What did Muhammad Ali change his name to?

Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Clay, but he changed his name when he turned pro in 1964. At that time, it was common for boxers to change their names to something that sounded more “ethnic” to fight fans. Ali made the controversial choice to replace his birth name with the name of one of his heroes, a great boxer named Cassius Marcellus Clay, who had won the light heavyweight title in his first fight when Ali was just sixteen years old.

What name did Muhammad Ali change his name to?

For a brief time in the early 1960s, when he was trying to be accepted back into the United States after having been denied a boxing title for refusing to serve in the Vietnam War, Muhammad Ali adopted the last name “Cassius Clay”. After defeating Sonny Liston for the heavyweight championship, Clay was denied a license to fight again in the United States. He renounced his U.S. citizenship and returned to his birth name, which was apparently given to him by his father

What's Muhammad Ali's real name?

Before Ali became a boxing legend, he served in the United States Army during the Korean War. In an effort to avoid the draft, Ali accepted a boxing scholarship from trainor, Eddie Machen. After compiling a list of aliases, Ali chose Cassius Clay, the name of a slave who had defeated his master in a fight. When asked why he chose the name, Ali responded, "I chose it because of what the name represented. It represented a cause, a struggle, and a victory

What nickname did Muhammad Ali use?

During his boxing career, Muhammad Ali was often called Cassius Clay, after the Roman general whose name is the origin of the term “boxing.” As Ali was preparing for the 1964 Olympic Games, the United States government revoked his passport. He was afraid he would be unable to compete, so he changed his name to Ali, which means “The Prophet” in Arabic.

What name did Muhammad Ali go by?

Before boxing, Muhammad Ali went by Cassius Clay, which is how he was known for the first two years of his career. However, after being stripped of his title for refusing to enlist in the U.S. military during the Vietnam War, he changed his name to Muhammad Ali. Although he reverted to his birth name again after the war, he kept the spelling of his middle name.