10 Reasons Why Muhammad Ali Really Was The Greatest

Sonny Liston was to the sixties what Mike Tyson was to the eighties.

Awesome, heavy handed, his youth marred by criminal activity and incarceration, Liston was taciturn and terrifying. He removed Floyd Patterson from his senses and his position as heavyweight champion of the world in one round in 1962, and again demolished Patterson inside a round in a rematch the following year.

Come 1964, it was the turn of the loudmouth, the upstart. Clay had long boasted that he would whup Liston, and the clamour only increased when the fight was signed. Clay’s trademark poetry was in full effect as he took to the streets in a bus emblazoned with his eighth-round prediction, even driving to Liston’s home in the middle of the night to taunt “the big ugly bear”.

The journalists weren’t in complete agreement over how the fight would end; several had Liston a knockout winner in the first round, while others generously predicted Clay would survive two rounds, three or four even, before being dispatched.

And on fight night in Miami, Clay made fools of everyone – not least Sonny Liston, who was battered, befuddled and bypassed by his fleet-footed, quick-fire tormentor. Liston failed to answer the bell for the seventh round, citing a shoulder injury.

After the fight, Clay was the first to announce he “shook up the world”. And not for the last time.