Muhammad Ali vs Tony Esperti

Venue: Miami Beach Auditorium, Florida 17th January, 1961.

Angelo Dundee understood instinctively how to handle the headstrong Cassius Clay. Without ego himself, Dundee had an array of psychological tricks to gee clay up. He avoided ever telling Cassius what to do: instead he made suggestions. “He never bosses me, tells me when to run, how much to box,” clay said. “I do what I want to do. I’m free.”

Clay vs Esperti

Angelo Dundee realised that he didn’t have to encourage clay to train. The fighter would begin the day at 5am with a run, before running from his digs to Dundee’s gym through a rough part of the city later in the day. Dundee applied a maxim given to him by a trainer called Charlie Goldman: “If a guy’s a short guy, make him taller….” Dundee extended it to allow for clay’s genius. He let the fighter be himself, going against conventional wisdom that a boxer should punch to the body, wear his opponent down. Clay was a head-hunter: “Punch a man’s head and it mixes his mind, ” he told Angelo Dundee.

Cassius Clay’s physical presence was increasing. He used callisthenics, worked on the heavy bag, sparring and running to put on more than a stone of muscle in just a few months. The youth was becoming a man. His speed hid a growing power.

Back at Miami beach just three weeks after fighting Herb Siler. Cassius Clay marked his improvements with a third-round knockout of Tony Esperti. Even Dundee was impressed: “No one is faster than Cassius,” he said.

The Fight took place on Cassius Clay's Nineteenth Birthday.

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