Muhammad Ali

1.The mayor of Los Angeles has proclaimed today "Muhammad Ali Day" in honour of his birthday. Ali's reply was typical: "All I get is a day?" The great and the good have been lining up to heap praises on him and he once said: "When you are as great as I am, it's hard to be humble." But it all started humbly enough for Cassius Marcellus Clay, who was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1942. Legend has it that it was as a 12 year old bent on avenging the theft of his bicycle that a policeman persuaded him to join the local boxing club.

2. By 1960, Clay was Olympic light-heavyweight champion and turned professional having lost just five of his 105 amateur fights. He won his first world title by shocking the "Big Ugly Bear" and overwhelming favourite Sonny Liston in round seven in Miami Beach in 1964. This victory began a 16-year odyssey that would see him become the first man in history to win the world heavyweight title three times and enchant people all around the world.

3. Right from the early days he was brash, boastful and beguiling. He courted controversy after his second win over Liston by announcing he had joined the Nation of Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali. He could also be cruel, never more so than in New York in 1967 when he dealt top contender Ernie Terrell a deliberately merciless 15-round beating for refusing to recognise his new name. "What's my name? What's my name?" he screamed as the punches came down.

4. Ali's 1966 third-round stoppage of the ferocious-punching Cleveland Williams is arguably his finest-ever display. Ali's first tenure as world champion ended a year later when he refused the US army draft and was stripped of his title, handed a five-year suspended prison sentence and banned from travelling abroad.

5. Three years of exile may have robbed the world of Ali at his peak. He lacked some of his edge during his comeback against Jerry Quarry. Ali subsequently lost a brutal epic on points to Joe Frazier in 1971, his defeat denying him the world title again. However, the electric nature of the fight lifted his name back into lights and set in motion the most magnificent trilogy of fights in boxing history.

6. But first there was a new man on the horizon, in the daunting shape of George Foreman, who demolished Frazier and claimed the title for his own. And so came the "Rumble in the Jungle". Ali took boxing to Zaire, and humbled Foreman in round eight to claim back his title in the African country's capital of Kinshasa.

7. Foreman had expected Ali to dance and move out of range. In fact Ali did the opposite, allowing Foreman to punch himself out for round after round before striking himself and knocking his opponent out. "I'm just proud to be part of the Ali legend", Foreman said about his former opponent. The fight was captured in the acclaimed documentary When We Were Kings. Will Smith stars in Michael Mann's forthcoming biopic, Ali.

8. Ali gained his revenge over Frazier in their second meeting to set up the third and final clash, the brutal "Thrilla in Manila", in 1975. After 14 rounds of astonishing raw brutality, Frazier failed to meet the bell for the 15th and final round. It is this fight which many attribute - without proof - to Ali's Parkinson's disease today. Certainly, he was never the same fighter again, and lost his title to young upstart Leon Spinks in 1978 and summoned some remarkable reserves of energy to win it back later that same year.

9. Comfortable retirement loomed but Ali came back to challenge Larry Holmes in 1980. It was a terrible night. Holmes had been brought up with the legend of Muhammad Ali and was close to tears as he handed his hero a merciless 10th-round beating. It was the first time Ali had been stopped. After another ill-judged fight in 1981, when he was beaten on points by Trevor Berbick in the Bahamas, Ali was forced, thankfully, to call it a day.

10. Ali could certainly turn a phrase and his great charm and nobility helped to magnify his celebrity. "Will they ever have another fighter who writes poems, predicts rounds, beats everybody, makes people laugh, makes people cry, and is as tall and extra pretty as me?" Ali asked his biographer Thomas Hauser. Of course there won't.