Rahaman Ali - My Brother, Muhammad Ali: The Definitive Biography of the Greatest of All Time

RAHAMAN ALI

With FIAZ RAFIQ

Published by John Blake Publishing,
The Plaza,
535 Kings Road,
Chelsea Harbour,
London SW10 0SZ

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First published in hardback in 2019

Harback ISBN: 978 1 78946 171 8
Ebook ISBN: 978 1 78946 177 0

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Text copyright Rahaman Ali with Fiaz Rafiq 2019

The right of Rahaman Ali and Fiaz Rafiq to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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John Blake Publishing is an imprint of Bonnier Books UK
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I dedicate this book to my loving brother, Muhammad Ali. He was my best friend and Im proud of being his only sibling. I was very fortunate to share his life. I am forever grateful.

M uhammad Ali was bold, brash and courageous. He broke down so many barriers and created so many controversial situations. He was an international figure and a great fighter a man who always fought against discrimination and always fought for equal rights. Muhammad and I could resonate with each others attitudes, of being Americans, and of being outspoken about our equal rights.

Muhammad and I became very close friends. We had a lot of fun together and he was always joking around. I remember one day he said to me, Come on, lets take a walk in the community. Somewhat bemused I asked, Take a walk in the community? Walk where? What are we going to do? And Muhammad said, Were just going to walk in the community and talk to the people. And allow the people to talk to us. So we would go on these walks on a regular basis. Ali would make people feel good about themselves. I thought to myself, how many celebrities of his stature would consider just walking among regular people, going around talking to them? This, I felt, was very powerful.

One of the most important lessons we both mutually shared was that money is not God, and human dignity is very important. Your integrity is way up there. And as human beings, if you carry yourself in a certain way, you can defy all evil that comes at us. Muhammad was able to use the spotlight like nobody else in history.

Ive known Rahaman personally for over five-and-half decades. I dont think theres anyone who was closer to Muhammad than his own brother. I am delighted that Rahaman has written the definitive biography on his brother Muhammad Ali, who was more than merely the most fascinating sporting figure of modern times. He was a lover of human beings, a warrior for the fight against discrimination, and not only did this great heavyweight champion transcend boxing, but he transcended all sports. He was bigger than sports. The Muhammad Ali story is an important part of history and I can say, with great conviction, that his legacy will live on for a very long time... hopefully forever.

Jim Brown
NFL Legend

T o me, my brother was never just a boxer.

Muhammad Ali was, without doubt, the worlds most loved sportsman, and perhaps one of its most adored humans. At the height of his celebrity my brother was the most famous person in the world, recognised on every continent. As an athlete, my brother transcended his sport, and as a man he seemed to embody some of our best instincts. When many people picture my brother, they visualise a lithe heavyweight slipping away from Sonny Listons sledgehammers, or an older, wiser fighter letting George Foreman exhaust himself with body blows. But right from the start, I quickly came to realise that the sport of boxing was just a platform for Muhammad; he was the chosen one to help unite people in the world through love, peace and respect.

No other human shared a closer bond with Muhammad than me and our parents, of course. I was a near-constant fixture in my only siblings company. I saw Muhammad at both his best and his worst: the relentless prankster and the jealous older brother, the outspoken advocate and the quiet family man behind closed doors. We grew up together, lived together, trained together, travelled together, socialised with celebrities, rubbed shoulders with presidents and even fought on the same fight cards.

But theres more to my brothers story than the sweet science and his days in the ring. Despite being diagnosed with Parkinsons, my brother never lost his zest for life in his later years. He continued to speak up and represent his religion and the human race as long as he was alive, dedicating his life to charity and helping others. His death in June 2016 caused an almost unprecedented outpouring of praise and emotion. More words have been written about Muhammad than about almost anyone else: most good, many controversial and some that seem intent on tarnishing his legacy. And yet, until now, the voice missing from the conversation has been the one belonging to the man who knew him best me.

My brothers story has been told countless times via the medium of books, magazines and documentaries, but many accounts only consider the legend and not the man. I want to offer a fresh perspective and paint a portrait of not only the personality that most people already know, but of the human being that only I knew a man who struggled with anger, fear and temptation like any other, but always did his best to make the world a little better every day. Like any other human being, Muhammad had his faults. He once said to me, If you ask any man when hes fifty years old if he would do things differently when he was twenty, of course he would. And if he doesnt then hes wasted thirty years of his life. Muhammad, of course, didnt waste a minute of his own life even those years that the government took away from his boxing career, he invested in becoming the magnetic speaker who would one day inspire a new generation.

As a young boy, my brother would say, Im going to be the most famous man in the whole world. We both always knew hed be successful. I remember him once saying to me in his peak, Brother, isnt it wonderful how our dreams came true how we accomplished all the goals we had as young children? I have so much to tell the world about Muhammad Ali, and this book is my attempt to do it.

M y brother almost killed our mom the day he was born.

His head was gigantic as a newborn, far too big to slip out naturally when Mom was giving birth to him. The doctors at the General Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, tried every trick in the book to ensure they delivered my brother into this world without losing him, and it still almost didnt work. In the end, they resorted to using forceps, which caused Muhammad to be born with a lopsided head. Thankfully, our moms own mother was there to console and help. Grandma reassured Mom that she would take care of her baby, and sat with my newborn brother, rubbing his head gently from side to side. Whether this played a role in the beautiful shape it eventually came to be I cant say, but those forceps left a mark on my brothers right cheek that would stay with him his whole life. Otherwise, as our mom always told us, you could see from the day he was born just how good-looking my brother would grow up to be those fine features that punches seemed to slip off, and that face that launched a thousand newscasts the one that almost everyone in the world would come to know. He was a beautiful boy from the first, and my mom loved him the instant she laid eyes on him.