MOST sports have had an iconic figure who has taken their code from possible anonymity to something attracting a massive following.
For instance, would snooker have had its years of full houses and unmissable TV viewing but for Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgins?
Darts came from the pub, where only the participants were interested, to become another TV top-rated experience.
This was probably due to a guy who called himself the Crafty Cockney, AKA Eric Bristow, who won five world championships and the same number of world masters in the ’80s and early ’90s. World boxing championship fights are contested at as many as 17 weight divisions.
The lightest of these are straw or mini flyweight, where the boxer weights no more than 105lbs, to heavyweight.
There is a super-heavyweight grade in amateur boxing.
The glamour category of boxing has to be the heavyweight division.
Any fan will know more world heavyweight champions than at any other weight level, ranging from the first, John L Sullivan, to the man who held the title for the longest period of time, the great Joe Louis (22 June 1937-1 March 1949). He was also the first fighter to regain the title.
At 21 years of age, Floyd Patterson was the youngest to win the title, until Mike Tyson came along.
Patterson was the first Olympic gold medallist to win the title, knocking out light heavyweight champ Archie Moore in round five in a fight for the title vacated by Rocky Marciano on 30 November 1956.
He lost his title to Ingemar Johansson from Sweden on 26 June 1959 and, having being floored seven times in the first three rounds, the fight was stopped.
The rematch on 20 June 1960 saw Patterson knock out Johansson in the fifth to make history as the first boxer to ever regain the title.
A third meeting on 13 March saw both fighters on the floor in the first round before Patterson won in the sixth. Patterson would lose his title under questionable circumstances when knocked out by Sonny Liston in the first round in Chicago on 25 September 1962. And Liston repeated the first round stoppage in the rematch on 22 July of the following year.
Patterson would return to the ring and attempt to win back his title for a third time.
He fought his way to number one contender, and so faced reigning champion Muhammad Ali in a classic fight, which the latter won on a technical knockout in the 12th round on 22 November 1965.
Here we will switch our attention to Ali, who was born Cassius Clay and whom most fight fans would concede was probably the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time, a fact which he repeatedly enforced with one of his regular quotes: “I am the greatest”.
There are now at least four different versions of the title and, to be honest, most boxing fans are confused as to who is the real champ. Mediocre boxers are wearing championship belts which do not reflect their true talent. Not so in Ali’s time.
There has never been a speedier, more graceful heavyweight.
Born Cassius Marcellus Clay (named after his father, and the youngest of two boys, whose mother was Odessa O’Grady Clay) on 17 January 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky, Clay first gave notice of his boxing ability by winning the light heavy gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics.
In his autobiography, he states that he threw the medal into the Ohio River after being refused food in a whites-only restaurant. He lit the Olympic torch at the opening the 1996 Atlanta Games and was presented with a replacement medal there.
After the Rome Olympics, he returned to the USA to start a professional career.
He won his first contest over six rounds on 29 October, beating Fayetteville police chief Tunney Hunsacker.
Clay was 6’ 3” and, unlike most fighters, carried his hands low, using his amazing speed of foot to avoid his opponents’ punches and then striking with an array of blows which were delivered with such speed as to seem like a blur.
From then to 1963, he won 19 fights, 15 by knockout against some of the leading contenders for the heavyweight title, including England’s Henry Cooper, whom he could not floor either in this fight or in a later meeting.
In the second contest, the Londoner shocked the world by putting Clay, who by then had changed his name, on his backside.
He put away Lamar Clarke, who had won all of his previous 40 bouts by knockout. He now added a new catchline of his skill, which would become famous: “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”
Clay was now the number one contender for Sonny Liston’s title, and the fight was arranged for 26 February 1964 in Miami. First, it was cancelled because of Clay’s Islamic association with Malcolm X, but was rescheduled when he promised promoter Bill Faversham that he would not convert to Islam prior to the fight. Clay was given no chance of winning, except by the man himself.
At the weigh-in, he repeatedly taunted Liston, stating “What your eyes can’t see, you can’t hit,” he also called him an ugly bear.
The early rounds saw Clay dodging the big punches thrown by Liston, while he repeatedly caught the champ with lightning jab after jab. By the third, Clay was ahead and had opened Liston’s eye.
In the fourth, a substance on the champion’s gloves caused Clay vision problems, and Liston went in for the kill.
However, he was not fast enough and, before the end of the round, Clay was back in charge. Sweat and tears had cleared his vision.
Towards the end of the fifth, Liston was clearly rattled by the ferocity of Clay’s attacks.
The challenger then dominated the sixth and had Liston in all sorts of trouble as he attempted to finish the fight.
When the bell went for the seventh, Liston stayed rooted to his seat, claiming he had damaged his shoulder. Cassius Clay was world heavyweight champion.
In May 1965, by which time he had become a muslim (ironically, the same time as Malcolm X left that religion), a rematch was scheduled for Lewiston, Maine.
Liston was knocked out in the first round.
Some say he just fought for the purse, while others say it was a good chopping punch from Ali that saw him off. Ali then followed up his defeat of Patterson with winning defences against Canadian George Chuvalo on 29 March 1966.
Then followed a European tour and wins against Henry Cooper (technical knock-out) in the sixth on 21 May. Brian London was knocked out in the third round on 6 August, and then, probably one of his toughest fights, against German
Karl Mindenberger (TKO) in the tenth on 10 September. Cleveland Williams, Ernie Terrell and Zora Folley did not bother Ali.
The next two fights were expected to test him a bit more, but the great white hope Gerry Quarry never laid a glove on him as Ali won in three rounds. Argentinian Oscar Bonavena went the distance but lost on points.
Ali then lost his licence when he refused to be drafted into the military. But it is his boxing record that concerns us here.
On his return after two prep fights, he fought the undefeated champ Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden on 8 March 1971, in what is generally regarded as the fight of the century. Frazier won, flooring Ali in the 15th and retaining his title on points.
Ali won his next ten fights before losing to Ken Norton on a split decision on 31 March 1973. But he overturned that result by the same margin in the rematch five weeks later. He beat Frazier on points in New York on 28 January 1974.
This was followed by what is commonly known as the Rumble in the Jungle in Kinshasa, where Ali was again given no hope against champion George Foreman.
This time, Ali started like a train, catching Foreman off-guard. Then he would stand off and let Foreman waste his energy.
Ali’s tactics were perfect and he knocked out Foreman in the eighth round. Three wins later, Ali’s next fight was against Frazier again.
This one was named the Thrilla in Manila, producing 14 of the most gruelling rounds of boxing ever seen, with Frazier unable to get off his stool for the last round.
Ali had ten more fights, winning seven and losing three. His record reads: 56 wins, 37 knock outs, five losses and no draws.
Let us finish with an Ali quote: “Friendship is not something you learn in school, but if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything. I am the greatest. I said that even before I knew I was.” Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s syndrome in 1984.