Muhammad Ali: Made In Miami

Monday, August 11 at 10 p.m.

Muhammad Ali: Made In Miami, airing Monday, August 11 at 10 p.m. on WXXI-TV 21 (cable 11) and WXXI-HD (cable 1011 and DT 21.1), explores the critical role that Miami played in the evolution of one of the most significant cultural figures of our time: Muhammad Ali, née Cassius Clay.

Cassius Clay arrived in Miami in the fall of 1960, fresh from earning an Olympic gold medal as a light-heavyweight boxer in the Rome Olympics. He moved into a succession of hotels in Miami’s Overtown district — when that neighborhood was still considered Harlem South, a vibrant center of black entertainment and commerce — and trained with Angelo Dundee at the Fifth Street Gym on Miami Beach. Over the course of the next few years, coinciding with the height of the national civil rights movement, Clay evolved both professionally and politically, piling up victories in the ring and adopting the black separatist teachings of the Nation of Islam.

It was in this period that Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali. The transformation was completed in February 1964, when Clay, in one of the most stunning upsets in boxing history, defeated the seemingly invincible heavyweight champion Sonny Liston in Miami Beach and, two days later, declared his new identity to the world.

Muhammad Ali: Made In Miami is not only Ali’s story, but the story of Miami’s black community and the Fifth Street Gym. The film combines rarely seen footage with interviews with Dundee, fight doctor Ferdie Pacheco, Ali’s Miami neighbors, former Overtown residents, and sportswriters and photographers who covered the young phenom, as well as nationally recognized figures such as best-selling Ali biographer Thomas Hauser, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Remnick and Columbia University historian Manning Marable.

Muhammad Ali: Made In Miami explores Ali’s friendship with Malcolm X, his celebrated encounter with the Beatles, his dramatic victory over Liston and his refusal to be drafted into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War — all episodes that played out in Miami.

Until now, Muhammad Ali’s time in Miami has been treated as little more than prologue to his worldwide fame. Muhammad Ali: Made In Miami argues that, without Miami, there might never have been a Muhammad Ali.

For more information, visit http://ali.wlrn.org.

Pictured: A smiling Cassius Clay in 1964, just days before being crowned heavyweight boxing world champion after a shock win over Sonny Liston.
Photo Credit: Bob Gomel