Ben Watkins' dramatisation is unrelated to 1977 biographical film of same name, where Ali and Drew Bundini Brown (his cornerman and assistant trainer), play themselves, with the rest by actors.
For shiggles, another film with same title (that has nothing to do with boxing), was released in 2009.
Anyway, ding ding.
Jaalen Best - Cassius Marcellus Clay, later Muhammad Ali
Omari Hardwick - Cassius Clay Senior
Dana Gourrier - Odessa Clay
Kai Parham - Rudy Clay
Giovanni Ribsi - Angelo Dundee
Amin Joseph - Sonny Liston
Michael Ealy - Malcolm X
Erica Tazel - Geraldine Liston
Reno Wilson - Drew Bundini Brown
Aleks Paunovic - William Faversham, Jr.
Dave Davis - Marvin Geller
Kelly AuCoin - Joe E. Martin
Joel Keller - Chris Dundee
Episodes
1. Fool's Gold
2. Promised Land
3. The New Negro
4. Artist at Work
5. X²
6. Eight Count
7. Louder Than Words
8. My Name Is...
Summary
During the Summer Olympics in Rome 1960, 18-year-old Cassius Clay wins amateur boxing's biggest prize by beating Zbigniew Pietrzykowski in the gold medal fight.
Returning home a hero, Clay signs for the Louisville Sponsoring Group (LSG).
He wins his first professional bout against Tunney Hunsaker on 29 October by unaminous decision.
Meanwhile, the fearsome Sonny Liston (said to be born 8 May 1932), has his boxing licence temporarily suspended by the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission for past behaviour and rumoured ties with organised crime.
On 25 September 1962, Liston viciously knocks out Floyd Patterson in the first round and becomes heavyweight champion.
In 1963, after meeting African American revolutionary Malcolm X, Clay flies to London, England, for Henry Cooper.
At the end of the fourth round, Clay is floored by Cooper's trademark left hook - 'Enry's 'Ammer'.
However, Clay recovers, and after severely opening up a cut under Cooper's left eye, wins by TKO in the fifth.
25 February 1964.
Despite Liston nursing a shoulder injury, Clay still goes into the fight a massive 7/1 underdog.
At the start of the fifth, Clay struggles to see properly, with Clay's corner complaining that something on Liston's gloves has got into Clay's eyes.
Nearly blind, Clay has no choice but to run away and survive.
Strategy somehow works, and with sight returned, Clay dominates the sixth, and a spent Liston retires on his stool.
Clay visits Malcolm X and then publicly denounces his 'slave name', becoming Muhammad Ali.
What champions are made of
Leading man gives performance his 'Best' shot and fights boast impressive energy, but narrative abruptly ending when it did, thus not including Joe Frazier and George Foreman was really frustrating.
Oh, even though show's anachronistic hip-hop soundtrack was deliberate, I wasn't a fan.
Fiction
E1 - angry at being refused service at a whites-only diner, Clay tosses his Olympic medal into the Ohio river.
In reality - he simply lost it.
E2 - while serving time at Missouri State Correctional, Liston wins a gladitorial bout watched by prisoners baying for blood.
Sure, whatever.
E3 - Clay takes on then trainer Archie Moore at his training camp in the ring, and Moore knocks Clay down several times.
Bullshit.
They officially settled their differences on 15 November 1962, which Clay won by TKO in the fourth.
E6 - days after winning the title in 1962, Liston appears as a guest on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Yes this happened, but unlike the reality of host enjoying enjoyable banter with Liston, champ is really awkward, with Sullivan humiliating him.
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