Muhammad Ali Memorabilia > Muhammad Ali Autographs
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Young Muhammad Ali Montage
A Very Rare 16x20 Inches Colour Glossy Montage
Photograph featuring photos from the late 1950's when Muhammad
Ali was just starting his way on the road to Greatness.
Photos include Joe Murphy his original mentor, working out
with his brother Rahman, and an early amateur contest. Signed
in Silver Sharpie and comes complete with Online Authentics
Certificate. Nice clear Signature.
We only have 2 of these signed photographs to ensure exclusivity.
All Postage costs will be calculated at checkout. This item
will be shipped Unframed in a protective tube within 7 days.
£1,245.00
MUHAMMAD ALI AKA CASSIUS CLAY
The story of how young Cassius Marcellus Clay
wound up in boxing has been told time and time again. It
reads as if it a movie script. However, this story is better
than fiction. Clay was born on January 17, 1942 in Louisville,
Ky. Growing up, Clay understood his place in the framework
of the country – he was a black child of the middle
class.
On an October afternoon in 1954, a 12-year-old
Clay attended an annual convention of the Louisville Service
Club at the Columbia Auditorium with a friend. He arrived
at the black merchant bazaar upon a new $60 red and white
Schwinn. However, after Clay and his friend indulged themselves
with free popcorn and ice cream they left the auditorium
to find that their bicycles had been stolen. A tearful Clay
was directed to the basement of the auditorium where a policeman
was manning the boxing gym. Joe Martin listened to young
Cassius boast about a statewide hunt for his precious bike
and heard the threats he was making to the thief if he was
ever caught. After a while, Martin asked of Clay, “Well,
do you know how to fight?” Clay quipped back, “No,
but I’d fight anyway.” Martin’s best advice
to the hot-tempered preteen was to come back around the
gym and learn to fight. “Why don’t you learn
something about fighting,” Martin suggested, “before
you go and make any hasty challenges?”
Martin went on to become Clay’s first
trainer and was with him through an explosive six-year amateur
career. Martin’s widow Christine recalled those early
days with Clay. “I was about as involved as Joe, except
for the actual training," she said in an interview
with the Louisville Courier-Journal. "I would drive
those boys everywhere. Indianapolis, Chicago, Toledo.
"In those days, the black boys couldn't go into the
restaurants, so I didn't take any of the boys in. I'd just
go in myself and get what they wanted, however many hamburgers
per boy, and bring it back to the car.
"Cassius was a very easy-to-get-along-with fellow.
Very easy to handle. Very polite. Whatever you asked him
to do, that's what he'd do. His mother, that's why. She
was a wonderful person.
"On trips, most of the boys were out looking around,
seeing what they could get into, whistling at pretty girls.
But Cassius didn't believe in that. He carried his Bible
everywhere he went, and while the other boys were out looking
around, he was sitting and reading his Bible."
Following his 108-bout amateur career (which
garnered him 100 victories, just one loss, national titles
in both AAU and Golden Gloves competition and an Olympic
gold medal) Clay set his sights on the heavyweight championship.
Less than two months after the 1960 Olympics, Clay, still
only 18, signed a professional contract with the Louisville
Sponsoring Group, made up of 10 local businessmen. The group
agreed to pay him $10,000 cash and a guaranteed $4,000 a
year for two years. Any money Clay made above the guarantee
would be split 50-50 with the sponsors, who agreed to take
care of all travel and training expenses. In a prepared
statement that called Cassius Clay "one of the nation's
outstanding young athletes," the group summed up how
Louisville felt about the fighter's amateur career, and
the hopes it held for his future: "Each of the 10 members
of the group has admiration for Cassius Clay as a fine young
man and confidence in his ability as a boxer. The principal
purpose of the group is to provide hometown support for
Cassius' professional career and to aid him in realizing
the maximum benefits from his efforts."
