I stole this post from another forum but i thought it might be relevant here. Sorry about the length. Ali Record <hr align=right size=0> Cassius Clay was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1942. He started boxing at
the age of twelve. By 1960, when he turned professional, he had an amateur
record of 108 and 8 with two national golden glove and AAU titles, and a gold
medal in the Olympics as a light heavyweight. The 200 lb six feet three inch
fighter had extremely fast hands with even faster feet. He fought the aging
Archie Moore, and easily scored a fourth round knockout.
In 1963, with Liston as champion, boxing experts ranked the fighters as
Patterson number one followed by Clay and then Doug Jones. In 1962 Jones had
lost a unanimous decision to light heavyweight Harold Johnson.
On March 13, 1963 in Madison Square Garden, Clay won a close decision over
Doug Jones. Neither fighter looked good. But after Patterson lost his second
fight to Listen, Clay appeared to be the best choice to fight Liston.
February 25, 1964 at Convention Hall in Miami Beach: The 218 lb Liston fought
the 210 lb Clay. Liston was a 10 to 1 favorite even though he had fought less
than six rounds in three years and was probably older than his listed age of
32. In the first two rounds Clay would jab, land a few combinations and move
away from the forward moving, much slower champion. People couldn't believe
that Clay could hit Liston so easily. In the third and fourth rounds Clay was
able to get in some hard shots to Liston's head that had Sonny moving
backwards. In the fifth round, Clay became partially blinded from some of the
caustic used to cover Liston's cuts. Clay was able to avoid Liston in that
round with his foot speed.
In the sixth round, with his eyes now clear, Clay now fighting flat-footed and
landing combinations, had the champion in full retreat. Liston, sitting in
his corner expressionless at the start of the seventh round, did not get up.
The fight was over. Cassius Clay, who changed his name to Muhammad Ali, was
the new heavyweight champion of the world.
May 25, 1965 in Lewiston, Maine: Ali fought Liston for the second time. As
in their first fight, Liston was pressing the attack while Ali moved and
countered. While still in the first round, Ali, while moving back, caught
Sonny with a chopping right to the head. Most people at the fight claimed
they did not see the punch. Films do show that it was a punch and that
Liston's head did move back from the blow. But it was clearly not a knockout
punch. To the surprise of all, Liston went down. Ali stood over the fallen
ex-champion shouting, "Get up, nobody is going to believe this". The
referee, old Jersey Joe Walcott, was trying to pick up the count and get the
dancing Ali to go to a neutral corner. Meanwhile, Liston was rolling around
the canvas. It was a circus. Finally Liston got up. Walcott, who at that
moment, was standing between the fighters, went over to the time keeper. The
fighters started to fight again with Ali the aggressor. After about eight
seconds, Walcott stepped between them again and declared Ali the winner.
November 22, 1965 in Las Vegas: Ali beat Patterson with a TKO in 12th round.
This was a very one-sided fight against the ex-champion. Patterson's hand
speed was equal to that of Ali's, but Floyd had very little foot speed. This
had been abundantly clear in his two pathetic showings against Sonny Liston.
March 29, 1966 in Toronto: Ali decisioned Canadian, George Chuvalo. Chuvalo,
whose record was 34-11-2, fought a game fight. While never retreating, he
took a beating. His best round was the third, where at one point the prodding
challenger forced the champion into a corner. For about 15 seconds George
threw a number of punches, but most blows fell on Ali's arms and shoulders.
Throughout the fight, Chuvalo landed a few good shorts, mostly to the body.
Ali meanwhile avoided most of the blows while moving in and out and scoring
punches in bunches to the face. The bout ended with Ali not hurt or marked,
while Chuvalo, not in any danger of being knocked out, was bleeding from
several cuts around his eyes. The decision was unanimous, with scoring of 73-
63, 74-63, and 74-62.
George was Ali's first opponent since Doug Jones in March 13, 1963 to go the
distance against the champion. Ali called Chuvalo his toughest opponent yet.
"He took my best shots and kept coming."
May 21, 1966 in London: Ali defended Heavyweight Crown against England's
Henry Cooper. This was London's first heavyweight championship fight in 58
years. The 32 year old challenger had a 32-11-1 record and a good left hook.
The two fighters fought previously in 1963 when Cooper almost beat the then
Cassius Clay by knocking Clay down with a solid left hook in the 4th round.
The bell and a cut glove, which delayed starting the next round, may have
prevented Clay from being knocked out.
In this 1966 fight, Ali seemed to pace himself for the first five rounds. He
pretty much kept skipping around and moved counter clockwise against the much
slower challenger. Near the end of the second round, Henry landed a hard two
left hand combination to the champion's head. This was the high mark for the
challenger. While he did land several more solid shots, none were in
combination, and none appeared to have any affect on Ali. Cooper received
several warnings from the referee for hitting low, and Ali received several
warnings for pushing and holding. Ali was content in these rounds to stick
with short two punch combinations and then avoid most of Cooper's blows.
Things changed quickly in the sixth round. Ali turned tiger. He quickly
pressured Henry into a corner and landed a stiff right-left combination to
Cooper's head. This caused an immediate flow of a large amount of blood from
above the challenger's left eye. The referee stopped the fight, examined the
cut, and then let the fight continue. Ali then begin peppering the eye with
a number of long left jobs which increased the bleeding. The referee stopped
the fight giving Ali a TKO.
August 6, 1966 in London: Ali fought England's Brian London who had a 35-12
record. Ali toyed with the very slow challenger for the first two rounds.
Midway in the third round, Ali with a series of eight or nine punches in
succession, forced his opponent into a corner. He then landed a hard left-
right combination to the head that caused Brian to sink to the canvas and be
counted out. After the fight Ali announced he would fight one opponent a
month until he was called into military service.
September 10, 1966 in Frankfurt Germany: Ali, a ten to one favorite, defended
title against Germany's 28 year old, 194 lb, Karl Mildenberger. For the first
four rounds the challenger gave Ali major problems. The left handed fighter
landed a number of hard lefts to Ali's head and body. But starting in the
fifth round, Ali was able to land with his right hand to the German's head.
Just before the round ended Ali crashed a right cross to the head that
floored the challenger. From this point on it was Ali who effectively landed
hard rights to his opponents face. Karl had problems seeing from cuts after
the seventh round.
Karl was floored with a left hook in round eight, and for the third time from
a right in the closing seconds of round ten. The referee stopped the fight
in the 12th round as Karl was taking major punishment, and was about to go
down again. After the fight, Ali claimed that the German was is toughest
title defense so far, and his opponent was hard to get to and had a good punch.
November 14, 1966 in Houston Astrodome: Ali, a five to one favorite,
defended against the muscular 33 year old Cleveland Williams. A crowd of
35,460 saw this fight. A record attendance for a fight under a roof.
Williams had a record of 65 and five with 51 KO's. He had lost previously to
Sonny Liston, but had handed out punishment before being KOed.
Ali came out dancing in round one. A hard combination by Ali late in the
round seemed to daze and confuse the challenger. With one minute remaining in
round two, Ali scored with a jolting left that floored Williams. He got up,
and with 46 seconds to go, the challenger was floored again. He got up and as
the round was ending, Ali knocked Williams down for the third time with a left
hook. The bell prevented Williams from being counted out.
Ali came out fast in round three and immediately started landing effectively.
After less than a minute gone, a right cross downed Williams for the forth
time. The challenger gamely beat the count, but was on queer street. The
referee rightfully stopped the slaughter.
February 6, 1967 in Houston: Ali defended against the tall and strong Ernie
Terrell. Ali won a hard but unanimous fifteen round decision. In the fight,
Terrell used an effective long left jab that caused blood to come from the
champion's nose. The challenger ended up with a left eye that was half
closed.
Ali, at this time in history, was appealing his 1-A draft status, claiming he
was a Muslim minister.
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March 22, 1967 in New York's Madison Square Garden: Ali, 25, defended title
against 34 year old Zoro Folley. Folley looked good in the first two rounds,
as he was able land most of the heavy blows against the champion, who took the
blows without hardly a flinch. Ali didn't do much fighting until the third
round. In the forth, Ali open up with a number of quick punches leading up to
a crisp left-right combination that knocked Folley down. He laid on his
stomach for a few seconds, then rose weakly. The challenger quickly cleared
his head and fought back gamely, and scored with a solid right that drove Ali
to the ropes.
But from the fifth round on it was all Ali. He landed punches in bunches
while receiving little in return. In the seventh round, Zoro was in bad shape
with a knot under his left eye and blood flowing from his nose. As the
onslaught continued, the challenger tired and at 1:48 into the round, the
fight ended. A right to the head by Ali knocked Zoro down prone on his
stomach, he got to his feet at seven, but fell back to his knees as the
referee counted ten. Going into the last round, two officials had the fight
4-2, Ali. The other official had it even.
April 28, 1967: Title was stripped from Ali by WBA and New York State
Athletic Commission for refusing to join the military. Ali had fought and
clearly beaten the best fighters in the world as Jeffries, Louis, and Marciano
had done ahead of him.
February 16, 1970 in New York: Joe Frazier, an Olympic heavyweight gold medal
winner, KOed Jimmy Elis and became the heavyweight champion. This was after
a series of elimination bouts of the best fighters. Patterson had lost a
close decision to Elis in Sweden.
November 18, 1970 in Detroit: Frazier, 209 lb, defended heavyweight title
against light heavyweight champion Bob Foster. The six feet three inch
stringbean fighter weighed 188 lb, but appeared much lighter against the
stockily built Frazier. Round one was even with both fighters landing
stinging jabs. Round two hardly started when Frazier floored the challenger
with a jarring left hook to the jaw. Foster got up but was quickly tagged
with another left, and this time he was counted out laying on his back.
After Frazier's previous fight in February with Elis, he broke a bone in his
hand during a night club act. During the layoff, he put on weight and had to
loose 30 lbs before the Foster match.
March 8, 1971 in New York: Frazier won a fifteen round decision against Ali,
who appeared to have slowed down somewhat after his forced layoff from boxing.
Ali was knocked down in the 15th from a left hook to the jaw. Many thought
Ali looked good in his two previous tune up bouts: a third round KO of Jerry
Quarry, and a 15 round KO of Oscar Bonavena.
January 15, 1972 in New Orleans: Frazier TKOs Terry Daniels in 4th round.
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May 25, 1972 in Omaha: Frazier TKOs Ron Stander in 4th round.
January 22, 1973 In Kingston: Frazier defended his title against George
Foreman who had been another heavyweight Olympic medal winner. Foreman
easily won the match, knocking Frazier out in the second round. Foreman, who
looked awesome, was now the world champion.
In a non-title match on March 31, 1973, Ali fought the lightly regarded Ken
Norton. To the surprise of many, Norton won the twelve round match by a
decision. During the match Ali had his jaw broken. At this time the best
four fighters in the world were Foreman, Frazier, Ali, and now Ken Norton.
September 1, 1973 in Tokyo: Foreman defends his title for the first time
against "King" Roman. This was the first ever heavyweight title bout in
Japan. Foreman had a 22 lb weight and a six inch reach advantage against the
fighter from Puerto Rico who was not ranked in the top ten. Roman started the
round by weaving to left and right. The first punch Foreman threw was a wild
left that missed the head of his opponent. Following this, Foreman shook
Roman by landing a right to the his rib cage. Another right to the body and
the "King" when down. He got up, but a left and a right to the body forced
him into the ropes. Another two punch combination to the body by the
champion, and Roman went down again. He got up again but was pushed against
the ropes, and was KOed with a right uppercut to the jaw.
Another non-title match was held between Ali and Norton on September 10, 1973
in Inglewood, California. Ali won a very close split decision. This kept
both fighters in line to challenge the champion.
In another non-title match, on January 20, 1974, the second Frazier Ali fight
was held at the Garden. Ali won a unanimous twelve round decision. Frazier's
blows seemed to have lost some of their power. He couldn't come near to
putting Ali away.
March 26, 1974 in Caracas, Venezuela: Foreman KOed Ken Norton in the second
round. The champion beat Norton as easily as he had beaten Frazier. It was
rumored that Foreman avoided fighting in America because he had previously
sold more than 100% of himself to investors. He thus avoided U.S. court
orders.
October 30, 1974 in Zaire: George Foreman, 26 years old, 220 lbs, defended
his title against Muhammad Ali, 32 years old, 216 lbs at 3AM. It was
unbearably hot and humid. Foreman was a heavy favorite. Even some of Ali's
handlers thought he would loose. But Foreman had not fought a fight lasting
more than two rounds in four years.
Round one: Ali, dancing most of this round, was able to hand a number of
combinations to Foreman's head. Many of these started with right leads.
Foreman, always the aggressor, missed most of his punches. He was only able to
land one hard left hook to Ali's head with no noticeable affect.
Round two: In this round Ali let Foreman push him against the ropes, and
then, to the surprise to everyone, continued to fight from the ropes for most
of the rest of the match. Foreman, continuing to press the attack, was never
able to hit Ali with any consistency. Most of his punches, especially the
harder ones, either missed or were blocked by Ali who kept covering up and
tying up Foreman when he could. Foreman did land about four hard hooks with
both hands to the body in this round. George could not land any straight
punches, so he resorted to mostly round house lefts and rights to get around
Ali's gloves and arms. Meanwhile, during this round as Foreman was working
from the outside, Ali was scoring on a number of sharp straight two and three
punch combinations to the head. Ali clearly won round two.
Round three: The first two minutes were a continuation of what happened in
round two. Ali was landing many more clean shorts. With 55 seconds
remaining, Foreman lands two hard rights to the body and one to the head of
Ali. Ali fought back with three, two punch combinations to Foreman's head.
This was the best action of the fight. Foreman appeared tired and unsteady on
his feet as he returned to his corner.
Round four: For the first two minutes of this round Foreman was clearly
tired. While still the aggressor, many of his blows were more pawing than
punching. Ali continued to land a number of quick, sharp jabs and two punch
combinations to the head of Foreman. As the round wound down, Foreman appeared
to get his second wind, and started to throw many hard shots mostly to the
body. A number of these did land solidly. George ended the round appearing
strong.
Round five: Foreman continued strong for the first part of this round. But
now he had puffing around his right eye. With 40 seconds remaining in the
round, Ali initiated a series of about 20 punches of which most landed in
Foreman's face. These were quick, hard, straight, two punches at a time,
including a very hard right to the side of Foreman's head. A dramatic round
for Ali.
Round six: Early in the round, Ali continued to score to George's head. Many
straight hard left jabs. Foreman was now throwing no hard punches. His right
eye was partially closed. He now had trouble hitting Ali with anything. Late
in the round, Ali scored on another series of left jabs, not hard, but many in
number. Foreman was very tired.
Round seven: Ali opened this round by leaning against the ropes without even
waiting for Foreman to attack. In the middle of the round, Ali was again able
to connect to Foreman's head with a series of stiff punches. But this time,
with less than one minute remaining, Foreman fought back. He started throwing
hard punches, landing several hooks to the body, and one right uppercut to the
jaw of Ali. George finished strong.
Round eight: Ali started the round by landing a large number of mostly stiff
left jabs to Foreman's jaw. With over two minutes remaining Foreman landed a
hard left hook to Ali's jaw and followed this up with many hard hooks to the
body with both hands. Some of these were clean shots. With 20 seconds
remaining, Ali landed a hard straight right to Foreman's jaw. As George
lunged into the ropes he received another right to the head. Back away from
the ropes, Ali landed a quick four punch combination, ending with a right hook
that landed flush on the jaw of the champion. Foreman, spinning off balance,
went down on his shoulder and ended up with his back on the canvas. He was
regaining his feet has he was counted out.
Ali became the second heavyweight to regain the world title.
