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 8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Round 8, Introduction Summary
Lucky says that every boxer needs to be confident; otherwise they would run out of the ring. He is sure that Cassius was confident about one thing: “that boxing was the fastest way for a kid like him to become famous” (229). Boxing became his whole focus.
Lucky recounts how he spent months after school watching Cassius practice. Cassius would periodically get frustrated when he was knocked down, but he blamed himself more than anyone else. However, he knew that staying down would be the real problem.
When they were younger, Willie Pastrano—a famous boxer—came to town with his trainer. Cassius found out where he was staying and went there. Using a hotel phone, he told Willie that he was the Golden Gloves champion in Louisville and that he wanted to win both the National Golden Gloves and the Olympics. Then he went upstairs and stayed for three hours, listening to Pastrano and his trainer give him tips about boxing. The experience made Cassius’s confidence grow even more.
Lucky thinks that the opposite of confidence is humility. Even though Cassius called himself “the Greatest,” he could be humble, though not many saw that. He knew that it frustrated Cassius that his mother only made four dollars a week when he could make that much from one fight, but his mother made him feel humble because even though it wasn’t easy, she did her work with pride.
Round 8, Poem 109 Summary: “Birthday”
On Cassius’s birthday, he receives a silver dollar from Rudy, which Granddaddy Herman had given him. His parents give him boxing gloves with his name on them. Lucky brings him a magazine with “Fifty Grand,” a story about a boxer written by Ernest Hemingway, in it. However, he stops reading it because Hemingway uses a derogatory term for African Americans.
Round 8, Poem 110 Summary: “Beat”
When Cassius reaches the 1958 Golden Gloves in Chicago, he’s been boxing for nearly five years. He’s been on Tomorrow’s Champions seven times and won more than 30 fights.
Cassius explains that his record doesn’t matter because his father wasn’t in the audience to cheer him on. Before Cassius left for Chicago, Cash got into trouble, and he’d been arrested.
After losing the fight in Chicago, Martin reminds him to keep his fists up and to keep up his defense. Even though he is right, Cassius also thinks that his rhythm failed because no one was there cheering him on.
Round 8, Poem 111 Summary: “Cassius Clay vs. Kent Green”
This poem states that on February 26, 1958, Cassius fought Kent Green—the match he lost in the Golden Gloves tournament in Chicago. The rest of the poem is a reprint of a newspaper article on the fight.
It details how Cassius initially started off strong, but the more experienced Green was able to overwhelm him.
At the end of this fight, Cassius’s record is 18 wins and five losses.
Round 8, Poem 112 Summary: “Lucky Read”
Lucky reads the article in Poem 111 while Cassius shadowboxes and Riney skips rope. Though Riney hasn’t been around as much since he started seeing Teenie, he is there because Teenie is out of town.
Bird sends the boys to the grocery store. Cassius likes walking with the bags because it feels like a workout, but the other boys complain. Suddenly, someone screams Cassius’s name behind them.
Round 8, Poem 113 Summary: “Face-Off”
When they look behind them, they see “some suspicious-looking Smoketown fellas” nearing them (242). Leading the pack is Tall Bubba, with Corky Butler right next to him.
Round 8, Poem 114 Summary: “Conversation with Corky Butler”
Cassius talks with Corky Butler.
Corky says that Cassius has been avoiding him. He wants the boys off his block, saying that they need to pay the toll. He says it will cost them a dollar, which includes a quarter per person plus “interest” (243).
When the boys say they don’t have the money, Corky says they must pay with the groceries, but Cassius refuses. Then they make fun of Cassius for losing to Kent Green in the Golden Gloves.
Corky pretends it’s just a joke and goes to high-five Cassius, but before he can stop himself, Cassius retorts, leading into the next poem.
Round 8, Poem 115 Summary: “Sometimes My Mouth Moves Faster Than My Mind”
Cassius riffs on how he would defeat Corky, making Corky’s friends laugh and angering the other boy more. As he continues, Corky throws a punch, and Cassius dodges. A police car edges by, watching the boys. They stop fighting.
Corky challenges Cassius to a fight, and he agrees.
Round 8, Poem 116 Summary: “You’re Crazy”
Riney thinks it’s crazy for Cassius to fight Corky. Lucky adds that Corky will cheat. Cassius knows they are right and begins to have second thoughts when he hears someone yell to him. Corky appears with the handlebars of Cassius’s bike, complete with the rabbit’s foot Teenie had given him.
Round 8, Poem 117 Summary: “Cassius Clay vs. Corky Butler”
On July 26, 1958, Cassius squares off with Corky. Though the other boy is shorter than him, Cassius is still intimidated. Cassius bounces on his side of the ring, smiling to the crowd and praying to himself. Both his parents are present, as are his friends from the neighborhood.
Cassius comes out swinging, avoiding Corky’s hard hits. He keeps dodging, tiring out his opponent and hitting him when he’s able.
Finally, before the end of the second round, Corky quits outright, saying that the fight isn’t fair.
Round 8 Analysis
The introduction to Round 8 speaks to the theme of Remembering Who You Are and Where You Came From as well as Cassius’s public and private personas by discussing his humility. Lucky points out that “[n]ot many people could make Cassius Clay feel humble. But his mother did. Every day” (232). Cassius dislikes the fact that she cleans homes for white families; he thinks the work of cleaning is beneath her. However, Odessa takes pride in her work, and so she keeps Cassius humble and mindful of the fact that no work or job should be beneath him. She grounds him in who he is and where he came from. Without her working this job, their family would have less income and wouldn’t be able to care for the sons in the same way. Odessa wants Cassius to respect this reality, and it is something that Cassius carries with him for the rest of his life.
Marking Cassius’s progress in knowing who he is, his confidence is shaken when Cash can’t attend the Golden Gloves. While there was a firsthand account of Cassius’s fight with Kent Green in Round 1, Poems 110 (“Beat”) and 111 (“Cassius Clay vs. Kent Green”) show that there was something more to the story than simply Cassius’s skill. The fact that he was so thrown off his rhythm “’cause it seemed like / there was nobody / in the whole arena / singing my name” demonstrates that Cassius doesn’t yet entirely believe in himself (237). He doesn’t know completely who he is, and that doubt leads him to falter during the fight.
Regarding Cassius’s Public and Private Personas, Lucky notes that his friend’s humble side was “another part of him that he didn’t let most people see” (231). Cassius has always projected confidence; this is evident in how he approaches his fight with Corky Butler. His friends think it’s a bad idea, and Cassius himself even adds that he tried “to hide my shaky knees / and the fact / that I was scared / to death” (249). This stanza exemplifies the balance that Cassius tries to strike between putting on a confident face and feeling scared internally. He is not as sure that he will beat Corky as he makes it seem, and he is surprised when Corky gives up.
Cassius’s encounters with Corky in Round 8 also provide some resolution for the story of Cassius’s red bicycle. It is implied that Corky is the one who stole the bicycle. By this point in the novel, however, Cassius spends little time thinking about his bike or who took it. He is entirely focused on boxing.
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