Boxing is the epicenter, but the tale fans out, rattling the major events of the 1960s from the Vietnam war to the life of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad.īut the boxers are at the heart of everything. Remnick’s book is not just about boxing – it contains so much more. The bruising Liston is there too, a burdened champion with ties to the Mafia, who Remnick brilliantly describes as a “man who’d never gotten a favor out of life and never given one out.” Clay is there with his gorgeous speed and bouncing feet. Remnick puts you there the night the fortunes of a sport, a nation and two men changed. That night brings together the themes Remnick examines in the next 300 pages: America’s racial tensions and the civil rights movement the rise of the Nation of Islam and its snaring of Ali the Mafia influence on boxing the vicious and often biased views of the press and naturally the stories of the fighters themselves, especially the charismatic Ali. He eventually cracked the barriers of boxing’s realm to become the world’s most recognized athlete and an American icon. 25, 1964 fight was the beginning of the end of Liston’s tragic career and was the night Clay, a huge underdog with fast fists and a quicker tongue, burst into stardom by capturing the heavyweight title. David Remnick opens his enthralling look at Muhammad Ali’s early life, King of the World (Random House), with a turning point – the first bout between Sonny Liston and Ali, who was still known as Cassius Clay.

Muhammad ali david remnick