By  Howard L Bingham. In 1966 Muhammad Ali announced his intention to refuse induction into the United States Army as a conscientious objector. This set off a five-year battle that would strip him of his world heavyweight title, bar him from boxing, and nearly send him to prison - all at the peak of his career as the greatest boxer in history. Ali defiantly proclaimed his refusal to go to war with the assertion that it violated his beliefs as a black Muslim. The subsequent legal battle proved to be a test tougher than fighting Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier and George Foreman combined. The struggle that followed Ali's principled stand, one of the pivotal moments of the sixties, reverberated across lines demarcated by generation, class, race and religion. Set against the dramatic backdrop of these turbulent times, the book's fascinating cast of characters includes such names as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Jackie Robinson and J. Edgar Hoover. Framed with photos from Ali's photographer and good friend Howard Bingham, Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight is the extraordinary story of the greatest challenge to the greatest champion of the century. Robson Books (2004), English, Paperback: 271 pages.