Author and Memoirist
I am a forever writer, but a debut author of
LOVE IS A HEAVY WEIGHT:
WHAT MUHAMMAD ALI TAUGHT ME
ABOUT HOLDING ON & LETTING GO
(working title)
“The man who sees the world at fifty the same as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.”
Muhammad Ali
He called me trouble
Muhammad rarely called me “Kelly.” Soon after we met, he took to calling me “Little Trouble,” then plain “Trouble.” What I always considered a loving nickname betrayed his true concerns. Muhammad knew what menaces awaited guileless young girls behind fame’s glittery curtain. Yet, no matter how hard he tried, trouble still found me.
This book isn’t a boxing story. It isn’t an Ali tribute, either. Though you’ll see sides of him few ever did — the Muhammad who unfolded not in headlines but in kitchens, car rides, and hotel hallways — this is my story. And it’s a story no one else could tell.
Our unlikely friendship opened my eyes to a wider world, connecting race, justice, and identity to my life. The way Muhammad moved through that world with compassion and conviction took root and guided me long after I left his side — first into a career helping athletes use their platforms for good, then into full-time humanitarian work. Muhammad’s greatest lesson wasn’t how to float or sting. It was how to be. How to stand for something. How to love people. How to tell the truth, even when no one wants to hear it.
The world needs more Muhammad.
Audio
My ali angel playlist
The music we listened, danced, and cried to ...
and the music I revisited as I wrote.
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Kelly Reilly Baldwin
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