125 pages • 4 hours read
Becoming Muhammad Ali
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Round 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Round 1, Introduction Summary
The novel opens with Lucius (“Lucky”), Cassius Clay’s best friend, declaring that he “remember[s] everything. You probably would have too. That night was a piece of American history” (1). It is February 1958, and Lucky is waiting to hear from Cassius, who is in Chicago, fighting for a championship at the Golden Gloves boxing tournament. Cassius is 16.
Cassius has won a lot of fights in Louisville, Kentucky, his hometown, but the Chicago Golden Gloves is an important tournament. All of his supporters are confident that he will win, and Lucky joins them in a packed room in the Clay household.
Mrs. Clay brags about her son, explaining that “Cassius always told her he was bound to be the greatest—with a capital G—and she believed it with all her heart” (4). Everyone did.
The phone rings, and Cassius recounts the fight.
Round 1, Poem 1 Summary: “Before the Fight”
The perspective and form switch, as Cassius Clay recounts the night through poems.
A reporter asks Cassius if he thinks he’s as good as two other famous boxers, Joe Louis and Sugar Ray. Cassius responds, “I don’t think / I’m as good, / I’m BETTER” (5). The poem moves down along the page, accelerating in tempo as Cassius describes how fast he is in the ring.
Round 1, Poem 2 Summary: “Cassius Clay vs. Alex Watt”
The second poem retells the story of Cassius’s first fight in the tournament, in which he faces Alex Watt on February 24, 1958, in the Chicago Stadium.
He describes how smoky the stadium is, which at first obscures his opponent. In the first round, Watt leads, throwing punches that Cassius works to dodge. Cassius returns in the second, showing his opponent his skill and strength. He finishes the fight in the third round and is shocked to learn who his next opponent will be.
Round 1, Poem 3 Summary: “Cassius Clay vs. Francis Turley”
The next fight takes place the following day. Cassius explains that Frank Turley is a boxer from Montana with a reputation for bloodying his opponents. Turley tells Cassius that their fight will be no different, and Cassius believes him.
Round 1, Poem 4 Summary: “Knockout”
In the fight, Cassius sees himself as a Louisville slugger, referencing the baseball bat company in his hometown. He and Turley trade punches. Then, Turley hits him twice in the face, making Cassius fall to the ground and wonder if he should just stay down.
Round 1, Poem 5 Summary: “Long Count”
The referee begins the “long count” to a knockout, which would signify Turley’s victory. Cassius’s poem slows it down, spacing out each number with a stanza in between each.
He thinks about his father and his home. He wonders about the children next door and who will babysit them now that he’s boxing. He thinks about his grandfather’s stories and his dreams of the future.
As the referee calls “Seven…,” Cassius imagines what he’ll ask his mother to make for dinner when he wins. Then, as the referee says the next number, Cassius thinks about turning the fight around and advancing to the semifinals (12).
Round 1, Poem 6 Summary: “Celebration Dinner Menu”
This poem lays out what Cassius would like for his celebratory spread: veal, chili, eggs, cheese grits, “[f]ive scoops of strawberry ice cream,” and orange juice (14).
Round 1, Poem 7 Summary: “I Jumped Up On”
At the count of nine, Cassius gets up, moving and dodging Turley’s punches. He stays up, and eventually he wins.
Round 1, Poem 8 Summary: “Cassius Clay vs. Kent Green”
On February 26, 1958, Cassius competes in the Golden Gloves semifinals. Despite feeling weary from his last fight, Cassius is confident when he steps into the ring. His opponent is “a tank,” making Cassius feel like his punches are nothing to the larger man (17).
The poem shifts to the narration of the newspaper—though still in poetic form—to recount that Cassius lost to Kent Green.
Round 1, Poem 9 Summary: “On the Phone with Lucky”
Talking to his best friend, Cassius explains that he still has his pride, despite losing. He wants to win the Golden Gloves next year. He still plans on being the greatest. For now, he’s coming home.
Round 1 Analysis
Lucius “Lucky” Wakely narrates the prose introduction to each round and the epilogue. Lucky himself is a fictional character, and while Becoming Muhammad Ali is grounded in a true story, it is a work of historical and biographical fiction that imagines how a young Cassius Clay grew up to become the champion Muhammad Ali. James Patterson and Kwame Alexander provide an entryway in Cassius’s world through Lucky’s role as narrator and friend, and the introductions provide important historical context throughout the novel, describing what life was like for two Black boys growing up in Louisville in the 1950s.
Additionally, Patterson and Alexander chose to bookend the novel with two successive trips to the national Golden Gloves tournament in Chicago. Cassius first attends the competition in 1958, and we start to see his goals for boxing and how he views the sport, believing that “boxing / was gonna set me free, / set us all free” (12). This belief exemplifies the theme of Becoming the Greatest and Overcoming Oppression, and it foreshadows the recounting of racist experiences in Cassius’s life as he comes to understand that by boxing and gaining fame, he can help his family, friends, and community.
Poems 1-9 portray Cassius as clearly confident; he says he is “courageous, / tenacious, / and one day / [I’ll] be / the greatest” (19). He tells Lucky that his pride is unhurt because of his loss to Kent Green, but the poetry provides insight into Cassius’s mind, revealing that he considered not getting up during his fight with Frank Turley. This moment introduces the theme of Public and Private Personas. Cassius projects confidence when the reporter asks if he is as talented as Joe Louis or Sugar Ray, but Cassius’s fight with Turley shows that Cassius sometimes doubts his abilities.
Finally, Round 1 sets up the theme of Remembering Who You Are and Where You Came From. This theme takes its name from the words of Granddaddy Herman and the advice he gives Cassius, and while it truly sinks in by the end of the novel, earlier details illustrate how Cassius constantly keeps his family and his community in mind. He even calls himself a “Louisville slugger,” a clever play on the town’s most famous sporting export and his role as a boxer (10). In Poem 5, the “Long Count,” his thoughts about his family and friends demonstrate how important they are to him and provide enough motivation for him to get up and defeat Frank Turley.
However, his mention of his father and how he “wished my father / was sitting ringside / shouting my name” foreshadows that his dad had been arrested and it was difficult for Cassius to fight without feeling someone was there rooting for him (11). The absence of this voice reveals that Cassius doesn’t believe in himself as much as he might project to others, and it ultimately leads to his loss in the fight against Kent Green.
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