Muhammad Ali

Born Cassius Clay in Louisville, he started boxing at 12, won Olympic gold in the light heavyweight division at 18 in 1960, and turned pro that same year. At 22, he upset Sonny Liston for the heavyweight title on February 25, 1964, then joined the Nation of Islam and shed his birth name as a slave name. In 1967 he refused the draft on religious and ethical grounds, was stripped of his titles, convicted of draft evasion, and didn't fight for nearly four years while appealing to the Supreme Court, which overturned the conviction in 1971. He reclaimed the undisputed championship from 1974 to 1978 and fought Frazier in the Fight of the Century and the Thrilla in Manila, and Foreman in The Rumble in the Jungle. He talked trash in rhyme, predicted knockouts by round, moved like no heavyweight before him, released two Grammy-nominated spoken word albums, and retired in 1981. In 1984 he disclosed his Parkinson's diagnosis; he spent his final decades on philanthropy and faith until his death in 2016.