THRILLA IN MANILA GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY 9 - MUHAMMAD ALI WINS WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 17 Jun 2025
By late 1963, Clay had become the top contender for Sonny Liston's world heavyweight title. Their title fight was scheduled on February 25, 1964, in Miami Beach, Florida. Liston had a terrifying character, a dominating fighter with a criminal record and had influences on the gang of crooks. Clay had a horrible performance against Doug Jones and Henry Cooper in his previous two fights, and Liston's demolition of former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson in two first-round knockouts, made Clay an 8-1 underdog. Despite being a dark horse, Clay teased Liston during the fight's publicity, calling him "the big ugly bear", asserting "Liston even smells like a bear" and "I'm gonna give him to the local zoo after I whup him."
The result of the fight was a major upset for the favorite champion. Right at the start of the opening round, Liston charged at Clay, visibly furious and aiming for an early knockout. However, Clay's masterful quickness and motion enabled him to evade from Liston's punches, causing the champion to miss a lot of blows. At the end of the first round, Clay sped up his offenses and targeted Liston frequently with jabs. Liston improved his style in the second round, but at the beginning of the third round Clay hit Liston with a combination that wobbled his knees and gashed under his left eye. This was the first time in his career that Liston had ever suffered from a cut.
At the end of round four, when Clay returned to his corner, he felt a blinding pain in his eyes and asked his trainer, Angelo Dundee, to cut off his gloves. However, Dundee refused and let him continue the fight. It was suspected that the cause was the cream used to close Liston's cuts, perhaps deliberately applied by his corner to his gloves. Boxing historian Bert Sugar alleged that two of Liston's opponents also complained about their eyes "burning" during their fight.
Liston made all out moves to knock out a blinded Clay, but Clay was able to survive the fifth round as his sweat and tears cleansed the annoyance from his eyes. In the sixth round, Clay recovered completely and dominated Liston landing blows on him continually. Liston did not answer the bell for the seventh round, and Clay was declared by the referee the winner by TKO. Liston later reasoned that the reason he quit was due to an injured shoulder. Right after the dramatic victory, a triumphant Clay raced to the corner of the ring and shouted at the ringside press: "Eat your words! I am the greatest! I shook up the world. I'm the prettiest thing that ever lived."
In his victory for this fight at the age of 22, Clay became the youngest boxer to win the title from a defending heavyweight champion. But it was Floyd Patterson who held the record as the youngest boxer to win the heavyweight championship at the age 21 during an elimination bout after Rocky Marciano's retirement. Mike Tyson broke both records in 1986 when he defeated Trevor Berbick to win the heavyweight title at the age of 20. Clay also became the fastest boxer to win the championship for a non-vacant title in the modern era, winning it in 20 bouts.
Right after the Liston fight, Clay changed his name to Cassius X, and then later to Muhammad Ali upon converting himself to the Nation of Islam. Ali agreed to a rematch with Liston scheduled for May 1965 in Lewiston, Maine. It was first scheduled in Boston in November the previous year, but was postponed for six months due to Ali's emergency hernia surgery three days before.
During fight controversy arose midway through the first round, Liston was knocked down by a "phantom punch". Referee Jersey Joe Walcott did not count immediately after the knockdown, because Ali refused to retreat to a neutral corner. Liston stood up after about 20 seconds, and the fight temporarily continued. However a few seconds later Walcott was informed by the timekeepers that Liston had been down for a count of 10, so he stopped the match and declared Ali the winner by knockout. The duration of the entire fight was less than two minutes.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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