ALI: A Life

Winner of the Sports Book of the Year 2018 this is the most definitive biography of Muhammad Ali that has ever been published, based on more than 500 interviews with those who knew him best and with many dramatic new discoveries about his life and career. Chapter headings include Cassius Marcellus Clay, The Loudest Child, Phantom Punch, Exile, Martyr, The Five Million Dollar Match, Ali v. Frazier and Getting Old. When the frail, trembling figure of Muhammad Ali lit the Olympic flame in Atlanta in 1996, three billion people were once again gripped by the story of the world's most famous sporting icon. The man who had once been reviled for his refusal to fight for his country and for his fast-talking denunciation of his opponents was now almost universally adored, the true cost of his astonishing boxing career clear to see. Jonathan Eig's ground-breaking biography takes us not only inside the ring for some of the most famous bouts in boxing history, but also to find out about Ali's personal life, finances, faith and the moments when the first signs of his physical decline began to show. Ali was a symbol of freedom and courage, a hero to many, but this is also a very personal story of a warrior who vanquished every opponent, but was finally brought down by his own stubborn refusal to quit. A richly researched, sympathetic and unsparing portrait of a controversial figure, the familiar is glanced from a new perspective in Eig's fluent prose. 24 pages of black and white photos at the end, 623pp in softback.