When Mohammed Ali's boxing career took off in the United States, he became an athletic pioneer who used his status as a platform for social change.
Now, another boxer with the same last name is poised to blaze a new path for the Arab American community to follow.
The 2008 Summer Olympics will kick off in Beijing, China with the opening ceremony this week, and this year's games will feature the first ever Arab American boxer, Sadam Ali, who is also surprisingly the first boxer to make the U.S. team from New York in 20 years.
Ali, who hails from Brooklyn, New York, will compete in the 132-pound lightweight division for the Americans and is a 29-year old former back-to-back National Golden Gloves Champion.
The young Ali was first drawn to boxing by Prince Naseem Hamed, the featherweight British boxer of Yemeni descent known for his knockout power, flashy style and unorthodox left-handed stance. Ali was given the nickname "The World Kid" by his father and uncle.
Ali, also of Yemeni descent, saw a lot of similarities between himself and his hero, and his parents began taking him to boxing lessons at the age of 8 as an outlet for the aggression he felt being raised as an outsider in a mostly-black community. Ali developed a strong affinity for boxing and his parents had no choice but to take him again and again.
In the ring, Ali relies more on his speed to pick opponents apart, and it is a skill he will need to survive against the best the world has to offer in Beijing. He is known as a counter-puncher with the precision punching ability to out-point opposing boxers. Accuracy is key in the Olympic boxing, which is a little less violent and more skill-based than traditional American boxing. But Ali is also unafraid to switch up his style and become more aggressive should the situation call for it.
Ali, who also enjoys playing football and basketball, strives to show humility as an ambassador of the sport, listing "school" as his favorite hobby and "being respectful" as his goal both inside and outside of the ring.
The first lightweight Olympic boxing action will take place on Monday, August 11th from 3:01 a.m. to 4:01 a.m. Eastern Time and then again from 8:30 a.m. through 9:30 a.m. The matches will be shown on CNBC and CNBC-HD cable stations in case fans want to either wake up early or set their VCRs or other recording devices to catch Ali's first fight, which will be an athletic milestone and a historic event for the Arab American community.
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