On This Day In Boxing History!

2016: “The Greatest” Muhammad Ali Passes!

Muhammad Ali

Born: January 17th, 1942

Birth Name: Cassius Marcellus Clay - June 30th 1967 holds a press conference to explain the significance of a recent decision to change his name from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali.

Birthplace: Louisville, Kentucky, USA

Pro-Debut: October 29th, 1960

Division: Heavyweight

Alias: The Greatest

Stance: Orthodox

Height: 6’3”

Reach: 178”

Record: 56-5, 37Ko’s

Died: Age 74, June 3rd, 2016  

Amateur Record

There have been various amateur records accredited to Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali: 100-5, 118-5, 127-5, 134-7, 137-7, and 99-8 are among the claims. The partial record below shows 8 defeats along with 37 of his wins. Ali is confirmed to have had over 90 wins so the most likely record is 99-8 or somewhere around abouts.

Amateur Highlights

1959: National AAU - Light Heavyweight Champion    

Chicago Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions - Light Heavyweight Champion 

Intercity Golden Gloves - Light Heavyweight Champion         

Jimmy Jones Chicago Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions - Heavyweight Champion

1960: Intercity Golden Gloves - Heavyweight Champion        

Light Heavyweight Olympic Gold Medalist         

Professional Achievements

WBA Heavyweight Champion

1964 Feb 25 – 1964 Sep 14

WBC Heavyweight Champion

1964 Feb 25 – 1969 Mar 3

NYSAC World Heavyweight Champion

1964 Feb 25 – 1967           

WBA Heavyweight Champion

1967 Feb 6 – 1967 May 9

WBA/WBC Heavyweight Champion

1974 Oct 30 – 1978 Feb 15          

WBA Heavyweight Champion

1978 Sep 15 – 1979 Sep 6

Awards and Recognition

Named The Ring "Fighter of the Year" for 1963, 1966, 1972, 1974, 1975 and 1978.

Named the Boxing Writers Association of America "Fighter of the Year" for 1965, 1974 and 1975.

Named Sports Illustrated "Sportsman of the Year" for 1974.

Named The Ring "Fighter of the Decade" for the 1970s.

Inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983.

Received the Boxing Writers Association of America James J. Walker Memorial Award for 1984.

Inducted into the The Ring Boxing Hall of Fame in 1987.

Inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990.

Named "Athlete of the Century" by GQ magazine in 1998.

Named "Sports Personality of the Century" by the BBC in 1999.

Named "Sportsman of the 20th Century" by Sports Illustrated in 1999.

Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President George W. Bush in 2005.

Inducted into the Florida Boxing Hall of Fame in 2010.

Professional Record

21 opponents (13 by KO) beaten for the World Heavyweight Title.

Has a record of 22-3 (14 KO) in world title fights.

Has a record of 14-5 (9 KO) against World Champions:

Won against Archie Moore, Sonny Liston (twice), Floyd Patterson (twice), Ernie Terrell, Jimmy Ellis, Bob Foster, Ken Norton (twice), Joe Frazier (twice), George Foreman, Leon Spinks.

Lost vs Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Leon Spinks, Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick.

Has a record of 11-0 (5 KO) in rematches.

Record in his first career 29-0 (23 ko’s).

Record in his second career 27-5 (14 ko’s).

Championship Record

21 opponents (13 by KO) beaten for the World Heavyweight Title

1st reign - 9 opponents (7 by KO) between 25 Feb 1964 and 11 March 1969

2nd reign - 11 opponents (6 by KO) between 30 Oct 1974 and 15 Feb 1978

3rd reign - 1 opponent (0 by KO) between 15 Sept 1978 and 18 Oct 1979

The first and only three-time lineal World Heavyweight Champion

The first World Heavyweight Champion to come back from retirement and regain the title

Won twenty-two World Heavyweight Championship fights. Ali made a total of nineteen successful title defenses, nine during his first reign and ten during his second reign.

Record vs International Boxing Hall of Famer’s

Has a record of 11-3-0 (8 KO) against International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees:

Archie Moore (1(1)-0), Sonny Liston (2(2)-0), Floyd Patterson (2(2)-0), Joe Frazier (2(1)-1), Bob Foster (1(1)-0), George Foreman (1(1)-0), Ken Norton (2-1), Larry Holmes (0-1(1)).

Notes

• Ali is the older brother of former heavyweight boxer Rahman Ali, the father of former WBC Female Super Middleweight Champion Laila Ali and the uncle of former USBC Cruiserweight Champion Ibn Ali.

• When Ali was 12-years-old, he and a friend went to the Columbia Auditorium to partake in the free hot dogs and popcorn available for visitors of the Louisville Home Show. When the boys were done eating, they went back to get their bicycles only to discover that Ali's had been stolen. Furious, Ali went to the basement of the Columbia Auditorium to report the crime to police officer Joe Elsby Martin, who was also a boxing coach at the Columbia Gym. When Ali said he wanted to beat up the person who stole his bike, Martin told him he should probably learn to fight first. A few days later, Ali began training at Martin's gym.

• Ali also trained with Fred Stoner, an African-American trainer working at the Grace Community Center in Louisville. After he became World Heavyweight Champion, Ali said Stoner "taught me all I know."

• Ali graduated from Central High School in Louisville with a D- average, ranking 376 in a class of 391.

• After Ali had a rough flight going to San Francisco for the 1960 Olympic trials, he became afraid to fly. He visited an army surplus store and purchased a parachute before he flew to Rome for the Olympics, and wore the parachute throughout the flight to Rome.

• In his 1975 autobiography, The Greatest, My Own Story, Ali claimed that he threw his Olympic gold medal into the Ohio River after he was refused service at a "whites only" restaurant shortly after he returned to Louisville from the Olympics in Rome. Some people, including biographers Thomas Hauser and David Remnick, have concluded that the story is untrue — that Ali misplaced the medal or it was otherwise lost. Ali was given a replacement medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.

• On October 26, 1960, Ali signed a managerial contract with eleven Louisville business men. They became known as the Louisville Sponsoring Group. Ali received a $10,000 signing bonus and, for the first two years, a guaranteed draw of $333 a month against earnings. The sponsoring group had options to extend the contract for up to four additional twelve-month periods. Earnings would be split fifty-fifty for the first four years and sixty-forty in Ali's favor thereafter. All management, training, travel, and promotional expenses, including a trainer's salary, would come out of the sponsoring group's end. And fifteen percent of Ali's income would be set aside in a pension fund, which he could not touch until he was twenty-five or retired from boxing.

• Ali was one of four World Heavyweight Champions from Louisville, Kentucky. The other three are Marvin Hart, Jimmy Ellis, and Greg Page.

• Shortly after winning the World Heavyweight Championship from Sonny Liston on February 25, 1964, Ali announced that he was a member of the Nation of Islam and changed his name from Cassius Marcellus Clay to Muhammad Ali. He was given the name by Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad. In Arabic, Muhammad means "worthy of all praises" and Ali means "most high."

• On September 14, 1964, Ali was stripped of the World Boxing Association title for signing to fight Sonny Liston in a rematch. The contract for their first fight included a return clause, which the WBA did not allow.

• Ali's rematch with Sonny Liston was originally scheduled for November 16, 1964, in Boston, Massachusetts, but the fight was postponed after Ali suffered a hernia and had to have surgery.

• Ali's knockout of Brian London on August 6, 1966, was his last fight under his contract with the Louisville Sponsoring Group. He chose not to renew the contract, and Herbert Muhammad became his manager.

• Ali's draft status was 1-Y, physically fit but exempt from the draft because he scored lower than the minimum on Army intelligence tests. In 1966, the Army lowered its intelligence requirements, and Ali was reclassified as 1-A, which made him eligible for the draft. Ali appealed for an exemption, claiming that he was a conscientious objector based on his religious beliefs. After three appeals were denied, Ali was called for induction on April 28, 1967. He refused to be inducted and was convicted of draft evasion on June 20, 1967. Ali was sentenced to five years in prison and fined $10,000. He was also stripped of his title by the WBA and New York State Athletic Commission. He appealed his conviction all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled unanimously in his favor on June 28, 1971.

• On March 3, 1969, the World Boxing Council stripped Ali of their title. WBC President Justiniano Montano said the action was taken because of Ali's "inability to defend his title."

• While he was appealing his conviction, Ali was free on a $5,000 bond. He tried to get a fight but was unable get a boxing license in any state. On February 3, 1970, Ali held a press conference and announced his retirement from boxing. He also called Nat Loubet, managing editor of The Ring magazine, to inform him of his decision. Ali later changed his mind and said he wanted to fight again.

• With the help of Georgia State Senator Leroy Johnson, Ali was able to get a license to fight in Georgia. On September 10, 1970, Ali and Jerry Quarry signed to fight in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 26, 1970. Johnson was also involved in the promotion of the fight.

• On September 14, 1970, a federal judge ruled that the New York State Athletic Commission's ban on Ali "constituted an arbitrary and unreasonable departure from the commission's established practice of granting licenses to applicants convicted of crimes or military offenses."  Ali was then granted a license to fight Oscar Bonavena in New York on December 7, 1970.

• Ali's first fight with Joe Frazier on March 8, 1971, indirectly led to four deaths:

• Two spectators at Madison Square Garden died of heart attacks during the fight.

• Erio Borghisiani was found dead in front of his television just hours after viewing the fight on paid television in Milan, Italy.

• In Malaysia, Abdul Ghani Bachik was reported to have leaped up from his chair while watching the fight on paid television and shouted, "My God, Cassius Clay has fallen!" He then suffered a fatal heart attack.

• Ali's fight with Chuck Wepner on March 24, 1975, inspired Sylvester Stallone to write the film Rocky.

• Two Ali opponents died from injuries they suffered in the ring: Alejandro Lavorante died after getting knocked out by John Riggins in 1962, and Sonny Banks died after getting knocked out by Leotis Martin in 1965.

• Three fighters retired after being knocked out by Ali: Donnie Fleeman, LaMar Clark, and Floyd Patterson.

• Ali was the last fighter to defeat both Archie Moore and George Chuvalo.

• In September 1984, after completing four days of tests at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's Syndrome.

Quotes

"It’s hard to be humble when you’re as great as I am."

"If you even dream of beating me you’d better wake up and apologize."

"I’m so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark."

"Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face to the Bureau of Wild Life."

"Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up."

"He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life."

"The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life."

When asked about golf: "I'm the best — I just haven't played it yet."

June 3rd

1909: Jack Johnson ND6 Tony Ross

1926: Jack Delaney KO2 Tommy Burns

Tod Morgan KO6 Kid Sullivan

1927: Joe Dundee W15 Pete Latzo

1932: Hogan Bassey was born in Calabar, Nigeria

1935: Marcel Thil W15 Ignacio Ara

1937: John Henry Lewis KO8 Bob Olin

1947: Sandy Saddler D10 Jimmy Carter

1958: Brian London KO8 Joe Erskine

1959: Joe Brown KO9 Paolo Rosi

1961: Emile Griffith KO12 Gasper Ortega

1967: Sven Ottke is born in Berlin-Spandau, West Germany

1971: Kuniaki Shibata KO1 Raul Cruz

1972: Betulio Gonzalez KO4 Socrates Batoto

Jean-Marc Mormeck is born in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, France

1974: Oscar Albarado KO15 Koichi Wajima

1975: Roberto Durán TKO1 Jose Peterson

1978: Alexis Arguello KO1 Diego Alcala

Ray Leonard W10 Rafael Rodriguez

1979: Sang Hyun Kim W15 Fitzroy Guisseppi

Lupe Pintor WSD15 Carlos Zarate – Zarate who had only heard the last bell once in prior his career is robbed one of the worst and oddest decisions ever

1982: Lupe Pintor KO11 Seung Hoon Lee

1988: Davey Moore dies at the age of 28 

Graciano Rocchigiani W15 Nicky Walker

1989: Glenn McCrory W12 Patrick Lumumba

Sot Chitalada W12 Yong Kang Kim

1991: Thomas Hearns W12 Virgil Hill

Troy Dorsey KO1 Alfred Rangel

2000: Sven Ottke W12 Tucker Pudwill

2006: Nikolay Valuev KO3 Owen Beck

Vic Darchinyan KO8 Luis Maldonado

2016: Muhammad Ali dies at the age of 74

Rances Barthelemy WSD12 Mickey Bey

2017: Adonis Stevenson TKO2 Andrzej Fonfara

Chayaphon Moonsri W12 Omari Kimweri

Ana Laura Esteche WSD10 Adela Carmen Peralta

2023: Claressa Shields W10 Maricela Cornejo