Boxing legend Muhammad Ali fought for civil rights and against war outside the ring and delivered strong messages to the UN since the 1970s. We looked back at his work for the world.
“Here is a little black boy from Louisville, Kentucky, sitting in the United Nations, talking to the presidents of the world. Why? Because I’m a good boxer,” he said at a press conference at UN headquarters in 1979.
“I needed boxing to get here. So my goal is to use boxing to reach people.”
Outside the boxing ring, Ali devoted most of his time to the pursuit of peace. The previous year, he had already made a statement to the UN Special Committee against Apartheid in South Africa.
From the 1970s until his death in 2016, the U.S. Olympic gold medalist floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee, as he often aptly described himself, both inside and outside the boxing ring.
Giving back to fight drought in Africa
In 1975, Mr. Ali also visited the UN headquarters before his title fight against Chuck Wepner and announced that the organizers would donate 50 cents from the proceeds of each ticket sold to African drought relief.
At the time, organizer Don King said he expected an audience of 500,000 to one million viewers via video surveillance. The money was split equally between the United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF and Africare, a black aid organization, to support well-building projects in Senegal and Niger.
UN Messenger of Peace
Three-time world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali is known worldwide as “the Greatest” and was named a UN Messenger of Peace in 1998.
By bringing people together, by preaching “healing” to all, regardless of race, religion or age, Mr. Ali has been a tireless advocate for those in need and a major humanitarian actor in the developing world over the years.
Listen to our Podcast Classic episode.
Stories from the UN Archives
UN News presents epic moments from United Nations history, compiled from 49,400 hours of video and 18,000 hours of audio recordings from the United Nations Audiovisual Library.
Check out UN Video’s Stories from the UN Archives playlist and our accompanying series.
