It is an era jam-packed to the brim with talent, hard work, blood, sweat, tears, and GUTS! Everyone who was everyone fought in the 1970s heavyweight division and anyone who was anyone made sure not to miss any of the fights.
A recent guest on the Club Shay Shay podcast, UFC boss Dana White stated how, in his opinion, MMA fighter Jon Jones ranks as “the most bad-a** fighter of all time.”
Larry Merchant has been around the sport of boxing forever. Well, not quite, but it sure seems like it. Merchant has been around for decades, for sure, and the writer, commentator and passionate fight fan has seen some of the greats in the flesh, up close and personal.
Was it a legitimate knockout punch? Was the fix in? Was it a ‘Phantom Punch?’ Did Muhammad Ali really defeat Sonny Liston in an honest-to-goodness fight all those years ago in May of 1965?
Up and down, back and forth; the 1960s produced a heavyweight division that was as “counter-culture” as the United States of America itself at the time.
As all boxing fans know, the great, indeed the incomparable Muhammad Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Syndrome during his later years.
It perhaps ranks as the single most violent, action-packed, and brutally punishing of all world heavyweight title fights. Manila, October 1st 1975 – Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier Part III.
Today, as we are all on tenterhooks, bracing ourselves for the promised “Knockout Chaos” to be delivered when Anthony Joshua and Francis Ngannou get it on in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, older fight fans – in fact, ALL boxing fans who have the appropriate respect – will celebrate the anniversary of the fight that might just have been the greatest, most anticipated, it-lived-up-to-all-the-hype heavyweight showdown of them all.
Today marks the 60th anniversary of the first fight between Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston. At the time, the upset win scored by Ali, then still of course known as Cassius Clay, ranked as perhaps the biggest in heavyweight boxing history (maybe the stunner pulled off by Jimmy Braddock over Max Baer still edged it in terms of shock factor).
At the top of the mountain, always, sits one. There can only ever, truly, be one. This is the one. Born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr, his bike would be stolen and, in desire to assure it never happened again, young Clay would take up boxing.