125 pages • 4 hours read
James Patterson, Kwame AlexanderBecoming Muhammad Ali
Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Middle Grade | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Round 7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Round 7, Introduction Summary
Lucky asks, “Want another scene from the movie starring Cassius?” (203). He remembers one fall afternoon at the Clay house. He, Cassius, and Rudy were making posters to advertise Cassius’s next fight, and Cassius insisted on adding slogans to each. Lucky thinks that it wasn’t enough for Cassius to fight; “he had to be a fighter with flair” (203).
Lucky also remembers that Cassius loved music, which likely influenced his love for poetry.
They took the posters all through their neighborhood. At one house, a woman tried to stop them, revealing that she was the aunt of Cassius’s opponent. Politely, Cassius replied that he was friends with his rival, but in the ring, there was no doubt he would win.
Lucky explains that boxing was very popular in Louisville, and Tomorrow’s Champions often had Cassius on as their main attraction. Cassius loved the attention, defeating opponents left and right after his win against Ronnie O’Keefe. His skill quickly gained attention, and “[n]obody […] had ever seen anything like it” (206). Soon, Cassius wasn’t the only one saying he was the greatest.
Round 7, Poem 94 Summary: “Cassius Clay vs. James Davis”
On February 4, 1955, Cassius is coming off winning four fights in a row as he prepares to face James Davis, his first fight in the Louisville Golden Gloves tournament. After his string of victories, he doesn’t prepare as much for this fight. He runs less, sleeps in, doesn’t drink as much water, and stays up late to hang out with his friends. He also eats extra dessert on his 13th birthday.
He looks sleepy and loses the fight to James Davis. His record is four wins and one loss.
Round 7, Poem 95 Summary: “Cassius Clay vs. John Hampton”
On July 22, 1955, John Hampton lands a few blows on Cassius, who then whispers, “That’s all you got?” (209). He throws a jab and a right hook to defeat the other boy.
His record is now nine wins and two losses.
Round 7, Poem 96 Summary: “Conversation with Rudy”
Rudy and Cassius talk, and Rudy notes that he saw Riney and Teenie together. He thinks that they’re dating. Teenie’s cousin also asked Rudy if he’d be her boyfriend. Cassius is practicing while Rudy tells him all this, and he brushes off his brother, saying that he needs to concentrate. When Rudy asks if he’s mad, he tells him to go away, clearly frustrated.
Round 7, Poem 97 Summary: “Before”
When they get home that day, Rudy and Cassius jump rope and do crunches and more sit-ups. Tired, they collapse, staring up at the sky and thinking of the future. Cash calls them in.
Round 7, Poem 98 Summary: “We Thought”
Cash’s yelling makes the boys think they did something wrong. However, Cash looks distraught, and they soon understand why when he shows them a picture of a boy who was killed. They start crying too.
Round 7, Poem 99 Summary: “I Was Thirteen”
Cassius reviews the events of his 13th year. During that time, he lost his first fight and the first girl he was interested in. He decided during this year that he would become a champion.
It was also the year that Cash showed him the photograph of Emmett Till, who’d been brutally beaten and killed because his killers thought he had tried to flirt with a white woman.
Round 7, Poem 100 Summary: “After”
In this one-stanza poem, Cassius explains that he still felt the tragic effect of Till’s murder even as he won his fights.
Round 7, Poem 101 Summary: “I Was Thirteen”
Returning to what he learned when he was 13, Cassius notes that he realized boxing could be his way out of Louisville.
Round 7, Poem 102 Summary: “The Next Few Years”
For the next several years, Cassius dedicates himself even more to boxing. He beats his opponents, keeping his fists up in the ring. He beats Rudy Baker and Donnie Hall. One thing is on his mind: “NO PAIN, NO GAIN” (218).
Round 7, Poem 103 Summary: “A Guy with a Camera”
Cassius is filmed in the ring as he prepares to fight Jimmy Ellis. A reporter yells to him, asking if he thinks he can defeat Ellis. Cassius looks at the camera when he replies.
Round 7, Poem 104 Summary: “Introduction: Reprise”
Repeating parts of his introduction to himself in reply to the reporter’s question, Cassius says that he’ll defeat any opponent. He thinks it’s clear that he’ll win.
Round 7, Poem 105 Summary: “Cassius Clay vs. Jimmy Ellis”
On August 30, 1957, Cassius fights Jimmy Ellis. Jimmy throws punch after punch, reminding Cassius of Duke Ellington’s music. Cassius moves and dodges him again and again. He gets hit a few times, testing how hard Ellis hits and sizing him up.
In the final round, he sees Ellis getting tired. Cassius smiles for the camera and goes on the offense. He wins the fight. His record is now 16 wins and two losses.
Round 7, Poem 106 Summary: “Rematch”
Cassius sees Jimmy at another gym. They talk about the fight, and a few people come over to say that the fight was fixed, and the judges erred in declaring Cassius the winner. Cassius agrees to fight again.
Round 7, Poem 107 Summary: “Cassius Clay vs. Jimmy Ellis, Part 2”
On October 12, 1957, the two boxers have their rematch. The fight, which is aired on TV, has more viewers than I Love Lucy, according to Cash.
Cassius thinks this is good “’cause a million folks / saw my pretty face” but bad because he loses in a split decision. One judge says he won, and two say that Jimmy did. His record is now 17 wins and three losses.
Round 7, Poem 108 Summary: “Conversation with Rudy”
Rudy apologizes for what happened in Cassius’s last fight. Cassius replies that you can’t celebrate wins if you don’t have losses, and Rudy replies that Cassius sounds like his grandfather.
Rudy wonders if Cassius will get to the Golden Gloves. A boy from Cleveland won last year. Before that, Sonny Liston won, and Rudy comments on how hard Liston hit in his fights. He is intimidated by Liston, but Cassius repeats what Martin told him: “The fight is won before you get in the ring” (226). Rudy asks what this means, and Cassius tells him to focus since he won’t always be able to protect him.
They start to talk about what they’ll do after high school. He doesn’t think boxing is a job, but Cassius points out other boxers who have made it theirs. Rudy thinks they should have a backup plan, like joining the army. However, Cassius refuses to join the army until the United States treats everyone equally.
Round 7 Analysis
Despite getting cocky and racking up his first loss, Cassius builds momentum as a boxer in Round 7. After losing to James Davis, he learns that he must keep his routine, and that relaxing it can cost him a fight. When he lets his confidence gets the best of him, he fights “with no killer instinct, / got beat / like a rented mule” (208). It’s an important lesson to learn, and Cassius refocuses all his attention on boxing.
Importantly, his boxing style continues to develop its own rhythm, and Cassius “danced on [his] feet / like a black butterfly” (218). This quote echoes a later Muhammad Ali, whose strategy was to “[f]loat like a butterfly, sting like a bee!” (299). The invocation of the butterfly foreshadows Cassius’s boxing tactics later in life, emphasizing that this novel intends to show Cassius as a young man and the influences that ultimately led him to become the heavyweight boxing champion of the world.
Cassius’s relationship to boxing also shifts dramatically and emotionally after the murder of Emmett Till. A set of five poems—“Before,” “We Thought,” “I Was Thirteen,” “After,” and “I Was Thirteen”—leads up to Cassius’s conclusion that boxing can “save us, / take me away / from all this” (217). At first, Cassius’s wariness of his father and his temper makes it seem as though the scene will not be as serious as it is. The news of Emmett Till’s unjust death comes as a complete shock. “After” is much more somber; its single stanza takes Cassius’s usually chatty and bravado-filled lyricism to a much more somber tone. This tone shift works to emphasize that the event had a deep effect on Cassius.
This effect is echoed in Cassius’s words as well. Emmett Till was 14 when he was killed, barely a year older than Cassius himself. Even though he has long been warned about the realities and dangers of racism, Cassius feels that seeing Emmett Till’s photo in the magazine shows him “the face / of America” (215). The same fate could befall him if he’s not careful, and even then, his safety is not guaranteed. However, it also makes him realize that boxing could “take me away / from all this” (217).
Rudy does not see boxing the same way, emphasizing that “maybe we ought / to have a backup. Like the army” (227). He has more doubts than Cassius, and Cassius’s response to Rudy’s suggestion about the army foreshadows his later decision to ignore his draft summons. Cassius says, “HECK and NO! Until this country treats / boys like me and you as human beings, I ain’t / fightin’ for no flag” (227). He is serious about boxing, and he truly believes it is his means to succeed.
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