"Flies like a butterfly and stings like a bee." Muhammad Ali is famous above all because he is a very talented boxer and in the eyes of some he is considered the best boxer ever. He is considered the best for his extraordinary footwork, powerful jab and his fast flurries of punches. He is an inspiration for the way he fought racism in a time when blacks and “colored people” had separate bathrooms and drinking fountains from whites. Not only that, but he was the heavyweight champion of the world and won a gold medal in those troubled times. Over the years Muhammad Ali displayed character traits of courage because he stood up to the world by not fighting in war, and confidence because no matter how good his opponent was he would always guarantee the exact way he would beat him. Muhammad Ali Ali was born on January 17, 1942. His birth name is Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. His mother Odessa Grady Clay and his father Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr. Cassius discovered he could box in a very unusual turn of events. Cassio had received a red bicycle on his twelfth birthday, but it was stolen soon after. He reported this to a police officer named Joe Martin. He informed him that when he found the thief he would beat him, Joe told him that he had to learn to fight first, luckily because Cassius Joe was also a trainer. That's when he knew he could box. To train, he ran seven miles every day before going to school. In 1960 Cassius made the U.S. men's Olympic team. After four fights he won the gold medal and later wrote a little poem that said, "To make America the greatest is my goal, so I beat the Russian and I beat the Pole, and for the United States they won the gold medal". Cassius returned from the Olympics and went to a restaurant that had a white owner. The waitress took the order but when she returned she told Cassio that the owner didn't want a black man served even though he was an Olympic gold medalist. The day after winning the heavyweight title, Cassius converted his religion from Christian to Islamic and changed his name to Muhammad Ali.