Blood Brothers — when Muhammad Ali betrayed Malcolm X

The news that Scottish film production company, Two Rivers Media, has been commissioned by US broadcaster, the Smithsonian Channel, to make a documentary on Muhammad Ali covering his early transformation from Cassius Clay into Ali — based on the book Cassius X by Scottish author Stuart Cosgrove — should have fans of The Greatest brimming with anticipation.

The global importance and reach of Ali’s legacy is reflected in the Scottish aspect of this project — i.e. a book on this American sporting and cultural icon by a Scottish author being made into a two-hour film by a Scottish production company at the behest of a US broadcaster.

But it’s also reflective of the extent to which the life and legacy of Ali continues to resonate, and perhaps even more, with the passage of time.

This is arguably particularly the case when it comes to the transformation of the man from Cassius X, the original name bestowed on him by the Nation of Islam in the eary 1960s, into Muhammad Ali, the name the Nation’s leader Elijah Muhammed personally gave him after he defeated Sonny Liston in Miami to become world heavyweight champion in February 1964.