?Courage is grace under pressure.? ? Ernest Hemmingway
The fight was like a dream for the young Cassius Clay who, at 22 years of age, dethroned a terrifying heavyweight champion in Sonny Liston, before legally changing his name to Muhammad Ali and forging a path to greatness.
Clay was a 6-to-1 underdog at the Miami Beach Convention Hall and only he, and his corner team, headed by Angelo Dundee, truly realized the talent that the 1960 Olympic light heavyweight champion possessed.
From the moment Clay entered the ring, splendiferous in white trunks with a red stripe and black waist band, he glowed with destiny. His idol, Sugar Ray Robinson, introduced to 8,297 paid fans, climbed through the ropes and approached the young upstart with a smile.
Clay grabbed the legendary warrior?s hand and bowed exaggeratedly three times. I?ve learned Ray ? now watch this.
In a dazzling exhibition of boxing Clay turned the feared, brooding, nightmarish Liston upside down. The champion swung from his home state of Arkansas, but Clay?s radar picked up the incoming bombs and guided him to safety.
Were Liston?s gloves ?juiced? during the fight, as has been alleged? We?ll never know but Clay fought an entire round, the fifth, without the benefit of eyesight, only to rediscover his vision and hammer out a sensational sixth-round corner retirement.
Over the years this upset has been hailed as one of the biggest in the sport, but on closer inspection one is struck by the amount of things the challenger had going for him. Younger, taller, faster but ? perhaps more importantly ? infinitely more active and battle hardened.
In the three years prior to this fight Liston had completed less than six professional rounds. A third-round knockout of journeyman Howard King was followed by first-round annihilations of Albert Westphal and Floyd Patterson (twice in title fights).
In sharp contrast Clay was extremely busy, taking part in over ?eighty rounds? of combat within the same time frame and, in hindsight, several of these encounters were crucial in terms of physical, mental and technical development.
Tom Gray looks back at five fights which were instrumental in creating the elite level contender who ?shook up the world?.
Cassius Clay TKO4 Sonny Banks ? Feb. 1962, Madison Square Garden, New York City
Popular Mississippi native Sonny Banks had 10 wins out of 12 and, like Clay, was in his second year as a professional. There were no distinguished names on his ledger but, somewhat ominously, he had flattened nine of his victims, four in the opening round.
The warning signs were out.
A little more than a minute into Round 1 Clay trapped his opponent in a neutral corner and released a patented two-fisted assault. Banks remained composed, avoided the worst of it, and countered with a solid left hook to the jaw, which dropped Clay in an eye blink.
It was the first time the former Olympic star had been down as a professional, and he was up before the count could be administered, by acclaimed referee Ruby Goldstein. How would Clay react? Would he retreat in the face of danger?
Within seconds the young prospect fired back with a multi-punch salvo, but Banks hung tough and swung for the lights. He jarred Clay with another solid left in the second, but this time the response ? a prolonged combination, punctuated by a crisp left uppercut ? decked Banks at ring center.
The third was worse as Clay found his man with sizzling combinations. A triple right hand snapped Banks? head back and a double left hook drove him across the ring. Clay was looking for the finish and there was no showboating or liberties. The young star was looking to hurt his opponent with immediate effect.
In the fourth Banks was reduced to throwing wild singles and when he tottered from a whipping left hook to the temple Goldstein elected to save him for another day. Clay had survived and Banks would forever be remembered as the first man to deck ?The Greatest.?
Following the Clay encounter Banks had 11 more fights, winning eight, before signing on to meet talented Arkansas product Leotis Martin, who is best known for a spectacular knockout of Liston, in the former champion?s penultimate fight.
Banks versus Martin took place at the Philadelphia Arena on May 10, 1965, and was evenly contested until Round 9, when Martin caught his man with a sharp right to the temple. Banks dissembled and his head struck the canvas violently.
The 24 year old was counted out and, in the moments following the fight, lapsed in and out of consciousness. He was taken to hospital where surgeons attempted to remove a blot clot from his brain, but efforts to save his life failed.
Banks passed away three days later. Leotis Martin, distraught with grief, had visited his bedside.
