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Soon To Be Champion

Source: Harry Benson / Getty

In a time when every deceased legend is being immortalized by biopics and documentaries, it only makes sense that Muhammad Ali would get the same treatment. The boxer who passed in June 2016 is getting a Showtime scripted mini series titled The Ali Summit, about his refusal to participate in the Vietnam draft.

The moment was 1967. Ali, a heavyweight champion at the time gathered his contemporaries that included Jim Brown, Bill Russell and Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul Jabar) to stand in solidarity against going to war. Because of his defiance he was stripped of his title, sentenced to five years in prison, fined $10,000 and banned from boxing for three years.

As noted by The Wrap, The Ali Summit explores the intersection of civil rights and sports that continues to resonate today, and tracks the FBI’s crusade against Ali, Brown and other black leaders in the lead-up to Ali’s arrest for draft evasion at the peak of his boxing career.

Jim Brown and his wife Monique are attached to the project as executive producers.

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Muhammad Ali’s Vietnam War Refusal Will Be Documented In Mini Series  was originally published on hellobeautiful.com