I ain't got no quarrel...

Forty years ago today, just over a month after his defeat of Zora Folley at Madison Square Garden, Muhammad Ali appeared at his scheduled induction ceremony to the army at the Houston Selective Service Induction Center. He successfully passed the physical, meeting all requirements for induction. But then three times he refused to take the symbolic step forward when his name was called to take the induction oath, refusing to serve in the U.S. Army and thus becoming liable for a $10,000 fine and a potential five-year prison sentence.

U.S. attorney Morton Susman immediately initiated criminal proceedings against Ali, and in a move that ultimately would prove more significant for the champ, the New York State Athletic Commission announced that same day that Ali had been stripped of both his heavyweight crown and his boxing license. The sport's greatest title was up for grabs, and perhaps the greatest heavyweight fighter of the 20th century was out of a job. He did not have no quarrel with them Viet Cong, but he had himself a hell of a beef with ole Uncle Sam, one that would cost him three and a half years of the prime of his fighting life.