THRILLA IN MANILA GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY 7 - AMATEUR BOXING CAREER OF MUHAMMAD ALI
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 06 Jun 2025
Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. He was named after his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr., who himself was named after the 19th-century Republican politician and dedicated abolitionist Cassius Marcellus Clay.
Clay was first introduced to boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old boy who was mad over a thief who stole his bicycle. Clay told the officer he was going to punish the thief. The officer advised Clay to learn boxing.
At first, Clay was not fascinated by Martin's proposal, but after viewing amateur boxers fighting on a local television boxing program called Tomorrow's Champions, Clay became interested in the plan of fighting. He began practicing under trainer Fred Stoner, whom he admired to be honing "my style, my stamina and my system".
Clay made his amateur boxing debut in 1954 against local amateur boxer Ronnie O'Keefe where Clay won by split decision. He later won six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two Chicago Golden Gloves, two national Golden Gloves titles, two Amateur Athletic Union national titles, the U.S. Olympic Trials, and the light heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy. Clay's amateur boxing record was 100 wins with five losses.
In his 1975 autobiography he recalled that shortly after his return from the Rome Olympics, he threw his gold medal to the Ohio River after he and a friend were not served at a "whites-only" restaurant and rumbled with a white gang.
The story was later disagreed by several of his friends, including Bundini Brown and photographer Howard Bingham, who denied it. Brown told Sports Illustrated writer Mark Kram. Thomas Hauser's biography of Ali stated that Ali was refused service at the restaurant but that he lost his Olympic medal a year after he won it. Ali received a replacement medal during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia where he lit the Olympic flame during the opening of the Summer Games.
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