Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight: Cassius Clay vs. the United States of America

By Howard L. Bingham and Max Wallace

Book Overview

Now an HBO film Catch the premiere this fall.

In 1966 Muhammad Ali announced his intention to refuse induction into the United States Army as a conscientious objector. This set off a five-year battle that would strip him of his world heavyweight title, bar him from boxing, and nearly send him to prison--all at the peak of his career as the greatest boxer in history. Ali defiantly proclaimed his refusal to go to war with the assertion that it violated his beliefs as a black Muslim. The subsequent legal battle proved to be a test tougher than fighting Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier and George Foreman combined. Framed with photos from Ali's photographer and good friend Howard Bingham, Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight is the extraordinary story of the greatest challenge to the greatest champion of the century.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590772083
• ISBN13: 9781590772089
• Release Date: December 2012
• Publisher: M. Evans and Company
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Book better than film

Just saw the Will Smith movie Ali. Save your seven bucks and read this book. It's much more interesting and doesn't bore you with Ali's private life. What's more, it covers almost exactly the same ground as the movie, stopping at the Foreman fight and concentrating on Ali's stand against the war.Will Smith just can't compare to the real thing and the real Ali definitely comes through in this book which I read last year.

Best Ali book

I ordered this book after Rich Hoffman of the Philadelphia Daily News called it one of the two best books ever written about Muhammad Ali (along with the Tomas Hauser oral history published ten years ago).He was right. This is the best book I've ever written about The Greatest. It has all kinds of inside information and stuff about the political Ali. Really makes you appreciate what he did for his country by speaking out and almost going to jail.

Best Ali book

Other than a couple of minor factual errors (Sonny Liston bowed out of their second fight in the 7th round, not the 8th), this is a great book, filled with the best information and inside accounts I've ever seen about Ali and I've read just about all of them.It even blows away a few myths that I've always believed because they are repated by one writer after another.

Packs a punch

Great book. I recommend it pretty highly. I really admire Ali now.

A knockout of a book

By far the most interesting book about Ali to date. Remnick's bio was better at capturing Ali's early personality but this has incredible stuff about the non-boxing Ali, the Ali who put everything on the line for what he believed in and risked going to jail rather than go to war for an immoral cause. The section on Ali's relationship with Malcolm X is worth the price of the book in itself. I never knew that stuff. The writing is superb and its dramatic flair grabs your attention throughout.