Punch in the Name of Muhammad, Punch in the Name of Ali: The Image of Muhammad Ali as a Political and Sports Icon

In this research the change of Cassius Clay who is a young “Olympics champion” and a sportsman to Muhammad Ali “the political icon” by embracing Islam and leaving Christianity which is known as the “the religion of slavery” by some of the Afro-Americans. In this context, the struggle of Afro-Americans in the USA, the emancipation movements in the 1960’s, and Ali’s role in this struggle of the Third World Countries and the Middle East is examined. The main aim of this research about Muhammad Ali is to examine the relation between sports and politics; how sporting events and sport arenas which were used as an opium for the masses previously are evolved to “political pulpits”.Literature review method is used in this research along with the video and audio files about Muhammad Ali. Some copies of newspapers such as Freedom’s Journal and Muhammad Speaks are also used as primary sources. In this research how the matches of and more important than that the ideas of Ali were evaluated in Turkey with the testimony of the doyen TRT radiotelevision announcer Orhan Ayhan and by using the folk songs which were written for Muhammad Ali in Turkey