Muhammad Ali was never short of options when asked to name the toughest opponent he ever faced.
The career of “The Greatest” is filled with historic moments, edge-of-the-seat drama and a litany of fighters eager to knock his ego down a notch. Across 21 years and 61 fights, he travelled the world taking on all-comers, including Joe Frazier, George Foreman and Ken Norton.
But in an interview with The Ring magazine for their ‘Best I Faced’ series, Ali revealed the man he considered the toughest — a fighter who today would be dubbed “the baddest man on the planet” – Sonny Liston.
“The toughest would be my fight with Sonny Liston, when I won the title in 1964.
I was young and a great admirer of Liston’s talent. He could do just about everything except dance.
Liston had a tremendous jab, could punch with either hand, was smart in the ring and as strong as any heavyweight I’d ever seen…
I still respect him as one of the truly great heavyweights of all time.”
Ali, known as Cassius Clay at the time, did everything he could verbally to undermine Liston in the build-up.
“He was ugly, too. In and out of the ring. Being a big (8-1) underdog and acting crazy at the weigh-in made everybody think I was scared half to death.”
In the ring, however, Ali proved otherwise. Liston was no match for the challenger’s superior skills. But late in the fourth round and into the fifth, Ali complained that his eyes were burning, blaming irritation from something on Liston’s gloves.
At the end of the sixth, Liston failed to come out for the next round, retiring on his stool and crowning Ali as the new heavyweight champion. A year later they would meet again. Ali would once again prevail but further controversy surrounded the rematch courtesy because of the “phantom punch”.
