Preface: Miami, 1964

Cassius Marcellus Clay

The loudest child

The bicycle

"Every day was heaven"

The prophet

"I'm just young and don't give a damn"

America's hero

Dreamer

"Twentieth-century exuberance"

"It's show business"

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee

The ugly bear

"So what's wrong with the Muslims?"

Becoming Muhammad Ali

Choice

"Girl, will you marry me?"

Assassination

Phantom punch

True love

A holy war

No quarrel

"What's my name?"

"Against the furies"

Exile

Faith

Martyr

Song and dance and prayer

The greatest book of all time

Stand by me

Comeback

"The world is watching you"

A different fighter

The five-million-dollar match

Ali v. Frazier

Freedom

Trickeration

A fight to the finish

Heart of darkness

Fighter's heaven

"Ali boma ye!"

Rumble in the jungle

Moving on up

Impulses

Ali-Frazier III

Getting old

"They may not let me quit"

"Do you remember Muhammad Ali?"

Staggered

Crown Prince

Old

Humpty Dumpty

The last hurrah

Too many punches

"He's human, like us"

A torch

The long, black Cadillac

Postscript