Muhammad Ali Stripped of Championship – 1966
Almost any notable event in Muhammad Ali’s career could have made it into this article. Instead I decided to just include the most culturally significant event from his in-ring career.
2 years after Muhammad Ali shocked the world by defeating Sonny Liston, he was drafted to fight in Vietnam. Ali would refuse to go, citing religious and moral opposition to the war.
Ali’s famous quote regarding his refusal to fight:
“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over.”
Unfortunately when Ali refused to go to Vietnam he was stripped of the world heavyweight boxing championship. Ali was also denied boxing licences in every state and had his passport revoked.
He was convicted of draft evasion in 1967 and sentenced to five years in prison. His conviction was overturned in 1971 however.
