Ali was a funny guy!

[butterfly1964]

this picture is a scream also.



i bet he's thinking, is this real or not!

[Imira]

I laughed when he took the trophy back to his corner in his third fight with Frazier before the fight even started.

Or this one:

Cosell: You're extremely truculent

Ali: I don't know what truculent means, but if it's good, I'm it.

[Skydog]

Don't think that Ali got under Liston's skin that bad, Clay was terrified before he fought Liston. Read this:

While everyone obsessed over Liston’s size and strength, Clay went to work on his head. He began a sustained and audacious campaign of intimidation. He nicknamed Liston big ugly bear, he was pictured with Angelo Dundee and Bundini brown reading a book entitled psychological warfare. He showed up at the gym when Liston was sparring and yelled at him. Liston began to question Clays mental state. Before sonny’s second fight with Floyd Patterson, Clay stepped up his campaign. He travelled to Las Vegas with Angelo Dundee and found Liston in a casino shooting craps. There are varying accounts of the exchange that followed- one even has Clay shooting a water piston at Liston – but they agree on the result. The exchange the pair had backfired on Clay. Sonny Liston scared the hell out of him.

Liston was loosing at the crap tables. As he rolled the dice, Clay appeared, yelling, “look at the big ugly bear, he cant even shoot craps. He cant do nothing right.”

Liston was angry. He threw down the dice and walked up to Clay, “listen, you ****** ******,” he said, “if you don’t get out of here in 10 seconds, I’m going to pull that big tongue out of your mouth and stick it up your ass.”

Later, Liston saw Clay on the casino floor again. He walked up to him and slapped his face.
“What was that for?” Clay asked.
“Cause you’re so ****ing fresh….”

Liston said to his friend jack McKinney, “I got the punk’s heart now.”

In his interview with playboy, Clay admitted it was true. Liston had frightened him. “I ain’t gonna lie. That was the first time since I known sonny Liston that he scared me. I just felt the power and the meanness of the man I was messing with.”

It was a miscalculation on Clays part. He had picked the wrong battleground. Liston was from the streets, Clay was not. Intimidating people in casinos came easily to a man like sonny. By contrast, Clay was an athlete. His natural arena was the ring. But he had achieved something; nonetheless, because Liston was becoming convinced Clay was crazy. After all, who, other than a lunatic would treat Sonny Liston in such a way?

Clay wasn’t finished yet, however. He drove his bus to Liston’s house in the middle of the night and had Howard Bingham get out and ring the doorbell. When Liston arrived at Miami airport to begin his final preparations for the fight, Clay goaded him into throwing a punch (“he missed by a country mile,” Clay crowed). He then took a bus full of screaming girls to Liston’s training HQ at the surfside community centre. And finally, when the big day finally came, he really freaked Liston out.

At the morning weigh in, Clay arrived first and went through his usual routine, coming up with the inspired rhyme “when the crowd laid down their money/they didn’t dream they’d see a total eclipse of sonny…” and making a prediction: “round eight/to prove I’m great!”

When Liston showed up, though, clay went berserk. He screamed at sonny – “you chump, you ugly bear, I’m gonna whip you! ” He became manic. His heart rate was measured at 110 beats per minute up from its usual 54. The fight doctor, Alexander Robbins, proclaimed that Clay was “emotionally unbalanced, scared to death and liable to crack up before he enters the ring.”

[habZ]

Don't think that Ali got under Liston's skin that bad, Clay was terrified before he fought Liston. Read this:

While everyone obsessed over Liston’s size and strength, Clay went to work on his head. He began a sustained and audacious campaign of intimidation. He nicknamed Liston big ugly bear, he was pictured with Angelo Dundee and Bundini brown reading a book entitled psychological warfare. He showed up at the gym when Liston was sparring and yelled at him. Liston began to question Clays mental state. Before sonny’s second fight with Floyd Patterson, Clay stepped up his campaign. He travelled to Las Vegas with Angelo Dundee and found Liston in a casino shooting craps. There are varying accounts of the exchange that followed- one even has Clay shooting a water piston at Liston – but they agree on the result. The exchange the pair had backfired on Clay. Sonny Liston scared the hell out of him.

Liston was loosing at the crap tables. As he rolled the dice, Clay appeared, yelling, “look at the big ugly bear, he cant even shoot craps. He cant do nothing right.”

Liston was angry. He threw down the dice and walked up to Clay, “listen, you ****** ******,” he said, “if you don’t get out of here in 10 seconds, I’m going to pull that big tongue out of your mouth and stick it up your ass.”

Later, Liston saw Clay on the casino floor again. He walked up to him and slapped his face.
“What was that for?” Clay asked.
“Cause you’re so ****ing fresh….”

Liston said to his friend jack McKinney, “I got the punk’s heart now.”

In his interview with playboy, Clay admitted it was true. Liston had frightened him. “I ain’t gonna lie. That was the first time since I known sonny Liston that he scared me. I just felt the power and the meanness of the man I was messing with.”

It was a miscalculation on Clays part. He had picked the wrong battleground. Liston was from the streets, Clay was not. Intimidating people in casinos came easily to a man like sonny. By contrast, Clay was an athlete. His natural arena was the ring. But he had achieved something; nonetheless, because Liston was becoming convinced Clay was crazy. After all, who, other than a lunatic would treat Sonny Liston in such a way?

Clay wasn’t finished yet, however. He drove his bus to Liston’s house in the middle of the night and had Howard Bingham get out and ring the doorbell. When Liston arrived at Miami airport to begin his final preparations for the fight, Clay goaded him into throwing a punch (“he missed by a country mile,” Clay crowed). He then took a bus full of screaming girls to Liston’s training HQ at the surfside community centre. And finally, when the big day finally came, he really freaked Liston out.

At the morning weigh in, Clay arrived first and went through his usual routine, coming up with the inspired rhyme “when the crowd laid down their money/they didn’t dream they’d see a total eclipse of sonny…” and making a prediction: “round eight/to prove I’m great!”

When Liston showed up, though, clay went berserk. He screamed at sonny – “you chump, you ugly bear, I’m gonna whip you! ” He became manic. His heart rate was measured at 110 beats per minute up from its usual 54. The fight doctor, Alexander Robbins, proclaimed that Clay was “emotionally unbalanced, scared to death and liable to crack up before he enters the ring.”

hahaha thats class man, how come they never mention the good stuff on tv...proves tv is ****, BRING BACK THE WRITERS!!!

[butterfly1964]

hahaha thats class man, how come they never mention the good stuff on tv...proves tv is ****, BRING BACK THE WRITERS!!!

tv is aaaight.

[QueensburyRules]

This picture tells it all!!!!

Clay/Ali definitely got under Liston's skin! That was part of his successful strategy! Just look at Liston's face. He wanted to kill him right then and there!

FYI: I still question the outcomes of their fights! Especially the way they ended! I just thought this picture was hysterical!!!

- -Sadly your pic did not withstand the test of time with my set up, but nonetheless in spite of overflowing natural talent, perhaps his greatest gift was a magical quality that could never be quite understood by the stuffy media, fighters and fans of the day.

[The Old LefHook]

Never thought that much of most Clay quotes. He has a few decent ones. Both Liston and Louis were wittier IMO.

[Anthony342]

Turned out the result of the first fight was Round 6 before the second fight was fixed. As Dice Clay would say "I'm a poet and didn't know it. OH!

[QueensburyRules]

- -If U was shocked when Nixon resigned, wait until I whip Foremans behind!

[Anthony342]

Funny how? What, was he a clown, there to amuse you?