John Travolta Reveals Amazing Throwback of Hanging out With Muhammad Ali

Actor John Travolta has met and hung out with his share of famous people, but there’s one celebrity that stands out above the rest. Travolta went to Instagram to share a photo of him with late boxing legend Muhammad Ali which was taken in 1979. At that time, Ali was at the end of his boxing career while Travolta’s movie career was taking off.

Travolta and Ali were close. Last year, Travolta was on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and he talked about how they would compete to see who was more famous.

“It was at a time where arguably we were the two most famous people in the world,” he said per TooFab. “And he loved to compete with it. And he used to test it all the time.” You read that right, Muhammad Ali had a famous-off with John Travolta at every opportunity.

“We’d walk down the street, he’d say, ‘Let’s see who gets recognized first,’” Travolta added. “One time a young person recognized us both and kind of freaked out.”

Travolta went on to do his best Ali impression.

“He said, ‘You think you’re dreaming. You think you’re seeing John Travolta and Muhammad Ali together and you’ll go home and you’re gonna say, Was that real or was I dreaming?’” Travolta recalled.

As popular as Travolta was during that time, Ali is considered one of the best athletes in history. In 2018, Complex released its list of the top athletes for each sport, and Ali was named for boxing.

“Muhammad Ali is, pound-for-pound, the greatest boxer to ever live.” Complex wrote. “Why? Because he was a fighter with the hand speed and dexterity of a lightweight boxer, the power of a heavyweight, and the mouth of a professional wrestler.

“At the tender age of 22, the Louisville Lip shocked the world when he beat heavy favorite Sonny Liston to become one of the youngest to ever hold the heavyweight crown. Ali continued to shock the world for most of his boxing career, notably when he joined the Nation of Islam shortly after conquering Liston before he was banned from boxing for three years after he refused to enter the Vietnam War draft.”

Ali finished his career with a 56-5 record with three of those losses coming in his last four bouts. He won the WBA Heavyweight Championship three times and the WBC Heavyweight Championship twice.