Boxing

CLAY VS. JONES, THE MYTHS AND THE FACTS

by MIKE DUNN

17.07 - Few fights have generated more myths than the March 13, 1963 bout at Madison Square Garden between heavyweight contenders Cassius Clay and Doug Jones. To hear some people tell it, Clay was given a gift decision. Jones kept hurting him with rights, they say. Jones was too slippery for Clay to hit. Jones nearly knocked Clay out with a right in the first round. Jones would have had a knockdown if the ropes hadn't kept Clay from spilling to the canvas. On and on it goes.

The facts about the fight are these:

1. Jones stunned Clay with a solid right-hand lead early in the first round. Yes, Clay was near the ropes, but the ropes DID NOT keep him from being knocked down. Clay used some evasive tactics for 30 or 40 seconds, until his head cleared sufficiently, and then he began trading punches with Jones again. By the middle of the round, the impact of Jones's right-hand blow had worn off completely. Clay, in fact, landed a couple of stiff rights himself before the end of the round.

2. The decision was not a disputed one. It's true that two of the judges called it for Clay by a narrow score of 5-4-1 in rounds. But the other judge had Clay winning 8-1-1. If you give all the close rounds to Jones (as two of the judges did), then Clay wins a narrow decision. If you give all the close rounds to Clay (as one of the judges did), then Clay wins big. I have watched the entire fight on video different times and always come away with the feeling that Clay deserved the decision. It wasn't his greatest performance, but he did more than enough to carry the day. Clay was the stronger puncher and was giving a lot more than we was getting by the end of the 10th round. Jones looked quite tired in the ninth and 10th rounds and didn't throw many punches.

3. Jones did not hurt Clay again after the first round. Jones proved to be a resourceful foe. He was especially effective in shielding himself from absorbing solid blows. But Jones wasn't able to connect with clean blows often enough to do any significant damage. Clay was unmarked after the fight (as was Jones). Most of what Jones landed came during brief flurries and occasional exchanges throughout the 10 rounds (and especially the first six). Jones landed several stiff rights in the fifth and sixth rounds, his two best rounds of the fight, but the punches had no visible impact on Clay. The only punch that bothered Clay was the quick right early in the opening round.

Ring Magazine selected this as its Fight of the Year in 1963. That probably had more to do with the elements surrounding the event than the fight itself. Clay had predicted a fourth-round knockdout and wasn't able to live up to it; Jones made a surprisingly strong showing in front of a loud, partisan sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden; the unanimous verdict for Clay was roundly booed by the New York crowd, which naturally favored home town boy Jones and wanted to see Clay's bubble burst.

While not an epic ring battle in the traditional sense, Clay vs. Jones is definitely an interesting fight to watch. This was considered an elimination bout, with the victor in line for a shot at Sonny Liston's crown. Clay and Jones were both ranked among the top four going into the bout. Clay had a 17-0 record with 14 knockouts, including nine in a row. His ledger of vanquished foes featured ancient Archie Moore, Alejandro Lavorante and Sonny Banks. Nothing to write home about. Clay's claim to fame at that point wasn't his professional record, but his Olympic gold medal and his brash ways.

Jones had more experience. His record was 21-3-1 with 13 KOs, and his resumé was much more impressive. Jones, who started his career as a lightheavyweight, had been in against Zora Folley twice (splitting decisions), Von Clay twice, Eddie Machen, Bob Foster and Pete Rademacher. The boxers set a brisk pace for heavyweights, both relying on speed of hand and continual movement. The fight reminded me a little bit of Sugar Ray Robinson vs. Randy Turpin. Just as Turpin's unorthodox style had Robinson flustered, so the speed and defensive abilities of Jones had Clay flustered. But Clay wasn't the only one encumbered that night. The styles of Clay and Jones meshed in such a way as to inhibit the strengths of both fighters. The combatants were often ineffective in landing blows, but they were very effective in frustrating the advances of the other.

Clay tried to finish off Jones in the fourth, as he predicted, and couldn't. Clay expended a lot of energy in the process and seemed to coast in the next two rounds as Jones came on strong. The seventh round was relatively even, with neither having much of an advantage. Going into the eighth round, it was a VERY close fight. After that, though, Clay was the man in charge. He finished the fight much the stronger of the two, clearly winning the last three rounds, and that proved to be the difference in the
scoring.

As for the manner in which the crowd reacted to the decision for Clay, I think Joe Krause, who did a round-by-round analysis of the fight on his Web site, Heavyweights of the 60's and 70's, hit the nail on the head. "Jones did have a good style to face Clay at this point of his career," Krause writes. "He had quick straight punches, and he was quick on his feet. When the crowd boos a fighter at the end of the fight and he wins pretty convincingly, that shows how much is expected of him. I think that this is what happened in New York against Jones, a home town fighter. If you make predicitions and are wrong, this can happen. It's just that Clay wasn't used to being wrong."

Mike Dunn is a boxing historian and writer who resides in Gaylord, Mich.

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