Muhammad Ali

Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush on November 9, 2005. Other recipients were Frank Robinson, General Richard Myers, Paul Rusesabagina, Carol Burnett, Andy Griffith, Aretha Franklin, Vint Cerf and his Internet co-developer Robert Kahn, Jack Nicklaus, Alan Greenspan and former congressman Sonny Montgomery.

Was photographed with American actor David J. Silver during his visit to Arizona. He attended a lavish dinner at the Palms Hotel in Paradise Valley for his famed 2004 Fight Night Celebrity charity at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix.

He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Live Theatre at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on January 11, 2002. At Ali's insistence, the star was installed at the facade of the Kodak Theatre, home of the Academy Awards.

In 1999 he was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Century.

Was featured in a "Pizza Hut" boxing commercial alongside David Bortolucci and Ali's real-life trainer Angelo Dundee, which was meant to air during the 1998 Super Bowl but was pulled at the very last moment for being too violent. It was estimated that the entire campaign cost Pizza Hut tens of millions of dollars.

Lit the torch at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.

Inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Sport in Society Hall of Fame in 1994.

Recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor by the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation in 1986.

Inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983 (charter member) and the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1986.

Ali is the first heavyweight champion in the history of boxing to lose his title to a novice (who had only seven professional fights). This occurred when Ali lost to Leon Spinks on February 15, 1978.

Wanted the role of Bilal in The Message (1976) but the film's director nixed the idea.

In June 1967, Ali was convicted of violating the Selective Service Act (knowingly and willfully refusing to report for and submit to induction into the armed forces), and was sentenced to five years in prison and fined $100,000. On appeal, Ali claimed he was denied due process because the ratio of blacks on draft boards did not reflect their ratio in the population. But the three member Presidential Draft Board, formed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to prevent such scenarios (and included a black member) ruled his objection was invalid, and that he was not entitled to conscientious objector status as a minister of the Islamic religion (what he stated as his profession). Morever, in an April 1966 letter to his local draft board, Ali protested that two years of military service would cause him serious financial loss in being unable to pursue his livelihood as a boxer, NOT as a minister.

Ali was arguably actually a four-time World Heavyweight Champion. In 1965, after signing to fight dethroned champion 'Sonny Liston' for a rematch, a fight that was not sanctioned in many areas, Ali was stripped by The World Boxing Association of their recognition of him as Heavyweight Champion. The WBA sanctioned an elimination match between contenders Ernie Terrell and Eddie Machen to determine who the Heavyweight Champion would be. Terrell won by a 15-round decision and was the WBA champion for two years. Most sanctioning bodies and the general public still recognized Ali as the true champion. He regained the WBA Heavyweight Championship and unified the Heavyweight Championship by winning a 15-round decision over Terrell in 1967, only to be stripped of the title again several months later because of his refusal to register the military draft. He later won the title on two more occasions from George Foreman and Leon Spinks, reversing a previous loss to Spinks.

Recorded an album for Epic Records in 1964 titled "I Am the Greatest". Sam Cooke produced one of the songs from the LP, "The Gang's All Here". A single, his version of "Stand By Me" was released just after his first Liston fight, in 1964, and received some airplay.

From 1963 to 1966, he successfully defended the heavyweight title nine times.

In 1962, Ali signed for Selective Service, but he failed the mental aptitude test, and was classified 1-Y (unfit for service). But when the United States armed forces required more soldiers for the Vietnam War, the pass-percentage marks for the tests were dropped to 15, meaning that Ali (and thousands of other men) was re-classified 1-A, now fit for service.

Light heavyweight boxing gold medalist, 1960 Olympics. World heavyweight boxing champion, 1964-1967, 1974-1978, 1978-1979.

Trained by Joe Martin (1953-1959) as an amateur, Archie Moore (1960-1961) and Angelo Dundee (1961-1980).