Norman Giller - The Ali Files: His Fights, His Foes, His Fees, His Feats, His Fate

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2015

Pitch Publishing

A2 Yeoman Gate

Yeoman Waya

Durrington

BN13 3QZ

www.pitchpublishing.co.uk

Norman Giller, 2015

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A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library

Print ISBN 978 178531-014-0

eBook ISBN: 978-1-78531-080-5

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Remembering with love, respect and affection my old boxing pals and gurus Terry Lawless, Reg Gutteridge, George Whiting, Angelo Dundee, Terry Spinks, my Boxing News editor Tim Riley, stats wizard Ron Olver, promoter czars Jack Solomons and Harry Levene, master matchmaker Mickey Duff and the one and only Sir Henry Cooper.

And with thanks to Muhammad Ali for the memories. Simply The Greatest.

M UHAMMAD Ali did the fighting all on his own, but I could not have done the writing without a lot of help in my corner. I have named all the eyewitnesses in the book who willingly shared their observations on the greatest heavyweight fighter ever to climb into the ring, but there has been a lot of unheralded work in the background, particularly from Pitch Publishing pistons Paul Camillin and Jane Camillin, diligent editor Gareth Davis, jacket designer Duncan Olner, proof reader Dean Rockett, and lay-out master Graham Hales.

There are dozens of exceptional ringside reporters whose accounts of the Ali adventure have helped me put together the complete picture of his career, and I am indebted to my old Boxing News alma mater for factual checks and to BoxRec.com for its mindblowing online records collection. For our photographs, we bow the knee to the premier photographic agency, PA Photos. Most of all, thanks to my son, Michael Giller, who listened and learned when I was telling him all those bedtime stories of the great champions, and grew up to become a sports statistician who is a reliable safety net for all my facts and figures.

Oh yes, and thanks to Muhammad Ali. Simply The Greatest.

T HIS book is for all Aliphiles. It is more than 30 years since Muhammad Ali last threw a punch, yet he remains unquestionably the best-known sportsman of all time. There is a generation growing up who only know the legend of Ali, never saw him fight and yet are in awe of him and his fantastic fistic feats. Here in The Ali Files, I will give the facts behind the fable.

I was lucky enough to work as a publicist with Ali on some of his European fights, and got to know him as a friend as well as a fighter. In my corner to help me tell the story of The Greatest I have gathered many eyewitnesses of the Ali career opponents, referees, his trainers, sparring partners, celebrity fans and ringside reporters, who were there as observers of his astonishing adventures in and out of the ring.

As a reporter for the trade paper Boxing News in the late 1950s I was aware before most people outside the United States that in Louisville, Kentucky, the descendant of a slave Cassius Marcellus Clay was emerging as an exceptional amateur boxer. He won the gold medal in the 1960 Rome Olympics to launch a career that saw him transcend the world of boxing to become, arguably, the most famous and feted man on the planet and also with some, the most reviled of sportsmen.

The Muhammad Ali I got to know was a softly-spoken, modest gentleman, who became an actor of Olivier class if a microphone or camera came into range. He would switch to the public Ali, loudly, brashly selling seats and making life easy for headline-hunting, deadline-chasing newspapermen and interviewers. He was a born publicist, yet away from the camera was quiet and respectful, and with a mind hungry for knowledge.

Sadly, he got caught up in the poison of politics and what some would describe as the blind bigotry of religion. But, 50 years on from taking the world title from the big, bad bear Sonny Liston, Ali was a contented man as he battled ill health with the same bravery and resilience he used to show in the ring when he was justifiably known as, simply, The Greatest.

I have chosen Ali as the subject for the 99th book with which I have stupefied the great reading public because he is the most dynamic personality I have met in my 55-plus years scratching a living as a sportswriter. I have been lucky to have been in the company of many of the finest sports champions of post-war times, and Ali stands head and shoulders above them all as the most interesting and entertaining.

Millions of words have been written about the ringmaster but few books have given total concentration to each of his 61 professional contests. On the following pages I intend to give an accurate account of each of those fights that turned him into a sporting legend. And to give the book a fascinating twist I reveal what has happened to each of Alis opponents since they took on The Greatest. You will be surprised, often shocked, by some of the revelations.

In the 1990s I worked with leading television sports producer Neil Duncanson on a TV series commissioned by C4. It was called Crown of Thorns and was a history of world heavyweight champions, from John L. Sullivan through to the then title-holder Evander Holyfield. We had just got the Muhammad Ali interviews and data into our file when the series was cancelled following a death in the ring. The project survived only in book form. Now, as a special tribute to The Greatest, I can share with you the facts and figures we could not reveal to the viewers. Here, fight by fight, are The Ali Files.

Seconds outcome out writing.

Venue: Freedom Hall, Louisville

29 October 1960

Clay 192lb, Hunsaker 186lb

Clay WPTS6

(Clay purse: $2,000)

C ASSIUS MARCELLUS CLAY, grandson of a slave, was owned by a syndicate of 11 wealthy Kentucky businessmen when he climbed into the ring for his professional debut. Waiting in the opposite corner, experienced but limited Tunney Hunsaker, a 30-year-old journeyman who, away from boxing, was a West Virginian police chief.

Clay was covered in blood at the end of his first fight in the paid ranks his opponents blood. Outclassed Hunsaker, pounded for six one-sided rounds by the fleet-footed Cassius, was bleeding profusely from his nose and a cut over his left eye. The 6,180 spectators sensed they were in on the start of something special as their local hero showed off with quick combination punches that continually rocked Hunsaker back on his heels.

Judge Sid Baer scored the fight 30-24 in Clays favour, judge Walter Beck had it 30-23, and referee Paul Matchuny marked it as a runaway 30-19 for the Kentucky kid. At the suggestion of Clay, proceeds from the fight went to the local Kosair hospital for disabled children. Just 55 days earlier he had written his name into Olympic history by winning the gold medal in the light-heavyweight division in the Rome Games. They were the Olympics that Ali pleaded to miss!