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The Greatest, Part 1

With a quick jab and even quicker gab, Muhammad Ali was a force to reckon with in the ring. Some of America's best sports writing has been devoted to the boxer, who's seen here in 1963.
Kent Gavin/Getty Images

With a quick jab and even quicker gab, Muhammad Ali was a force to reckon with in the ring. Some of America's best sports writing has been devoted to the boxer, who's seen here in 1963.

The Thrilla in Manila. The Rumble in the Jungle. The Fight of the Century. Those are the boxing matches for which Muhammad Ali probably will be best remembered. Still others will think of him as a transcendent historic figure—renouncing what he called his slave name, his conversion to Islam, his resistance to the draft during Vietnam, and simply what he represented. For us in Las Vegas, he meant all of that, and more.

In his book The Main Event: Boxing in Nevada from the Mining Camps to the Las Vegas Strip, historian Richard Davies wrote, “One person, above all, provided the spark needed to enable Las Vegas to become recognized as the new capital of boxing. During a professional career that spanned two decades, Muhammad Ali fought in Las Vegas just eight times, but his electric personality had the ability to turn a prizefight into a red-letter event. Although many of his most famous championship battles occurred elsewhere it was in Las Vegas that his star seemed to shine the brightest.”

Let’s start with his first fight here, his seventh as a professional, when he was still Cassius Clay and he had won the heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Rome Olympics only a year before. On June 26, 1961, he won a ten-round decision over Hawaiian Kolu “Duke” Sabedong. It wasn’t easy—Duke was about six-six, threw a low blow or two, and at one point head-butted him. But the winner made an impression. One local sportswriter called him “the most promising and refreshing young heavyweight to come along since Joe Louis” and compared his footwork with that of Fred Astaire.

More importantly, a legend was born. If you know your Nevada history, you’ll recall that in Virginia City, a young Missourian named Samuel Clemens became Mark Twain. While in Las Vegas, Cassius Clay appeared on a radio show with legendary wrestler Gorgeous George. The host asked the wrestler, by then in his forties, what would happen when he fought the next night at the Convention Center. George said, “If this bum beats me, I’ll crawl across the ring and cut off my hair, but it’s not gonna happen because I’m the greatest wrestler in the world.” The nineteen-year-old boxer thought to himself, “Man, I want to see this fight. It don’t matter who wins or loses. I want to be there to see what happens.” Clay went to the match, which included Gorgeous George wearing a red velvet gown with white satin. Later he told the young boxer, “It’s all a show. A lot of people will pay to see someone shut your mouth. So keep on bragging, keep on sassing, and always be outrageous.” After winning his fight at the Convention Center, Clay held a post-fight press conference and declared himself to be, yes, the greatest. He later said, “I saw 15,000 people coming to see this man get beat. And his talking did it. I said, this is a goooood idea!”

As if to prove his point, his next appearance in Las Vegas wasn’t even in his own fight. In July 1963, Sonny Liston knocked out Floyd Patterson in the first round. Clay sat at ringside and taunted Liston before and during the fight. When it ended, Clay jumped into the ring as if he wanted to fight Liston right then. He didn’t, but he got attention. We’ll pay some more attention to him next time.

Nevada Yesterdays is written by Associate Professor Michael Green of UNLV, and narrated by former Senator Richard Bryan. Supported by Nevada Humanities