Muhammad Ali’s Brother, Forgotten Fighter Rudy Clay AKA Rahaman Ali, Dies at 82
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Louisville, Kentucky (August 3rd, 2025)– Rudy Clay, also known as Rahman Ali and Rahaman Ali, the forgotten loyal boxing younger brother of the late world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay), who lived on in his brother’s training camps and corners in a reserved quiet and most silent shadow, but who followed his brother’s book with his own book and take on his boxing and life experiences, died on August 1, 2025, after battling Parkinson’s disease for years, in his native Louisville, Kentucky, according to a statement of the Muhammad Ali Center.
After a 34-4 amateur boxing career, Rahaman Ali was not selected for the 1960 Olympic Game s in Rome, Italy, where his brother Cassius Clay won an Olympic Gold Medal in the light heavyweight division. Undaunted, Rudolph Arnett Clay turned professional as a heavyweight on July 25, 2025, at the Miami Beach Convention Center, scoring an upset four round split decision win over the 4-2 Chip Johnson in his pro debut in the opening bout of a six bout card. In the main event, in a bout which was the 1964 Ring Magazine Fight of the Year, his older brother Cassius Clay won the World Boxing Council World Heavyweight championship when the then world champion, Charles ‘Sonny’ Liston retired on his stool, citing an injured shoulder. Liston’s left shoulder injury was a torn tendon, which caused significant pain, limiting his ability to lift his left arm at that point during their championship bout. After this fight card Cassius Clay changed his name first to Cassius X, and then to Muhammad Ali. Rudolph ‘Rudy’ C;lay would become Rahman Ali, later Rahaman Ali.
Muhammad Ali was born on January 17, 1942. Rahaman Ali was born on July 18, 1943. Although other sources and media outlets claim a different pro record, as a professional the BoxRec lists Rahaman Ali’s pro record as 14-3-1 with seven knockouts between 1964 and 1972. Rahaman Ali also boxed an exhibition with his brother in 1972. After drawing in a 10 rounder with Jaspet Evans, losing a 10 rounder to Roy ‘Cookie’ Wallace (who later knocked out Big Scott LeDoux, and who also fought Bob Foster, Ken Norton, George Foreman, Oscar Bonavena, John Tate, Tex Cobb, Duane Bobick, Leroy Jones and other notables), Rahaman was knocked out in the eighth round at The Coliseum in San Diego in November 1972 by 6’6” veteran club fighter Jack ‘The Giant O’Halloran (who beat Cleveland Williams, who lost to George Foreman, Ken Norton, Ron Stander, and Joe Bugner among others).
At that point in his career, Muhammad Ali, who had defeated Floyd Patterson in a rematch at Madison Square Garden in in November 1972, but who would lose to and then defeat Ken Norton in 1973 the following year, determined he did not like what had happened to his brother, expressed a desire to financially take care of him, and told his brother he did not want him to fight professionally again. Rahaman agreed.
According to former world heavyweight champion Iron Mike Tyson, “Rahaman has, at last, written the definitive biography of his late brother, which tells the real story.” In the book My Brother, Muhammad Ali, The Definitive biography, written with Fiaz Rafiq, Rahaman tells the best version of his brother and living around him.
For many years, Muhammad Ali was the most famous person in the world. At the same time, nobody known to be associated with Muhammad Ali 24/7 because as unknown as Rahaman Ali, who seemingly disappeared and became invisible while still being ever present in Muhammad Ali’s moving shadow. It was not like Michael Spinks and Leon Spinks. Leon was loud. Rahaman was silent.
Rudy Clay appeared to disappear in plain sight, a boxing writer’s footnote to 1972 who faded off the map from public recognition when he retired from the ring, while in reality, he was always still there in historical significance as his brother’s emotional half. Rahaman Ali was boxing’s version of Harry Houdini, whose media existence effectively disappeared in his association with his brother the night his boxing career ended. No boxing writer cared. Only Muhammad Ali truly cared about his brother. This brother-to-brother relationship, throughout Muhammad Ali’s four marriages, remained the most important emotional relationship, which actually defined Muhammad Ali. His brother Rahaman who the only person who truly understood Muhammad, and was the only one there from the very beginning to Muhammad’s bitter physical decline and end, remaining at his emotional and spiritual side from pillar to post.
No one was closer to Ali than his younger brother. The two brothers grew up together, lived together, trained together, travelled together, and fought together in the street, and in the ring. A near-constant fixture in his brother’s company and subsequent entourage, Rahaman saw Ali at both his best as a braggart, world champion, former world champion, world champion, former world champion, and later life spokesman of his craft. Rahaman saw Ali at his worst, with many women, hangers on, his embracing his Muslim faith and changing his name, battling to get his boxing license reinstated in the United States Supreme Court, his many women and wives, and battling Parkinson’s in later years. Rahaman saw his brother as the relentless taunting talker and prankster, the jealous older brother, the outspoken advocate, the charismatic public figure, and behind the scenes not-so-public husband and father. Rahaman offered his personal family and training camp insider’s perspective from the shadows with many well-known facts and stories interpreted in greater detail with greater clarity and wisdom, as well as telling unknown facts and stories, spinning the most accurate intimate portrait as only a beloved brother could tell of a proud boxing warrior, loudmouth public persona, yet a surprisingly emotionally vulnerable man behind the scenes away from the camera.
According to People.com, Rahman Ali, the younger brother of Muhammad Ali, had one known child, a daughter named Miya Ali, with his first wife, Cynthia. Like his brother Muhammad, Rahaman was married multiple times, including to Cynthia and later to a woman named Linda, but details about his other relationships are not widely available. Muhammad Ali had nine children with five different women: Maryum, Rasheda, Jamillah, Muhammad Ali Jr., Khaliah, Miya, Hana, Laila, and Asaad Amin. Muhammad Ali’s boxing grandson, Nico Ali Walsh, is a middleweight prospect with a current professional record of 12 wins and two losses, with one No-Contest. Nico’s mother, Muhammad’s daughter Laila Ali, was world female super middleweight champion between 2002 and 2007, with a professional record of 24-0 between 1999 and 2007.
Muhammad Ali’s daughter Hana Ali wrote on Instagram In Loving Memory of My Uncle
“Today, the last living member of my father’s immediate family returned to heaven.
My Uncle ‘Rock’ Rahman, lovingly known as Rock, was a sweet, gentle soul with a heart as big as the world. He had that same sparkle in his eye that my father had… that same light same mischief.
That same love. They were close their entire lives, brothers by blood, but friends by choice. Even as children, their bond was extraordinary. My father loved his brother like he was his own child. When Daddy was just four or five, and Uncle Rock still a baby, he would stand protectively by his side. Whenever Mama Bird tried to spank Rock, Daddy would grab her hand and say, “Don’t hit my baby.”
That protective love never faded. I can just picture them now, reunited in heaven… playing Cowboys and Indians with the broomsticks they used to find in Mama Bird and Papa Cash’s closet. Daddy always insisted on being the cowboy, and Rock the Indian. Or maybe they’re back to one of their favorite games, Daddy convincing Rock to throw actual rocks at him so he could prove how fast he was by dodging them. Whatever they’re doing up there, I know it’s full of joy, laughter, and the kind of brotherly love that helped shape our family. Uncle Rock had a heart of gold. He never needed a spotlight to shine, And I believe that now, from above, he and Daddy are part of something bigger… something beautiful… something meant to help heal this broken world. God bless you Uncle Rock. You will be missed. You will be forever loved.
And when my time comes, I hope you and Daddy will both be there, waiting to welcome me home.”
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