1960's SPECIAL REPORT: Muhammad Ali VS. Sonny Liston and The United States GOVERNMENT!!

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• published: 06 Jun 2016
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Cassius Clay, as he was then, was not so much a fighter for peace as a peaceable fighter who needed a reason to fight – and Vietnam was not that reason. He might have feared he could serve in Vietnam when registered 1-A for the draft in 1962, but thought little of it. He was, as Muhammad Ali, reclassified in 1964 as mentally unfit for duty when he failed an IQ test. But the Army lowered the bar and he was back in the mix two years later, now the heavyweight champion of the world and the very public face of the Nation of Islam. Boxing authorities stripped him of his title in 1967 on the day he was convicted in just 21 minutes for resisting the draft. Now unemployed, but supported by a growing list of celebrities, he entered a three-year legal battle to stay out of prison, and won his appeal when the supreme court overturned the decision 8-0 in June 1971. The gesture cost him an untold amount of money but consolidated his reputation as a man of principle, especially among younger war protesters. Did he really say any version of “I ain’t got no fight with no Vietnamese” or “Ain’t no Viet Cong called me nigger”? More than likely.t was the Nation of Islam, a group little known or understood at the time, who lurked in the background of Ali’s young life before he even turned professional after winning an Olympic gold medal in Rome in 1960. ut from the time Malcolm X began tutoring him in the teachings of Elijah Muhammad in 1962, he was a committed follower. He famously changed his name, first to Cassius X then Muhammad Ali, before he fought Sonny Liston for the world title in Miami in February, 1964, but the promoter, Bill McDonald, persuaded him to delay the announcement until after the fight. Soon after, Malcolm X was banished by the Nation, and assassinated in Harlem the following February. Did Ali know of the plot to kill his former friend? It has never been properly established. But they had certainly grown apart shortly after the all-American Olympic hero became a subtly controlled professional champion, and embarked on a new phase of his career. He was fiercely proud of his religion and his new identity. “What’s my name?” became the boxer’s calling card in those turbulent years, and many an opponent suffered for their refusal to accept him as Ali. Ali left the Nation of Islam in 1975, embracing Sunni Islam, and he retained his faith for the rest of his life. Clay/Ali certainly beat Sonny Liston on merit in their first fight. Whether or not the dethroned and ageing champion, notoriously a mob stooge, debt collector and ex-con, showed proper enthusiasm for getting up after Ali clipped him on the chin in the first round of their rematch in Lewiston, Maine, in 1965, is doubtful. Liston was quietly eased from the scene as an unwanted villain. Now Ali was moving towards his physical peak. His speed and unorthodoxy bamboozled every contender, from rock-chinned plodders such as George Chuvalo to more brittle-skinned hopefuls such as Henry Cooper and Brian London, who entertained him briefly on his European sojourns. Floyd Patterson suffered at his hands, as did more ambitious opponents, Ernie Terrell and Cleveland “Big Cat” Williams. These were the dazzling pre-banishment early years. We had seen nothing like it. Nor would we again. He did everything wrong, the experts said: he led with his right, he retreated in straight lines, he mugged for the crowd. He entertained in a business that takes itself very seriously. His performance against Williams might have been the most technically perfect of his career, but there would be nights when he would be dragged to the very edge of his commitment to the sport.…