Via Ken Hissner: “I Have A Dream” Speech by Pastor Martin Luther King, Jr. made him known all over the world. This Baptist preacher celebrated his birthday on January 15th!
The King of the Rings Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali celebrated his birthday on January 17. The former world champion has a sporting talent second to none. Many matches he called overtime. He calls himself “The Greatest!”
King’s anniversary is January 17, the same day as Ali’s birthday celebration.
King was a major spokesman for nonviolent activism within the Civil Rights Movement, which opposed racial segregation in federal and state law.
The campaign for a federal holiday to honor the King began shortly after his assassination in 1968. President Ronald Regan signed it into law in 1983, and it was first adopted in March. the following year.
At first, some states resisted observance of such a holiday, giving it an alternative name or combining it with other holidays. It was officially observed in all 50 states in 2000.
In Ali’s case, he’s into a sport anything but violent. At the Olympic competitions, he suffered a defeat in the heavyweight category. However, he was still able to compete in the light heavyweight division, winning the 1960 Olympics championship in Rome, Italy.
The gold medal heavyweight is Franco DiPiccoli, a track and field runner from the south of Italy. Ali, like most mainstream boxers, had problems with Southpaws like he did in his loss to Amos Johnson in the April 1959 Pan Am trial by split decision.
He also had trouble playing professionally against German EBU European champion Karl Mildenberger, winning in September 1966 in Frankfurt, Germany, taking 12 rounds to stop his opponent.
Mildenberger beat America’s Eddie Machen before. He ended his career with a score of 56-6-3.
Ali lost to Percy Price of New Jersey in the test, who went on to lose to Josef Nemec of the Czech Republic in the first round. The next Nemec will fight DiPiccoli and lose.
At the Olympics, Ali will stop two rounds behind Belgium’s Yvon Because. Next, he won a decisive 5-0 victory over Gennady Shatkov of Russia, who defeated Ray Cillien of Luxembourg. Shatkov was a 1956 Olympic Gold Medalist at the Australian Games.
Next, Ali will beat Tony Madigan of Australia with a score of 5-0. Ali had previously defeated Madigan at the Intercity Golden Glove Championships in Chicago, Illinois, in March 1959.
In the Olympic final, Ali defeated Zbigniew Pietrzykowski of Poland, who beat 4 opponents to reach the final. The one who would then compete in the 1964 Olympics in Japan, losing in the semi-finals. He will also appear when Ali is presented with the award on the TV show This is Your Life.
In October, Ali will beat professional Tunney Hunsaker, 17-9-1, at Freedom Hall, in Louisville, Kentucky, Ali’s hometown. Ali went on to score four saves in all in Florida before meeting LaMar Clark, 43-2 with 42 saves leaving Clark out for two innings in Louisville.
Ali will be next in the seventh fight and beat the first tenth round 6:06 Duke Sabedong, 15-11-1, in Las Vegas, Nevada. After three more wins, Ali would beat Sonny Banks 10-2 in the first round only to come back and stop Banks in the fourth round, at Madison Square Garden, New York.
Two more wins and Ali meets the previously undefeated Billy Daniels, 16-0, which cuts him off for seven rounds. Next, Ali knocked out Argentina’s Alejandro Lavorante 19-3 in five innings.
Next, Ali may have called a “makeup round” to face the light heavyweight champion for the first time and still hold the most knockouts of his career Archie “Old Mongoose” Moore, 185-22 -10, as predicted, “Moore in 4!”
Two games later, Ali had one of his tougher fights, beating Doug Jones, 21-3-1, over ten rounds 8-1 and 5-4 twice at New’s Madison Square Garden York. Ali will achieve success in his next fight against England’s Henry Cooper, 27-8-1, in the fourth round. Between rounds, Ali’s gloves were cut giving him more time to re-coup. In the fifth round, as expected, Ali stopped Cooper on the cut.
In Ali’s next bout in February 1964, about eight months later, he would win the title against world champion Sonny Liston, 35-1, stopping Liston, who was in the backseat six Round could not continue due to broken left arm- shoulder injury.
This writer once heard the crowd that influenced Liston put a baseball bat in that arm in the locker room. This was recently revealed by Jack Nilon’s son, Liston manager Terry Nilon, who said, “my dad was in the dressing room, and it never happened!” Ali will announce his name change after the battle, from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali becoming a Muslim.
In a rematch fifteen months later in Lewiston, Maine, in May 1965, Ali would stop Liston in the first round with what he called a ghost punch or anchor punch at 2:12 of the round. .
Former heavyweight champion “Jersey” Joe Walcott did a great job as referee as Liston rolled around the canvas, looking like a dummy as the punch Ali knocked him down, landed right on Liston’s chin. It seems like Ali’s trainer, an Angelo Dundee, may have named the punch and is one of the few who believe it has the power to stop Liston.
After in Ali’s next game he stopped former champion Floyd Patterson, 43-4, for twelve innings, Ali will head out of the country for the second time in Toronto, Canada. Ali won an inconclusive victory over Canadian iron puncher George Chuvalo with a score of 34-11-2. Next, Ali will return to the UK for his next two fights once again stopping Cooper and Brian London, 35-13.
Then came Germany, where Ali struggled to stop Germany’s Mildenberger, 49-2-3, for twelve innings. In the next game, possibly the most impressive of his career, his hand speed excelled in stopping Cleveland “Big Cat” Williams, 67-5-1, for three rounds at the Astrodome , in Houston, Texas.
Two more wins at the Astrodome against WBA champion Ernie Terrell, 39-4, covered the distance but damaged Terrell’s eye. Then came a perfect knockdown against Zora Folley, 74-7-4, in seven rounds at Madison Square Garden.
The rest is history after Ali lost his enlistment license for being inactive for about 43 months. He ended his career 56-5 with 37 saves, winning the world championship, a record three times.
