Red Bike Moment
The red Schwinn bike of twelve-year-old Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay, Jr.) is stolen outside the annual Louisville Home Show. Reporting the theft to nearby policeman Joe Martin, he expresses a desire to “whup” the culprit. Martin—who trains young boxers—suggests he should first learn how to fight. (The result? Keep reading.)
Amateur Record Highlights
1959:
Intercity Golden Gloves Light-Heavyweight Champion (Chicago)
Chicago Golden Gloves Light-Heavyweight Champion (Chicago)
US National Light-Heavyweight Champion (Toledo, Ohio)
1960:
Intercity Golden Gloves Heavyweight Champion (New York City)
Chicago Golden Gloves Light-Heavyweight Champion (Chicago)
US National Light-Heavyweight Champion (Toledo, Ohio)
Final record as amateur: 134 wins, 7 losses
Wins Olympic Gold Medal
First Professional Fight: Clay Vs. Tunney Hunsaker
Cassius Clay Vs. Herb Siler
Win - Technical Knockout in 8 rounds [Miami Beach, Florida]
Clay Vs. Tony Esperti
Win - Technical Knockout in 3 rounds [Miami Beach]
Clay Vs. Jim Robinson
Win - Knockout in 1 round [Miami Beach]
Clay Vs. Donnie Fleeman
Win - Technical Knockout in 7 rounds [Miami Beach]
Clay Vs. Lamar Clark
Clark still holds a world record of 44 consecutive knockouts, but is no match for Ali, who sends him into retirement with a broken nose in the second round.
Win - Knockout in 2 rounds [Louisville]
Clay Vs. Duke Sabedong
Win - Unanimous Decision in 10 rounds [Las Vegas, Nevada]
This fight is where Ali first saw Gorgeous George and was inspired by his arrogant way of promoting himself.
Clay Vs. Alonzo Johnson
Ali’s first televised fight goes the distance with an exciting final round. Johnson would later become a sparmate to Ali.
Win - Unanimous Decision in 10 rounds [Louisville]
Clay Vs. Alex Miteff
Win - Technical Knockout in 6 rounds [Louisville]
Clay Vs. Willi Besmanoff
The final professional bout Ali would fight in his hometown of Louisville.
Win - Technical Knockout in 7 rounds [Louisville]
Clay Vs. Sonny Banks
Muhammad Ali’s first fight in the famed venue of Madison Square Garden with Lucien "Sonny" Banks is also the first time he is knocked down by an opponent.
Win - Technical Knockout in 4 rounds [New York City]
Clay Vs. Don Warner
Win - Technical Knockout in 4 rounds [Miami Beach]
Clay Vs. George Logan
Prior to this fight, former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey predicts that Muhammad Ali will one day take the world heavyweight title.
Win - Technical Knockout in 4 rounds [Los Angeles]
Clay Vs. Billy Daniels
Win - Technical Knockout in 7 rounds [New York City]
Clay Vs. Alejandro Lavorante
Win - Knockout in 5 rounds [Los Angeles]
Clay Vs. Archie Moore
Ali predicts “Archie Moore will fall in four,” and he makes it so, knocking Moore down three times in the fourth round to the crowd’s dismay. Prior to training with Angelo Dundee, Ali briefly trained with Moore at the elder fighter’s camp “The Salt Mine.”
Win - Technical Knockout in 4 rounds [Los Angeles]
Clay Vs. Charlie Powell
Clay Vs. Doug Jones
In a sold-out Madison Square Garden, Jones is heavily favored by the crowd. After Ali’s win by unanimous decision, Jones would seek a rematch for years. (They later fought in a non-scored 1966 exhibition fundraiser for the Children’s Hospital Foundation.)
Win - Unanimous Decision in 10 rounds [New York City]
Clay Vs. Henry Cooper (I)
Clay Vs. Sonny Liston (I)
In his first heavyweight title bout, Ali is a longshot to defeat Charles "Sonny" Liston, widely seen as unstoppable. Nonetheless, Ali predicts “a total eclipse of the Sonny”—and indeed Liston does not rise to the seventh round’s opening bell. “I’m the greatest! I shook up the world!”
Win - Technical Knockout in 6 rounds [Miami Beach]
Announces Conversion To Islam, Name Change
Ali Vs. Sonny Liston (II)
Ali Vs. Floyd Patterson
To many fight fans, former champion Patterson is the “Great Black Hope” for taking the heavyweight title from Ali, now surrounded by controversy over his religious and anti-war statements. However, those hopes were dashed when the fight was stopped in round 12.
Win - Technical Knockout in 12 rounds [Las Vegas]
Ali Vs. George Chuvalo (I)
Though he was Canada’s heavyweight champion and a top contender for Ali’s title, Chuvalo was not the originally scheduled opponent: Ernie Terrell had backed out shortly before the event. This was Ali’s first fight to go the full distance of 15 rounds.
Win - Unanimous Decision in 15 rounds [Toronto, Ontario, Canada]
Ali Vs. Henry Cooper (II)
Win - Technical Knockout in 6 rounds [London, England]
Ali Vs. Brian London
Win - Knockout in 3 rounds [London, England]
Ali Vs. Karl Mildenberger
This is the first sporting event in history to be broadcast in color via satellite.
Win - Technical Knockout in 12 rounds [Frankfurt, West Germany]
Ali Vs. Cleveland Williams
Ali Vs. Ernie Terrell
Ali Vs. Zora Folley
This fight at Madison Square Garden would be Ali’s last fight for three years.
Win - Knockout in 7 rounds [New York City]
Exiled from Boxing
Ali Vs. Jerry Quarry: First Post-Exile Fight
Ali Vs. Oscar Bonavena
Win - Technical Knockout in 15 rounds [Madison Square Garden, New York City]
Ali Vs. Joe Frazier (I)
Ali Vs. Jimmy Ellis
Ali fought his sparmate and fellow Louisvillian Ellis when basketball star Wilt Chamberlain decided to back out of their scheduled fight. This would be the second and final fight that Ali did not have his trainer-manager Angelo Dundee in his corner.
Win - Technical Knockout in 12 rounds [Houston]
Ali Vs. Buster Mathis
Win - Unanimous Decision in 12 rounds [Houston]
Ali Vs. Jürgen Blin
Win - Knockout in 7 rounds [Zurich, Switzerland]
Ali Vs. Mac Foster
Ali walks into the ring with a ring card for round five, his forecast for a knockout of Foster. However, Foster proved tougher than Ali anticipated, with the fight going the full distance.
Win - Unanimous Decision in 15 rounds [Tokyo, Japan]
Ali Vs. George Chuvalo (II)
Win - Unanimous Decision in 12 rounds [Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada]
Ali Vs. Jerry Quarry (II)
Win - Technical Knockout in 7 rounds [Las Vegas]
Ali Vs. Alvin Lewis
Win - Technical Knockout in 11 rounds [Dublin, Ireland]
Ali Vs. Floyd Patterson (II)
Ali’s second fight with former champion Floyd Patterson marks the last of Patterson’s long career.
Win - Technical Knockout in 7 rounds [New York City]
Ali Vs. Bob Foster
The only fight in which Ali suffers a cut during the bout.
Win - Knockout in 8 rounds [Stateline, Nevada]
Ali Vs. Joe Bugner
Ali Vs. Ken Norton
With that previous win under the belt of his Elvis-style bedazzled robe, Ali wears it again to his first fight against Norton. Ali leaves with the second loss of his career and a broken jaw, and would never again wear his gift from The King into the ring.
Loss - Split Decision in 12 rounds [San Diego, California]
Ali Vs. Ken Norton (II)
Eager to redeem himself, a much more energetic Ali answers the bell in his rematch against Norton. Their fight once again comes down to a split decision, this time in Ali’s favor.
Win - Split Decision in 12 rounds [Inglewood, California]
Ali Vs. Rudie Lubbers
Between rounds, Ali leans through the ropes to answer questions posed ringside by sportswriter Reg Gutteridge, an interview assumed to be the only of its kind.
Win - Unanimous Decision in 12 rounds [Jakarta, Indonesia]
Ali Vs. Joe Frazier (II) – Super Fight II
Ali Vs. George Foreman – Rumble In The Jungle
Defeat Frazier? Check. Next? Reclaim the heavyweight title. Standing in the way is Foreman, the imposing favorite who puts down opponents early. Ali employs his “rope-a-dope” tactic: leaning on the ropes, Ali absorbs body blows until Foreman finally wears himself out.
Win - Knockout in 8 rounds [Kinshasa, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo)]
Ali Vs. Chuck Wepner
One of only four fights in which Muhammad Ali is knocked to the canvas.
Win - Technical Knockout in 15 rounds [Richfield, Ohio]
Ali Vs. Ron Lyle
Win - Technical Knockout in 11 rounds [Las Vegas]
Ali Vs. Joe Bugner (II)
Ali Vs. Joe Frazier (III) – Thrilla In Manila
Ali meets Frazier in the final installment of this storied boxing rivalry, and one of the most grueling but best displays of the sport. Both fighters faded fast toward the end, but it was Frazier’s corner who conceded in round 14.
Win - Technical Knockout in 14 rounds [Quezon City, Philippines]
Ali Vs. Jean-Pierre Coopman
Win - Knockout in 5 rounds [San Juan, Puerto Rico]
Ali Vs. Jimmy Young
Win - Unanimous Decision in 15 rounds [Landover, Maryland]
Ali vs. Richard Dunn
Ali knocks out the English boxer Dunn using his new “accupunch” learned from taekwondo Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee. It is Ali’s final knockout of an opponent.
Win - Technical Knockout in 5 rounds [Munich, West Germany]
Ali Vs. Ken Norton (III)
The third and final fight against Ken Norton ends with the champ keeping his title by unanimous decision in Yankee Stadium. Ali states he would never want to fight Norton again.
Win - Unanimous Decision in 15 rounds [New York City]
Ali Vs. Alfredo Evangelista
Win - Unanimous Decision in 15 rounds [Landover, Maryland]
Ali Vs. Earnie Shavers
In a tiring and mostly defensive fight, Ali is hurt in the early rounds but purposefully made Shavers think he was faking pain to avoid being knocked out. Ali would later state that Shavers had the hardest punch of any fighter he’d faced.
Win - Unanimous Decision in 15 rounds [New York City]
Ali Vs. Leon Spinks (I)
In what The Ring magazine would call the biggest upset of the year, Ali is defeated by Spinks on a split decision. In only his eighth bout as a professional boxer, Spinks is the first to take away Ali’s title in the ring.
Loss - Split Decision in 15 rounds [Las Vegas]
Ali Vs. Leon Spinks (II)
Ali’s self-appointed title of “The Greatest” is solidified in a Spinks rematch seven months later. The Superdome event has the then-highest attendance ever for an indoor bout. Ali takes the world heavyweight championship for a third time—a first in boxing history.
Win - Unanimous Decision in 15 rounds [New Orleans, Louisiana]
Announces Retirement From Boxing
Ali Vs. Larry Holmes
Despite protests from his cornermen and former sparmate Holmes himself, Ali enters Caesar’s Palace seeking a fourth championship. Unfortunately, he is in no shape to fight after taking thyroid medication to lose weight. Before round 11, trainer Angelo Dundee ends the fight.
Loss - Technical Knockout/Retired to Corner in 10 rounds [Paradise, Nevada]
Ali Vs. Trevor Berbick – Drama In Bahama
Not just
a boxer
a boxer