Legends of Boxing: Muhammad Ali
Posted by Rob Shepherd on Friday, July 7, 2017
If I was to ask 100 people who is the greatest boxer of all time, I guarantee most people will say Muhammad Ali. “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”, Ali was boxings first global superstar and inspiration to millions. In this article, I take a look at the fights, his personal life and his many run-ins with the establishment.
Muhammad Ali – The Fight for Equality
Muhammad Ali has had lots of fights in his life and many of them were not in the ring. Life in the 50’s and early 60’s was so different to what it is today, looking back, it was disgusting how black athletes were treated back then.
Segregation was rife in America and in day to day life black people were treated at best as second class citizens. Blacks were not allowed to eat in “whites only” restaurants, had to sit at the back of public transport. They were not allowed to sit next to white children in schools, in fact, many schools wouldn’t even allow black children to study there.
America was the land of the free but only if you were a non-black!
Muhammad Ali’s mother has often told the story about how her son was refused a drink of water on an incredibly hot day because he was black, “They wouldn’t give him one because of his colour. That really affected him”. This injustice in part explains why Ali became such a civil rights activist in later life.
In 1960, Ali won the Olympic gold medal in the light heavyweight division. In a television interview, later in his life he recounted how after winning the gold he was looking forward to going back to his hometown and ordering a meal in the local restaurant.
He recalled how he went into the diner, took a seat with his gold medal proudly around his neck and ordered something to eat. He was a national hero, he had won gold for his country, he wasn’t just an equal to white people, his Olympic medal showed he was the best and rightly expected to be embraced by everyone.
The waitress said to him “we don’t serve Negros”.
Ali, quick as ever said, “That’s fine, I don’t eat them either, now get me a coffee and a hotdog”.
Even in those early days, Ali was outspoken, not prepared to accept the status quo and a fighter inside and outside of the ring.
Muhammad Ali – The Early Days
Born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr on the 17th January 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky, a young Clay took up boxing as a 12-year-old. Unlike the typical stereotype, Clay didn’t have a bad childhood.
However, it was contact with the law that would create the greatest boxer ever but not in the way you would think!
A thief had stolen his pushbike and he told Joe Martin who was a local copper that he was going to “whip the robber”, Joe said to him, “maybe you should learn boxing first”. On that day, the seeds were planted to change the history of boxing. Martin took on the challenge of teaching Cassius the technicalities of the sport.
His early career got off to a great start, he won his first ever fight against Ronnie O’Keefe on a split decision and soon he won the 1956 Golden Gloves tournament for novices in the light heavyweight class. In 1959, he won the National Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions also picking up the Amateur Athletic Union’s national title for the light-heavyweight division.
Muhammad Ali – Olympic Gold
In the 1960 Rome Olympics, an 18-year-old Cassius won all his four fights easily. In the final he beat three-time European champion Zbigniew Pietrzykowski to win the gold medal.
After the Olympics and after the restaurant incident mentioned earlier, Clay allegedly threw his gold medal into the Ohio River in protest. This has since been denied by many eye witnesses and photographer Howard Bingham would later state, “Honkies sure bought into that one!”
Muhammad Ali – Turning Professional
On October 29, 1960, Cassius won his first pro fight against Tunney Hunsaker with a decision in the sixth round. Three years later and his record would show 19 wins with 15 knockouts and undefeated in those 19 fights.
In these fights, the taunting and insults that would be Ali’s trademark were evident. He was different to the vast majority of boxers with his fancy footwork and constant talking. An artist, an actor a bigmouth! Not all boxing fans embraced his brash style but love him or loathe him, you just couldn’t ignore him.
Muhammad Ali – Heavyweight Champion
Many of Cassius’s victories were by stunning KO’s and soon Clay was the number one challenger and would fight the highly-rated Sonny Liston for the Heavyweight Championship. Liston was highly feared in boxing circles and indeed our very own Henry Cooper said he would fight Cassius Clay if he won against Liston but he didn’t want to fight Liston himself. Cooper’s manager even went as far as to say “We don’t even want to meet Liston walking down the same street.”.
Liston had actually learned to fight whilst in prison while he was serving time for an armed robbery and was a ferocious hitter. Few gave Cassius much hope of victory, he struggled in his last fight against Henry Cooper and was fortunate to survive a fourth-round knock-down. Jim Murray who worked for the Los Angeles Times wrote, “The only thing at which Clay can beat Liston is reading the dictionary”.
Part of Cassius’ strategy was to get under the skin of his opponent and when the contracts for the fight were signed, Clay and his entourage travelled to Liston’s house at the early hours of the morning, woke Liston up and challenged him to a fight there and then.
On February 25th 1964 the fight took place at the Miami Beach Convention Hall.
Liston started the fight with ferocity and looked determined to end the fight quickly. However, it became evident that Clay had superior speed and was able to avoid the initial onslaught. Such was Clay’s movement that it made Liston look slow and sluggish.
The 2nd round was an improvement for Liston, he hit Clay with a few powerful punches which hurt Clay but in the third-round Clay started to impose himself in the fight. A powerful combination shot led to Liston being cut, this was the first time in his career that he had suffered a cut. At the end of the round, Clay looked over to Liston and shouted to him, “you big sucka, I got you now”.
By the seventh round all the fight had gone out of Liston, he removed his mouth guard and didn’t return to the centre of the ring. Clay had done it, he was the champion of the world.
Goodbye Clay – Hello Muhammad Ali
A few days after the fight Clay declared he was joining the “Black Muslims”, initially calling himself Cassius X before being renamed as Muhammad Ali by Elijah Muhammad. Many people were outraged by this decision as the Black Muslims were considered a hate group with extreme anti-white views.
Muhammad Ali v Liston Part 2
Next up for Ali was a rematch with Liston and like the first fight it was a bad tempered and controversial fight. As the venue had to be changed and the real threat of violence, only 2,434 people saw this fight in person, this is the lowest attendance for a heavyweight title fight ever.
In the first round, Liston attempted a left jab but Ali managed to counter it and hit Liston with a fast right which knocked Liston to the canvas. Ali refused to go to his corner, instead he is stood over Liston shouting “Get up and fight sucker”.
There was huge confusion between the referee and the knockdown timekeeper. It appeared that Liston had been counted out but no-one was sure. Fighting resumed but the referee stopped the fight to declare Ali the winner. It was a short fight, only lasting 1min and 44 seconds.
Muhammad Ali – Stripped of the Title
One of the saddest elements of the Ali story was that he was banned during his peak years. Ali refused to go fight in the Vietnam War and was sentenced to five years in jail and stripped of his title, had his passport removed and also banned from boxing.
His opposition to the war angered many people and the press vilified him. Ali said on the subject “”I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong.”, he was adamant that his religious beliefs prevented him from going to war.
Ali did not fight from March 1967 to October 1970. During this time, he appealed his sentence and his conviction was overturned in 1971 but Ali had lost a lot of time. During his exile from boxing, Ali visited universities criticising the Vietnam war and advocating African American pride and racial justice.
In August 1970, Ali was granted a license to box by the City of Atlanta Athletic Commission, this led to a fight against Jerry Quarry on October 26th. Ali won this fight easily in three rounds when a cut forced a stoppage. After this a long fight against Oscar Bonavena was won by Ali in the 15th round.
Muhammad Ali v Joe Frazier
On March 8th, 1971, the “fight of the century” took place against two unbeaten fighters. Ali had won the title from Liston and had defended it successfully until he was stripped of his title. Frazier for his part had taken advantage of Ali’s ban and knockouts of Buster Mathis and Jimmy Ellis gave him legitimacy in his claim to be the best.
The fight was a brutal affair and lived up to its billing, lasting the full 15 rounds. The first three rounds belonged to Ali but in the closing seconds of the third round, Frazier hit Ali with a bone-crunching shot that connected well and Ali’s head was snapped back.
On several occasions in the early rounds, Ali played to the crowd and shook his head “no” after he was hit. Trying to prove that Frazier’s punches were ineffective.
This fight also saw the introduction of the “rope-a-dope strategy”, Ali would lean hard against the ropes, avoiding punches with the aim of tiring out the opponent.
In the 11th round Frazier caught Ali with a left hook that connected, Frazier wasn’t sure if Ali was faking being hurt so seemed reluctant to press his advantage. In the final round Ali did go down after being hit with a thunderous left hook, despite Ali being back on his feet within 3 seconds, Frazier had done enough for the victory, this was Ali’s first defeat as a professional.
Jerry Quarry, Floyd Patterson, Bob Foster and Ken Norton
1972 was a busy year in the ring for Ali, he won six fights including wins over Jerry Quarry, a re-match with Floyd Patterson and Bob Foster. In 1973, Ali lost the second fight of his career to Ken Norton, who broke his jaw. After his defeat to Norton, Ali considered retiring.
Muhammad Ali v Joe Frazier II
January 28th 1974 saw the fight most of the public wanted to see, a rematch between Ali and Frazier. Some of the sporting press were less enthusiastic with one reporter saying it was a contest between two “former champions, both beaten, both past their best.”
There was no doubt that Ali wanted to avenge his earlier defeat and victory for either boxer would open up a shot at George Foreman who was the current champion.
The fight itself was full of aggression, Ali started the fight a lot brighter than Frazier. Using his lightening quick footwork to frustrate Frazier, Ali danced around the ring hitting Frazier on the counter.
Near the end of round two a controversial moment helped Frazier. Ali hit a hard-right hand which had Frazier in trouble. The referee stepped in-between the fighters believing he had heard the bell for the end of the round, this unscheduled break allowed Frazier precious seconds to get back into the fight. Frazier hung on.
Ali went on to win the fight on points with the judges scoring the fight 7-4, 7-5, 6-5.
Muhammad Ali v George Foreman – “The Rumble in the Jungle”
Nowadays when we hear George Foreman we think of the grill, “the lean, mean, fat grilling machine”. But George Foreman possessed one of the hardest punches in boxing and Ali would go into this fight as the underdog. This fight would later be called “arguably the greatest sporting event of the 20th century”.
Ali started the fight aggressively and whilst he was landing punches, Foreman didn’t appear to be causing much damage. Ali once again relied on his “rope-a-dope” strategy and Foreman’s punches were ineffective and many of the shots landed were to Ali’s arms and elbows.
Ali would use clinches in the fight to mock and taunt Foreman telling him to throw some punches. “They told me you can punch George” and in the seventh round when Foreman hit Ali square on the jaw with a cracking shot, Ali whispered in Foreman’s ear, “That all you got George”. Foreman would later recall that at that moment he knew he was beat.
In the eighth round, Ali landed several right hooks but it was a five-punch combo that did the damage and Foreman was on the floor, he managed to get back on his feet and beat the count at 9 but the referee stopped the fight with seconds of the round remaining.
Despite all the trash talk that Ali used to say about Foreman, him and Ali would become the best of friends. When interviewed many years later, Foreman said of Ali, “We fought in 1974, that was a long time ago. After 1981 we became the best of friends. By 1984, we loved each other. I am not closer to anyone else in this life than I am to Muhammad Ali.”
Muhammad Ali – Twilight Years
Ali would go on to fight Ron Lyle, Joe Bugner and Chuck Wepner. What is interesting about the Wepner fight is that it was the inspiration for Sylvester Stallone to write and eventually release Rocky, perhaps the greatest boxing film of all time.
Ali had a third fight against Joe Frazier, titled the “Thrilla in Manila” on October 1st, 1975. In scorching heat, it was once again a brutal fight. By the 13th round Frazier’s eyes were almost completely shut and despite protests from Frazier, his manager threw in the towel at the end of the 14th.
Fights with Jean-Pierre Coopman, Jimmy Young, and Richard Dunn followed but really by now the end was getting close for Ali. He would often fight in exhibition fights which while paying well, did little to enhance Ali’s reputation. One such bout was against martial artist Antonio Inoki. Inoki spent most of the fight sat on his backside and kicking Ali in the legs. Even though Ali only got 3 or 4 punches on Inoki, the bout was declared a draw.
By 1977, doctors were telling Ali to quit. He had kidney damage which was likely to have been due to the punishment he had constantly been receiving in the ring.
A victory against Leon Spinks in 1978 gave Ali the title, this victory made him the first heavyweight champion to win the belt three times. Ali retired but then agreed to a rematch against Spink, it was a horrible fight and Ali looked unfit and off the pace. It was also noticed at this time that Ali’s speech had become slurred and he suffered from tremors in his hands.
Sylvester Stallone said of the fight, “it was like watching an autopsy on a man who is still alive.”, Ali’s trainer stopped the fight in the 11th round. This was the end for Ali.
Muhammad Ali – Fighting Parkinson’s
Shortly after his retirement in 1981, there were rumours that all was not well with Ali. It became noticeable that his speech was slurring and initially Ali would blame it on jet lag or just state he was tired. Many people believed he was “punch drunk” which is an informal name for chronic traumatic encephalopathy which many former boxers suffer from because of repeated head trauma.
In 1984, Ali eventually admitted he was suffering from the degenerative brain disease Parkinson’s. It was a disease he would battle until his death on June 3rd, 2016.
Ali changed boxing forever, his big mouthed ego wasn’t in everyone’s taste but there is no doubt he has left his legacy in boxing forever. I wish I had been alive to see Ali fight in his prime. I also can only imagine how his fight tally would have increased had he not been banned during the prime years of his life.
As previously mentioned, life as a young black man growing up in 1950’s America was a tough place to be. Segregation is a horrific example of discrimination and Ali gave millions of people hope. His continued protest against injustice made a difference and he fought just as hard outside the ring as he did in it. A true legend and deserves a place in my boxing legends.