Videos

Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami

55 minutes, produced in 2008 by WLRN Public Television

Cassius Clay arrived in Miami in the fall of 1960, fresh from earning an Olympic gold medal as a light-heavyweight boxer in the Rome Olympics.

He now was determined to become the new world heavyweight champion. In the end he became something more - a legend. This is the story of the evolution of, as well as a chronicle of Miami's historic black community.

Over the course of the next few years, coinciding with the height of the national civil rights movement, Clay evolved both professionally and politically, piling up victories in the ring and adopting the black separatist teachings of the Nation of Islam.

The metamorphosis was complete in February 1964 when Clay, in one of the most stunning upsets in boxing history, defeated the seemingly invincible heavyweight champion Sonny Liston in Miami Beach. Two days later, the new champion, Cassius Clay, declared to the world his new identity, Muhammad Ali.

MUHAMMAD ALI examines several critical episodes in Ali's life including the fighter's friendship with Malcolm X, his highly publicized boxing match - the Rumble in the Jungle - held in the Congo, his celebrated encounter with the Beatles, and his refusal to be drafted into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.

MUHAMMAD ALI: MADE IN MIAMI provides a fascinating chronicle of the personal and professional transformations the legendary fighter experienced in the city, and argues compellingly that, without Miami, there might never have been a Muhammad Ali.

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