conscientious objector to the war made him an icon for the largercounterculture generation.[15 ][16]

Ali is regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time. He remains the only three-timelineal heavyweight champion; he won the title in 1964, 1974, and 1978. Between February 25, 1964, and September 19, 1964, Ali reigned as the undisputed heavyweight champion. He is the only boxer to be named The Ringmagazine Fighter of the Year five times. He was named Sportsman of the Century bySports Illustrated and the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he was involved in several historic boxing matches.[17] Notable among these were the first Liston fight; the "Fight of the Century", "Super Fight II" and the "Thrilla in Manila" versus his rival Joe Frazier; and "The Rumble in the Jungle" versus George Foreman.

At a time when most fighters let their managers do the talking, Ali thrived in—where he was often provocative and outlandish.[18][19][20] He was known to for freestyled with rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry, boxing and as political poetry for his activism, 1][2Ali wrote two autobiographies, during and after his boxing career.

I wrestled with alligators. 
I've tussled with a whale. 
I done handcuffed lightning. 
And thrown thunder in jail. 
—Muhammad Ali
( his favourite poem of mine, S.Z.K)

Those are strong, memorable lines that many modern rappers and performance poets would be very happy with. Clay definitely had a way with words and wasn't shy about using them to increase ticket sales and his earnings. White America had never seen anyone like this cocksure young black man who confidently announced that he was fast, handsome, pretty, dangerous and far too good to be beaten. What Elvis Presley was to popular music, Cassius Clay was to boxing, except that Elvis only sounded black, while Clay was black!

like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
The hands can't hit what the eyes can't see.
—Muhammad Ali

The two lines above are the most famous Muhammad Ali poem; hell it's probably the most famous poem in sports history. There are different versions, because this poetic epigram was adapted for various fights. Maya Angelou, perhaps the most famous living American poet, said of Ali's poetic creation: "As a poet, I like that. If he hadn't put his name on it, I might have chosen to use that!"

Clay also had a nice touch with light verse, or rhyming humor. For instance, here's a poem he created for a 1969 TV show that he did with Joe Namath and Michael Parkinson:

As a Muslim, Ali adhering to Sunni Islam and supporting racial integration, like his former mentor Malcolm X. After retiring from boxing in 1981, Ali devoted his life to religious and charitable work. 

Hollywood star is on a wall (not the ground)
Carly Mallenbaum, USA TODAYPublished 9:51 p.m. ET June 4, 2016 | Updated 12:43 p.m. ET June 5, 2016

CONNECTTWEETLINKEDINEMAILMORE
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — You'd literally need to float like a butterfly to walk on Muhammad Ali's Hollywood star.
The engraved star, which was presented in 2002, is alone on a wall, while the nearby stars of Steven Spielberg, Halle Berry and Nicole Kidman cover the Walk of Fame sidewalk. On Saturday, Ali's star at 6801 Hollywood Blvd. became a sort of memorial site for the athlete who died Friday.
But why is the star on the wall?
Ana Martinez, the producer of the Walk of Fame ceremonies, says Ali "did not want the name of (Prophet) Muhammad to be stepped on," and so in 2002, Ali's star was ceremoniously presented on an easel (as opposed to being unveiled on the ground, like the others) and then put on the wall at the entrance to what is now called Dolby Theatre.

Wikipedia cont/...
[26] He was named for his father,Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr., who himself was named in honor of the 19th-centuryRepublican politician and staunch abolitionist,Cassius Marcellus Clay, Clay's sister Eva claimed that SallieSallie their grandmother was a native of Madagascar.[27] He was a descendant of slaves of the antebellum South, and was predominantly of Africandescent, with Irish[28] and English heritage. [29][30][31] His father painted billboards and signs,[24] and his younger brother Rudolph "Rudy" Clay (later renamed Rahman Ali) as[32] 
Clay grew up in racial segregation. His mother recalled one occasion where he was denied a drink of water at a store. "They wouldn't give him one because of his color. That really affected him."[12] He was also affected by the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, which led to young Clay and a friend taking out their frustration by vandalizing a local railyard.[33][34]

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Ali at the 1960 Olympics