BBC Radio 5 Live

A tribute to Muhammad Ali is under way on BBC Radio 5 live and you can listen by clicking the tab at the top of this page. 

The programme will look at his impact in the United Kingdom and the rest of the world, his rise as a media superstar and you will be able to relive his famous Rumble in the Jungle fight.

Muhammad Ali's death has seen the passing of two American icon's in the last few months following the music icon Prince passing away in April. 

Image source, AP

Ali then met Joe Frazier for a third time in the so-called Thrilla in Manila, perhaps the most brutal encounter in heavyweight history.

Ali said it was the closest he had come to death in the ring, but he was victorious when Frazier's corner halted the fight after 14 rounds.

In Las Vegas in February 1978, he lost his title to Leon Spinks, the 1976 Olympic light-heavyweight champion who was 12 years his junior.

The return fight in New Orleans eight months later drew a world record gate, with millions more watching on television.

This time Ali took a unanimous decision and won the world title for a third time at 36.

Ali's enforced absence had taken its toll on his speed, and in 1971 he was beaten for the first time in his professional career by Joe Frazier. Ali gained his revenge three years later.

Perhaps Ali's greatest moment came in October 1974 when he defeated George Foreman in Zaire in the so-called Rumble in the Jungle.

Ali spent most of the first eight rounds leaning back on the ropes, soaking up the punches of his younger, and significantly larger, foe.

He called the tactic "rope-a-dope", and at the end of the eighth round he sprang out of his defensive shell and sent Foreman sprawling to the canvas with a picture-perfect combination.

At the age of 32, Ali had become only the second man in history to regain the heavyweight championship of the world.

Image source, Getty Images

Ali became a hate figure for sections of the American public and barely more than 2,000 people turned up to see his rematch with Liston, which he controversially won with a first-round knockout.

Eight more title defences followed but when Ali refused to sign the oath of allegiance to join the US Army ("I ain't got no quarrel with them Vietcong") , he was stripped of his title.

He was also given five years in jail, a sentence that was quashed on appeal.

After three years of growing anguish among Americans about the Vietnam War, Ali was granted a reprieve and returned to the ring in 1970 with a win over Jerry Quarry.

The then Cassius Clay was given no chance by the boxing press against Sonny Liston but ran rings round his older opponent and forced Liston to quit on his stool at the end of the sixth round.

The heavyweight champion of the world became Muhammad Ali. Cassius Clay, he said, was his "slave name", and he took exception to anyone who continued to use it.

Ernie Terrell referred to Ali by his birth name during the build-up to their world championship fight in 1967, only for Ali to hand out a 15-round battering.

At various points during the bout, Ali screamed in Terrell's face: "What's my name, Uncle Tom?"

In 1960, Ali was selected in the US team for the Rome Olympics. At first he refused to go because of his fear of flying. Eventually, according to Joe Martin's son, he bought a second-hand parachute and wore it on the flight.

It was worth all the effort. On 5 September 1960, he beat Poland's Zbigniew Pietrzykowski to become the Olympic light-heavyweight champion.

He received a hero's welcome when the team returned to New York but the reality of the segregated US society hit home when he got back to Kentucky and was refused a table in a restaurant.

Ali claimed in his 1975 autobiography that he threw away his Olympic medal in disgust but it was later revealed that he lost it a year after his return from Rome.

Image source, Getty Images

Remember to send us your memories of Muhammad Ali via #bbcboxing., external And if you have any pictures with the great man, please send them along too. We'd love to see them.  

When Ali was 12, he reported his bicycle had been stolen and told a police officer he was going to "whup" the culprit.

The officer, Joe Martin, trained young fighters at a local gym and suggested the youngster learn to box before he challenged the thief.

Clay quickly took to the ring, making his competitive debut in 1954 in a three-minute amateur bout.

"He stood out because he had more determination than most boys," Martin later recalled. "He was easily the hardest worker of any kid I ever taught."

He was born Cassius Marcellus Clay in Louisville, Kentucky, on 17 January 1942, the son of a sign painter. He was named after a prominent 19th Century abolitionist.

However, he changed his name to Muhammad Ali in 1964 saying that his birth name was his "slave name".

Throughout his high-profile life, his outspoken support for civil rights endeared him to millions of people across the world.

Barry McGuigan,former world featherweight champion: "Everybody wanted to box because of him. He was just so amazing in every way. More than anything else, it was how humble and how brilliantly charismatic he was.

"He was a beautiful-looking man, a beautiful-looking individual and he had so much compassion. 

"He was the greatest sportsman there has ever been and we were very lucky that he chose boxing."

Image source, Getty Images

You can read more tributes to Muhammad Ali here.

Nick Bryant
BBC New York Correspondent

"During an era when African-Americans continued to be treated as second-class citizens, and those living in southern states were subject to an ugly and often brutal system of racial apartheid, few did more to nurture black pride than Muhammad Ali.

"The Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr may have been the untitled leader of the civil rights movement, winning the Nobel Peace Prize and delivering the finest oration that Americans had heard since the Gettysburg Address, but many young blacks especially did not consider him anywhere near radical enough.

"Ali, after knocking out Charles "Sonny" Liston in February 1964, to become the heavyweight champion of the world, arguably commanded the respect and awe of a larger black constituency.

"I am the greatest," Clay had declared. From a black man, in the midst of one of America's most tumultuous decades, it was not just a boast, but also a statement of immense authority. Ali exuded power at a time when many black Americans looked upon themselves as being powerless."

Read more by clicking here.

BBC Radio 5 Live

Eleanor Oldroyd is joined by Mike Costello and Steve Bunce to reflect on the life of boxing legend Muhammad Ali who died on Saturday morning at the age of 74. 

BBC Radio 5 live relives his most iconic fights including the Rumble in the Jungle and the Thriller in Manilla and we examine his impact outside of the boxing ring. 

George Foreman, Bill Clinton and Wladimir Klitschko all pay tribute to the former the heavyweight world champion. You will also hear from the man himself as we play some of his most famous interviews.

Listen here.

Flags were lowered during a memorial service in Muhammad Ali's hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. The Mayor of Louisville, Greg Fischer, also paid tribute to the boxer. 

"Imagine that day, that little boy, eyes wide open, looking around the room, not knowing the life that awaited him. The life he would make. The world he would shake up and the people he would inspire," he said.

Image source, AP

Former Wales international winger Cliff Jones, a member of the Spurs double-winning side of the early sixties.

Floyd Mayweather, a world champion across five divisions: "There will never be another Muhammad Ali. 

"The black community all around the world, black people all around the world, needed him. He was the voice for us. 

"He's the voice for me to be where I'm at today."  

Image source, Getty Images

You can read more tributes to Muhammad Ali here.