Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, won the gold medal in Rome’s 1960 Olympics by beating Poland’s Zbigniew Pietrzykowski at 175 pounds.
This victory launched Cassius, soon to be Ali into the pros, where he defeated Sonny Liston in 1964, to become heavyweight champion after Liston refused to come out for the 7th round. Liston was suffering from a shoulder injury at the time and couldn’t continue.
Then came their memorable 2nd fight. Who can forget this punch heard round the world.
When Mohammed Ali was in prison was when I first started watching boxing on television at around eleven years-old. I quickly became a smoking Joe Frazier fan. So when their legendary fight came in 1970, I was rooting for Frazier not knowing anything about the social context of the fight
Open thread it out, but no rabbit punches, please.
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