Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali was the best fighter of 1966, as he went 5-0 (with four knockouts) in defense of his heavyweight title. That included a third-round KO of Cleveland Williams, when Ali might’ve been at his very best.

The editors of THE RING Magazine at the time acknowledged Ali’s preeminence that year, stating clearly that no one could touch him.

However, they made an unusual decision when it came time to name the magazine’s annual Fighter of the Year: They announced that Ali would be denied the award because of his refusal to be inducted into the U.S. Army and his association with the Nation of Islam.

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Today marks the 30th anniversary of one special heavyweight’s ascension to the world title: Mike Tyson. Tyson, as fans know, decimated Trevor Berbick to win the WBC crown three full decades ago, and it wasn’t long before the rest of the belts were Tyson’s property. Some experts say Tyson, at just 20, turned in his finest performance on November 22nd, 1986.

Here is a list of the ten finest performances from the ten greatest-ever world heavyweight champions:

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Mike Tyson? Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko? Joe Louis? Lennox Lewis? Rocky Marciano? Any other heavyweight you care to mention! Would the Muhammad Ali of 50 years ago today – when he was every bit an unhittable, lightening-fast, lethal-punching fighting machine against Cleveland Williams – have beaten any of them?

Historians call it Muhammad Ali’s peak performance; his defining, shining moment of true brilliance in a career filled with majesty. This is the Ali-Cleveland Williams fight from 50 years ago: November 14th 1966. “Ali never danced like that again,” one writer wrote. “That version of Ali would have beaten any heavyweight in history,” a number of experts have claimed.

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50 years ago, 1966, the world was being dazzled, baffled and entertained by a heavyweight champion who fought like no heavyweight before him. Muhammad Ali, aged 24 and approaching his absolute peak, had won the crown two years earlier and he had made six retentions since shocking the greatly feared Sonny Liston.

Amazingly – truly amazingly when we look back today – the jury was still out, at least partially, on how good Ali was; or if he was even a “real” fighter. The sage old timers were appalled at the manner in which Ali held his hands dangerously low and worse, pulled back from punches instead of slipping them in the traditional manner. Also, Ali’s self-proclaimed prettiness bothered the old school: what would happen if the pretty boy had to take a shot, a real shot, to that beautiful face?

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38 years ago today, inside a packed out Superdome in New Orleans, ageing superstar Muhammad Ali did what he should have done in the first place and defeated rank amateur Leon Spinks. Seven months previously, a woefully out of condition Ali was upset by the 1976 Olympic gold medal winner, losing a 15-rounder that was somehow scored as a split decision against “The Greatest.”

The February decision handed in in Las Vegas should have been unanimous in favour of 24-year-old “Neon” Leon, as Ali did nothing but clown and lay on the ropes for the first ten-rounds. How one judge scored the fight for Ali is explained only by the enormous impact Ali had on the sport and of how revered he was at the time. The rematch was a different story, at least as far as the physical and, more importantly, the mental condition of the two heavyweights was concerned.

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Being too young (unfortunately) to have seen the great – The Greatest – Muhammad Ali fight live, even on TV, the first indelible memory I have of the immortal legend occurred twenty years ago today. Ali, by this time ravaged by Parkinson’s, quite simply made around half the world’s population shed a tear as he bravely forced his almost uncontrollable arms to assist him in accepting one of the finest honours that can be bestowed upon any athlete: that of lighting the Olympic Torch in the opening ceremony of the planet’s most-watched sporting celebration.

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