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MUHAMMAD ALI’S pro career began in 1960 soon after he had won the light heavyweight gold medal at the Rome Olympics.
In that 21-year period he had 61 fights and lost five. He reclaimed the world heavyweight title twice.
The five men who beat him were Smokin’ Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Leon Spinks, Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick.
And now, SunSport runs down his five most memorable fights.
Henry Cooper, June 18, 1963 at Wembley Stadium
RESULT: Won referee RSF round five.
WHEN Cassius Clay arrived in London boasting he would KO Cooper in the fifth round the British took an instant dislike to him.
They regarded the handsome 21-year-old Clay as nothing more than a big mouth braggart whose nickname the Louisville Lip summed him up perfectly.
The Clay-Cooper fight was a glamorous occasion with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor among a host of celebrities at ringside.
Clay antagonised the 30,000 Cooper fans by walking from his dressing room to the ring wearing a crown.
It was a fight that was highly controversial and is still being argued about today.
It nearly changed the course of heavyweight history. Cooper crashed his famous left hook ‘Ammer flush on Clay’s jaw in the fourth round.
He hit the canvas and though the American got to his feet at the count of four the bell saved him.
Clay wobbled badly dazed back to his corner and it was then his astute trainer Angelo Dundee noticed that there was a split in Clay’s left glove.
Dundee tried to make the split bigger and asked for a replacement.
As there wasn’t a spare pair at ringside it was an impossibility. Dundee was accused for cutting the glove as Clay sat on his stool.
This was untrue. A myth grew up that the interval between rounds four and five lasted at least two minutes. Again that was untrue.
Video evidence proves the interval was only five seconds beyond the 60 second limit. Clay in round five using his dazzling speed went to work on Cooper and sliced open his left eyebrow.
With blood spurting out of the wound referee Tommy Little had no option but to stop the fight and Clay had achieved his boast.
More importantly that victory enabled him to beat Sonny Liston in his next fight seven months later to become heavyweight champion of the world for the first time.
If the bell hadn’t saved him against Cooper and he had been knocked out the Liston fight would never have happened.
Sonny Liston, February 25, 1964 in Miami
RESULT: Liston retired on his stool at end of round six.
WHEN Clay challenged Liston for the world heavyweight title he was a 7-1 underdog.
Most expert opinion suggested Liston, then considered an unbeatable monster, was likely to put Clay in hospital.
And when Cassius went berserk at the weigh in and gave the impression he was terrified the Florida boxing commission doctors were on the verge of refusing him permission to fight as they thought he was mentally unstable.
It was all part of Clay’s mind games and Liston, who he constantly called the Big Ugly Bear was certainly spooked by his behaviour.
From the opening bell it was obvious Liston couldn’t handle Clay’s remarkable speed and accuracy. With Clay’s jab never out of his face Liston was given a boxing lesson.
He took a battering and was in shock when he slumped on his stool at the end of round six claiming he had a damaged shoulder and couldn’t continue.
It was soon after that fight Clay announced he had become a member of the Black Muslim Sect and in future wished to be called Muhammad Ali.
The world had a brash new young heavyweight champion — one that it would never forget.
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Smokin’ Joe Frazier, March 8, 1971, Madison Square Garden, New York
RESULT: Frazier won a unanimous 15-round points decision.
WHILE Ali languished in exile for three years after he had been stripped of his title for refusing the US draft Frazier was recognised as the undisputed world champion.
Both men were unbeaten when they signed for what was called the Fight of the Century.
They each received $2.5million — an unprecedented sum 40 years ago. But they both earned every cent.
The excitement was so intense in the Garden that night two fans suffered heart attacks at ringside and died.
The 15-round battle was a classic. It had everything. Great skill, power and courage.
Frazier exploded his famed left hook on Ali’s chin in the last round which put him down and clinched the fight for him.
Ali had to go to hospital with a suspected fractured jaw which turned out to be just bad bruising.
Frazier was taken to hospital when he returned home to Philadelphia and spent several weeks there suffering from internal injuries.
George Foreman, October 30, 1974 in Kinshasa, Zaire
RESULT: Ali KO’d Foreman in round eight.
BECAUSE of its location this was the most bizarre world heavyweight championship fight of them all.
It ended up in central Africa because President Mobutu, Zaire’s vicious dictator put up the $10million Ali and Foreman shared.
His idea was by staging such a mammoth event it would put Zaire on the map. The fight famously became known as the Rumble in the Jungle.
To make it even more unusual the fight started at 4am in Kinshasa’s soccer stadium to accommodate live US television.
Foreman a brooding six foot four inch giant was unbeaten and like Liston before him was considered a monster.
It was feared Foreman’s tremendous power would overwhelm Ali and he would suffer a severe beating.
To everyone’s amazement at ringside Ali retreated to the ropes from the start inviting Foreman to beat-up on him.
Hardened boxing writers regarded such tactics as handing Foreman a suicide note.
It appeared insane and Ali was later to call his dangerous strategy the Rope-a-Dope.
Only someone of his immense courage would have allowed such a murderous puncher like Foreman to exhaust himself in that way.
The heat and humidity certainly got to the defending champion. By round eight Foreman could hardly lift his arms and Ali realised he had him at his mercy.
A left and right landed against Foreman’s unprotected chin and the force spun him round and sent him to the canvas.
He was counted out by referee Zack Clayton. It was exhaustion as much as anything that beat Foreman.
Ali at 32 had done the seemingly impossible and regained his crown. The world rejoiced at his remarkable victory.
Smokin’ Joe Frazier, October 1, 1975 in Manila
RESULT: Frazier retired on his stool at the end of round 14.
THIS one was known as the Thrilla in Manila and if it had been filmed for entertainment purposes it would have been given an X-rating.
This was unquestionably the most brutal world heavyweight title battle of all time. The score between those two bitter rivals stood at 1-1.
But it was apparent from the opening bell that Ali and Frazier were past their best.
They simply couldn’t get out of the way of each others blows.
So for round after round they bludgeoned each other with sickening force neither giving ground.
At the end of the 14th round Ali looked utterly exhausted and Frazier was also in terrible shape.
His eyes were practically closed and his face a mass of lumps and bumps.
Eddie Futch, Frazier’s brilliant and compassionate trainer took one look at him and called the referee over to stop the fight.
Frazier angrily got off his stool in protest but Futch told him: “Sit down son it’s all over. But no one will ever forget what you did here today.”
And Ali’s memorable assessment of what took place was ‘what you saw tonight was near to death’.
They both should have retired immediately after that frighteningly ferocious clash because neither was ever physically the same again.
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