Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali was more than a boxer—he was a symbol of freedom, courage, and resistance whose impact reached far beyond the ring.

The four-part series chronicles Ali's journey from brash young Cassius Clay winning Olympic gold to his conversion to Islam, his refusal to fight in Vietnam on religious grounds, and his battles both in the ring and against American injustice. Ken Burns doesn't shy away from Ali's contradictions—his abandonment of Malcolm X, his complicated personal life, his sometimes cruel treatment of opponents—revealing a deeply flawed but transformative figure who changed America.

A sweeping portrait of a complex man whose courage to stand for his beliefs, even when it cost him his championship, changed what athletes could represent in society.