Clay's first visit to London could easily have marked his first defeat. Felled by Cooper's left hook in the fourth round, he staggered to his corner. The infamous torn glove gave Clay extra seconds to recover and a ferocious assault in the fifth left Cooper so badly cut the referee stopped the fight. In his final fight as Cassius Clay the year-old challenger won the world title for the first time. Clay landed powerful combinations in the sixth round; Liston did not come out for the seventh citing a shoulder injury.
Due to the sudden ending of their previous bout, a rematch was ordered by the World Boxing Council. It was — controversially — all over with barely two minutes gone after Ali caught Liston with a fast right and his opponent went down.
This was a grudge match with Patterson determined to regain the title against the young upstart. But Patterson, fighting with a bad back, was down in the fifth round and was taking so much punishment by the 12th that the referee stopped the fight and Ali was pronounced winner.
Chuvalo was a Croation-Canadian heavyweight who was never knocked off his feet in any of his 93 professional matches. Ali won this match, despite Chuvalo going the distance, to retain the title. In the rematch Cooper's vulnerable eyes again proved pivotal as Ali opened up a serious cut in the sixth and the fight was stopped.
The Hartlepool-born former British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion London was backed into the corner in the third round and succumbed to a salvo of punches.
The European heavyweight was the first southpaw to fight for the world title but his style made little impression on Ali, who knocked him down three times before the referee intervened in the 12th round to end the punishment. With the Ali shuffle making its debut, Williams failed to land a blow and was dispatched in the third round. He regained the World Boxing Association title, which had been taken from him for refusing a military induction, with a dominant display against the holder Terrell, who had angered Ali by calling him Cassius Clay.
Folley, a respected heavyweight boxer, was past his best by the time he faced Ali and a couple of solid rights in the seventh was all Ali needed. Following two closely fought rounds, Ali cut Quarry above his left eye, which proved conclusive. The second bout of his comeback was a tougher affair against the obdurate Bonavena, who absorbed 14 rounds of punishment before being sent to the floor three times in the 15th.
With both fighters unbeaten something had to give and it was Ali who did so in the final round when Frazier floored him, for only the third time in his career, with a fierce left hook. Ali regained composure but Frazier won the fight on a unanimous decision to end his opponent's fight winning record.
Against his some-time sparring partner Ellis — they had grown up together in Louisville — Ali proved stronger and faster but dragged the match out to the 12th round when he called for the match to be ended, so his friend would not be hurt any more.
A previous contender for the world title, Mathis came out of retirement to fight Ali. The former champion eventually won on points after knocking Mathis down twice in each of the last two rounds. Against the former heavyweight champion of Germany in Zurich, Ali cut Blin over both eyes before catching him with a decisive right in the seventh.
The first fight held in Asia between two top ranked heavyweights was a dull affair. There were no knock downs for the Tokyo crowd and it ended in a routine points win for Ali. Despite some ferocious assaults Ali failed to put Chuvalo on the canvas in their second meeting and had to settle for a points win. Another of Ali's sparring partners, Lewis looked down and out in the fifth at Dublin's Croke Park but fought on before the referee put him out of his misery in the penultimate round.
In their second meeting, seven years after the first, the two boxers fought for the National American Boxing Federation title at Madison Square Garden. Ali, defending that title for a fourth time, cut Patterson above his left eye in the sixth round and by the end of the seventh it had swollen shut. Following a brief retirement, Ali returned to the ring to face Larry Holmes in but was overmatched against the younger champion.
Following one final loss in , to Trevor Berbick, the boxing great retired from the sport at age Ali was married four times and had nine children, including two children he fathered outside of marriage. Ali married his first wife, Sonji Roi, in ; they divorced after one year when she refused to adopt the Nation of Islam dress and customs. Ali married his second wife, year-old Belinda Boyd, in Boyd and Ali divorced in At the same time Ali was married to Boyd, he traveled openly with Veronica Porche, who became his third wife in Porche and Ali divorced in Ali married his fourth and final wife Yolanda "Lonnie" in The pair had known each other since Lonnie was just six and Ali was 21; their mothers were best friends and raised their families on the same street.
Ali and Lonnie couple remained married until his death and had one son together, Asaad. In , Ali announced that he had Parkinson's disease, a degenerative neurological condition.
Despite the progression of Parkinson's and the onset of spinal stenosis, he remained active in public life. And he was on hand to celebrate the inauguration of the first African American president in January , when Barack Obama was sworn into office. A few years before his death, Ali underwent surgery for spinal stenosis, a condition causing the narrowing of the spine, which limited his mobility and ability to communicate. In his retirement, Ali devoted much of his time to philanthropy.
In , he lit the Olympic cauldron at the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, an emotional moment in sports history. Ali traveled to numerous countries, including Mexico and Morocco, to help out those in need. In , he was chosen to be a United Nations Messenger of Peace because of his work in developing nations. I wanted more than a building to house my memorabilia. I wanted a place that would inspire people to be the best that they could be at whatever they chose to do, and to encourage them to be respectful of one another.
Actor Will Smith played Ali in the biopic film Ali, released in Ali died on June 3, , in Phoenix, Arizona, after being hospitalized for what was reportedly a respiratory issue.
He was 74 years old. In early , the athlete battled pneumonia and was hospitalized for a severe urinary tract infection. That he grew up during segregation, and that during his early life he was not free to be who he wanted to be. But he never became embittered enough to quit or to engage in violence.
Former President Clinton spoke about how Ali found self-empowerment: "I think he decided, before he could possibly have worked it all out, and before fate and time could work their will on him, he decided he would not ever be disempowered.
He decided that not his race nor his place, the expectations of others, positive, negative or otherwise would strip from him the power to write his own story. You shook up the world in life now you're shaking up the world in death. Now you are free to be with your creator.
We love you so much Daddy. Ali came out for the 10th round, and though he threw no punches, cornerman Bundini Brown urged him to keep going in the 11th and Dr. Donald Romeo, the Nevada commission doctor, made no move to stop it. Trainer Angelo Dundee was the one who called the fight to a halt, and the next day, Ali said, "Under the conditions with me taking so many punches, I'm glad it was stopped. Ali admitted he had a desire to fight again.
If it happened, Dundee said he'd be there to have someone who cared about Ali in the corner if he got in trouble. A search of records later revealed Cornelius was a felon facing an outstanding warrant for his arrest in Atlanta on charges he violated terms of probation received for a conviction on five counts of theft. The promotion was rife with allegations of governmental corruption in the Bahamas, shady financial dealings and utter ineptitude in terms of promoting a major heavyweight fight.
Several undercard fighters, including middleweight Thomas Hearns and heavyweights Greg Page and Scott LeDoux, also threatened to pull out. Negotiations that reached Prime Minister Lynden O. Pindling resulted in him prevailing upon Victor Sayyah, a Colorado real estate and insurance executive with holdings in the Bahamas, and Bahamas World Airlines chairman Everett Bannister to agree to underwrite unpaid promotional expenses.
Satellite Sports president Sheldon Saltman, the cable telecast operator, threatened to pull out just over a week before the fight, he said, because no one had been paid to build the temporary stadium that was erected behind second base on a rundown high school baseball field.
Sayyah came through with the money to get the production to fight day. As I wrote after the weigh-in, "The aging Islamic warrior tried on his old uniform and popped all the buttons.
Ali hoped everything the doctors had told him about how thyroid pills depleted him for the Holmes fight was right. He was overweight, but at least he had no problem sweating.
Fight night was a disaster. The card was supposed to start at 6 p.
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