Muhammad Ali vs. Cleveland Williams | THERE IS NO BIG CATS |

Рет қаралды 7,648

3 жыл бұрын

Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (creativecommons.org/licenses/b...)
Date: 1966-11-14
Location: Astrodome, Houston, Texas, USA
Referee: Harry Kessler
On November 29, 1964, Williams was shot in the stomach during an altercation with a Texas highway patrolman. The bullet moved across his intestines and lodged against his right hip. That night, he underwent nearly six hours of surgery that involved removal of a small section of intestine. "I died three times on that operating table," Williams said. He underwent four operations over the next seven months for colon damage and an injured right kidney, which was removed in June 1965. Doctors did not take out the bullet, which had broken his right hip joint and caused partial paralysis of some hip muscles. Williams lost almost 60 pounds off his 220-pound frame, but he regained strength by tossing 80-pound hay bales on his manager's cattle ranch. He returned to the ring in February 1966 and won four consecutive fights before facing Ali.
The fight was shown on closed circuit television at 125 locations in the United States
The fight was seen, either directly or on delayed tape, in 46 foreign countries.
Tickets were priced from $5 to $100.
There were 35,460 fans at the Astrodome, which was the largest crowd ever to see an indoor boxing match at that time.
The gross gate was $461,290.
Ali got 50% of the live gate and 50% of the ancillary rights, including closed circuit TV and radio. Williams got 20% of the live gate and 14% of the ancillary rights. The remainder was divided among the Astrodome and the promoter.
Ali was a 5 to 1 favorite.
The Ali Shuffle was introduced during this fight.
According to CompuBox, Ali landed 62 percent of his power punches (46 of 74), while Williams landed only 10 punches in the whole fight.
Many consider this to be Ali's best performance. Broadcaster Howard Cosell told Ali biographer Thomas Hauser: "The greatest Ali ever was as a fighter was in Houston against Williams. That night, he was the most devastating fighter who ever lived."
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Пікірлер: 13

@clubberlang589 3 жыл бұрын

This Cleveland Williams has just been shot by a .357 slug at point blank range, two years prior to this title fight. He lost 3/4 small intestines, a kidney and 60lbs of body weight during the recovery process. Look at the physique of this man and look at pre and post shooting incident. Tell me what this man lost and what he had to regain. To me that incident and recovery process proves to me the heart of this warrior. RIP Cleveland “The Big Cat” Williams. A champion who is unfairly judged on this performance. I can tell you Ali fought different in this fight more so floating like a butterfly 🦋 because he feared this man and he took this performance seriously there was no clowning around. Look at how he reacts when he was cornered by The Big Cat.

@heavymeddle28 2 жыл бұрын

And not to mention that his own manager told him right before the fight that he'd sue Williams for the hospital bills. There was no big cat there anymore. Even Ali said that Williams was great to come back after all he's been through. Never bragged about that win

@clevelandwilliams5922 2 жыл бұрын

@@heavymeddle28 that’s correct he had respect for his opponent

@anthonytoler3916 9 ай бұрын

That may be true but he was scoring KO's before this fight, and that got him a tittle shot. And he went on scoring KO'S after this fight! Check Williams record. Williams piled up a career high of like 78 KO'S on his record. 24 year Old Ali just was'nt easy. He stopped Cleveland Williams and Sonny Liston who else stopped both of these KO Kings?. .the reality of it was Ali was at his best ever back in the mid 1960s.

@anthonytoler3916 9 ай бұрын

@@heavymeddle28 those are all excuses. And like but holes we all have them.but the fact of the matter is Ali was at his best back then and was'nt easy!! This was no coming back Muhammad Ali that nobody ever made excuse for him not being ready for Fraser in the first fight. If Fraser would have fought this version of Ali he would have lost the first fight like he lost the other two. This is what I see when I look at this fight! Big cat Cleveland Williams had knocked out 78 guys in his career. And had knocked out guys to get in this position to fight Ali and went on knocking guys out after this fight, the reality of it is Ali stopped Williams and Liston, both were KO Kings who else beat them both? So I give Alli the credit!!! He won!

@MajikBoxx 9 ай бұрын

@@anthonytoler3916 100% correct! Williams was only 33 when he fought Ali and fought on for another 6 or 7 years, stopping some opponents until he was 40 years old. He wasn't washed up when he fought Ali, just not as good as he had been prior to his amazing rehab and return to the ring. And just like Liston before him, 'Big Cat' Williams did not expect Ali to be bigger than him. Ali respected Williams but would have beaten a prime, pre-incident Williams too: maybe not as easily but, as Ali was a head-hunter and Williams was open to headshots - probably by stoppage. Williams was a beast in his prime but already had 5 losses (3 by KO) and 2 draws before being shot. In '66 Ali was bigger, taller and faster than Williams had ever been; Ali had a rock-solid chin, a huge heart and his unique heavyweight skill-set was at its best. He was approaching his prime and few commentators mention that Ali lost his boxing prime outside of the ring in exile and was never as outrageously good as he had been between 1964 and '67. It's rarely mentioned that he took on a prime, younger, active Frazier less than 5 months after that 3.5 year exile and with 2 tough return fights against top contenders, Quarry and Bonavena, shoe-horned into that 5-month period before Frazier I. Ridiculous! Ali had to get down from 240lb to about 210lb for the Quarry fight and was certainly still not ready for prime Joe Frazier in their first fight, but he needed the money and his ego really felt that he could already beat Joe after such a short prep. To be fair, if Ali had not run out of steam and tried to clown his way through those periods in the first fight when he was running out of gas, he might still have decisioned Frazier. Nevertheless, that post-prime Ali still almost ruined Smoking Joe physically in that fight and Joe was hospitalized on and off for several months afterwards. Ultimately, IMO, a prepared, prime Frazier does not beat a prepared, prime Ali.

@bobbyhulll8737 3 жыл бұрын

love the boos lol ...half the people love me half the people hate me but 100% of the people are paying to be here !

@uncjim 3 жыл бұрын

I love the preflight footage..no histrionics like today. The game was treated with respect back then. Now it’s a freaking clown show.

@SteamAllchill 3 жыл бұрын

Perfection

@anthonytoler3916 9 ай бұрын

Perfection is absolutely correct! Ali was the only guy to stop Cleveland Williams and Sonny Liston. There was over 100 KO'S between the two of those knockout Kings. And young Ali stopped them both! Not anybody could have accomplished that, so many got stopped at the hands of these two men and both were stopped at the hands of young Muhammad Ali the greatest of all times!

@abcsofboxing Жыл бұрын

title: there is no big cats lions: am i a joke to you!?

@michaelmooney7341 Жыл бұрын

He would have easily beaten alu before his accident .. Ali had problems with doug jones.

@MajikBoxx 9 ай бұрын

Disagree! Prime Williams was a beast against certain opposition but he had about 5 losses (3 by KO) and 2 draws before he was shot. Doug Jones was a very good, motivated, seasoned contender in his prime when he fought Clay (later Ali), and who prior to this fight had given Folley, Machen and Johnson problems before losing on points. He had also KO'd the renowned (if fading) Bobo Olson and legendary (upcoming) Bob Foster (at LHW) before rematching and stopping Folley at HW in his last fight before Clay. Clay, had only just turned 21 at the time, weighed about 201lb and - from his pre-fight boasts - clearly underestimated Jones (a former LHW), thus looked sloppy during that fight: focusing on fulfilling his KO-round prediction which, until that fight, had usually been correct so put added pressure on himself. He did eventually hurt a teak-tough Jones a few times before taking a very close decision but giving an opponent trouble doesn't necessarily mean a win. When Ali fought Williams in 1966 he was approaching his prime: just shy of turning 25. He was now almost 6'4" to Williams's 6'2", ten pounds heavier and faster than in the Jones fight. Ali was heavier and faster than Williams was that night or a prime Williams had ever been and Ali had genuinely beaten a ferocious Sonny Liston 3 years earlier - the same Liston who had stopped a free-punching, prime, but wide-open, Williams twice already. Yes, 'styles-make-fights' to a degree but prime Ali (pre-exile) would have beaten a prime Williams IMO, just not as easily as on that night. He would also have beaten Jones more easily. Ali's career showed that on top of his unique HW skill set, he had a great chin and heart (both pre and post-exile): withstanding and usually beating heavy-hitters like Jones, Liston (1), Cooper, Chuvalo, Folley, Quarry, Bonavena, Frazier, Norton, Foreman, Lyle, Shavers and co. This suggests that if Williams had been in his prime in 1966, he would have had to withstand a lot of headshots from Ali (which Williams was susceptible to at the highest levels and 'head-hunter' Ali specialized in) and outpoint Ali to beat him. I'm sure we can agree that the latter achievement would have never happened.