Cassius+Clay Entries

Entries tagged with "Cassius+Clay":

Cassius Clay vs. Sonny Liston – November 30th, 2018
It was February 25, 1964. The fight was for the heavyweight championship of the world. In one corner you had the champ, boxing’s Darth Vader, the formidable Sonny Liston. In the opposite corner you had the young challenger, a poetry-spouting loudmouth from Louisville, Kentucky, named Cassius Clay (soon…
10 Greatest Upsets in Heavyweight History – November 30th, 2017
There's nothing like an upset to make one believe. All the questionable decisions that cast doubt on the sport are rendered meaningless when an upset occurs. And when the upset is during a contest between world-class heavyweights, the satisfaction is that much greater. This sampling covers some of the…
The Ali-Trump Connection – July 7th, 2017
Both men insulted their opponents but paid themselves compliments. They were all ego, all the time…
Jefferson Davis: The last charge of boxing's knitting buccaneer – March 24th, 2017
I have a strong hunch that if Jefferson Davis were fighting today a lot of so-called elite heavyweights would meet their Appomattox…
GGG-Jacobs: Boxing’s Long Con – March 21st, 2017
It’s more accurate to say that Golovkin faced a great fighter, he tried his best, and he came up short. There is no shame in that…
Sonny Liston’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – December 31st, 2016
“Mae West replied, ‘No, I won't be in it. What would I be doing in a lonely hearts club?’ So the Beatles wrote her a personal letter and she changed her mind…”
Boxing Is Alive & Well – December 1st, 2016
Boxing is here to stay. Much like any other sport, it has its stumbles, but the sport itself is too strong to wither away and die…
The Man Who Fought Liston and Cassius Clay—Four Times! – July 28th, 2016
Billy Joiner, a journeyman heavyweight in the 1960s, has a few fascinating tales to tell. Let him tell you in his own words…
Ten-Count for Jack Obermayer – June 25th, 2016
In the end it was reported that he attended 3,514 live shows in 49 states and over 400 cities…
The United States vs. Muhammad Ali – June 16th, 2016
Ali’s moral and religious position cost him a three and a half year absence from the boxing ring during his prime years...
“Sugar Ray” is Back in Harlem! – March 27th, 2016
Boxers are men who turn their psychological problems into a paycheck. And Robinson was pretty good at receiving paychecks…
Gleason's and The Garden: Randy Neumann Remembers – January 11th, 2016
Gleason's sat in the Fort Apache section of the South Bronx, streets so violent and depraved that Hollywood made them into a movie…
Klitschko / Fury: Skill and Power vs. Zig-Zags and The Almighty – November 23rd, 2015
Klitschko is a fine architect, calmly deconstructing faces, subtly carving through the resolve of the man opposite…
Doug Jones: The Man Who Nearly Beat Cassius Clay – November 20th, 2015
The determined and business-like Jones was very much his own man. He was never in awe of Cassius Clay, Muhammad Ali or anyone else…
Remembering Tony Alongi – November 16th, 2015
When he passed away at the relatively young age of 64, his professional boxing career was not mentioned in his Miami Herald obituary...
RIP, Amos Johnson – November 13th, 2015
Probably the high water mark in the boxing career of Amos Johnson Jr. was his defeat of Muhammad Ali in the amateurs…
Leotis Martin: Glory Short Lived – September 28th, 2015
Against Ali, Sonny had looked like a man having a snooze. Against Martin, he looked like a luckless pedestrian who hadn’t seen the truck coming…
Roy Jones Jr.’s Greatness: Where Does He Rate? – September 17th, 2015
Phenomenon or just a fast guy who got away with it in the time that was granted to him? Like beauty, it is in the eye of the beholder…
RIP, Dick Wipperman – September 13th, 2015
Henry Cooper referred to Wipperman as an American "cowboy." Maybe that's because to Brits, all Americans are cowboys…
Is it getting more difficult to defend your love of boxing? – March 11th, 2015
We fans of the sport can reengineer boxing as the sport of tastemakers: the sport of thinkers, history buffs and scribes, rather than the bloodthirsty…
The Will of the Marrickville Mauler – February 24th, 2015
“I can’t put my finger on it and tell you exactly what it done to me but I can tell you factually that I was never the same fighter afterwards..."
Remembering Harold Johnson – February 20th, 2015
There are so many Harold Johnson stories I could tell that would fill up an entire book. Here’s one of them…
Bizzarro World – January 20th, 2015
Johnny died in 1998 at age 60, but Johnny Bizzarro's Fleetwing Auto Sales ("Erie's Legend in Your Corner") is still going strong…
The Remarkable Charlie Powell – September 4th, 2014
He was both a top defensive end for the San Francisco 49ers football team and a Top 10 heavyweight contender…
Shemp Howard: Oh Lucky Man – August 28th, 2014
While never as popular as Curly, Shemp was incomparably superior to the two men who replaced him…
The Vinnie Ferguson: A Classic Old-Timer – July 3rd, 2014
The moment Ferguson entered that gym, spotted the two rings, and smelled the stench of stale sweat; he knew he had found a home…
“Phantom Punch” — Mystery Solved – May 25th, 2014
Two Muslims visited Sonny and threatened to kill him if he didn't lose the bout. Things were getting worse for the ex-champ, but the worst was yet to come…
Ten-Count for Jimmy Ellis – May 6th, 2014
“Great competitors who happen to be great friends are rare. Jimmy Ellis was that to me and I will miss him…"
Book Review: “The Gods of War” by Springs Toledo – May 5th, 2014
“The idea of boxing remains as pure as the idea of bravery. It remains as compelling as any collision with something at stake. It stirs questions…”
Foul Play in Philly? – April 30th, 2014
There is strong reason to believe that someone in Liston’s corner tried the same illegal methods used in the Marciano-Walcott fight…
The Toughest Cat in Boise – April 28th, 2014
When Ali visited Boise years later and saw Logan for the first time since their fight, the reunion was not warm and fuzzy…
Bob Foster: Monster Man – April 14th, 2014
“I like chasing crooks. I drive through town at eighty miles an hour, my red light flashing and my shotgun on my lap. It’s dangerous, but it’s fun...”
Lamestream Press Gets Fooled Again – March 4th, 2014
Who would dare question the credibility of a memo “so sensitive that it was addressed directly” to J. Edgar Hoover? What a story! What a joke...
Song for Cassius Clay and Sonny Liston – February 25th, 2014
“I was used to excitement. I was made for excitement,” Pacheco told me. “But that night was something else, something beyond excitement…”
Ghosts of Miami – February 24th, 2014
The 23 Steps to Boxing Enlightenment – February 7th, 2014
Most champs—Matthew Saad Muhammad, Floyd Patterson and Johnny Tapia—were tortured souls who sought boxing psychotherapy…
On Speed: Fifty Years Forward G.O.A.T.—Part Two – February 6th, 2014
What would Budd Schulberg say of the soul sucking sport that fifty years later still has not addressed his emptiness?
Requiem for an Illusion – August 14th, 2013
During the course of the film, which is as heartbreaking as ever, I kept telling myself, “This is just a movie. This is fiction...”
Happy 50th Anniversary to Sonny Liston – July 22nd, 2013
Needless to say, things didn't work out the way he had planned. In less than two years, he would complete the most precipitous fall in the history of sports…
Top Ten Heavyweight Champions – April 2nd, 2013
Let us set aside the present and recall the days of more gifted and charismatic champions. Here are the ten best heavyweights of all time…
Meet Me at St. Nick's – March 24th, 2013
St. Nicholas Arena, better known as St. Nick's or The Rink, was on the northeast corner of 69 West 66th Street on Manhattan's Columbus Avenue...
The Early Death of Sonny Liston – January 10th, 2013
It's been said that only the good die young, which doesn’t do much to explain Sonny Liston. He was born dirt poor, could neither read nor write, but he was able to do things with his fists that proved useful. Before he became a boxer, he was an armed robber known as the "Yellow Shirt Bandit," but that…
70 Ways to Know if You’re an Ex-Fighter – December 14th, 2012
What runs through the mind of an old ex-fighter? The cheering crowds are gone, the rigor of training is a faint memory, and the thrill of competition has vanished...
This Just In: Ali’s Hernia Killed Liston! – November 20th, 2012
Ali wanted to mark the occasion by delivering a sack of black cats to Liston’s training camp but was talked out of the idea by his handlers...
Lavorante: Rocket to the Moon – September 23rd, 2012
Jack Dempsey had spotted Lavorante’s talent on a sojourn to Venezuela, where Jack saw the Argentinean youngster in several amateur fights in Caracas...
Boxing by the Book: “The Real Story Behind the Ali-Liston Fights” – September 19th, 2012
Paul Gallender’s new book reveals the real deal on Charles “Sonny” Liston. It also opens one’s eyes to the real Muhammad Ali…
Olympic Archive: Cassius Clay – July 22nd, 2012
Three days before winning gold in Rome - and less than four years before becoming world heavyweight boxing champion - Muhammad Ali spoke to ITN about his "Romanic" name and why he took up boxing...
Subtitles 'Off' – June 29th, 2012
Wolfing down crimson steak, abusing sparring partners and reshaping medicine balls with his gut, Liston’s red-blooded lifestyle stormed into 1959...
First Round KOs – March 21st, 2012
Here's a look at some of the most significant early KOs ever to grace the sometimes graceless heavyweight division…
Johansson vs. Patterson: “The Hammer of Thor” – March 20th, 2012
"Ingemar looks good physically…so does Errol Flynn—and Errol couldn’t fight his way out of a roomful of gorgeous blondes...”