Muhammad Ali vs Donnie Fleeman

Venue: Miami Beach Auditorium, Florida. 21st February, 1961.

Clay was moving with increasing ease through the hoops Angelo Dundee and the Louisville sponsoring group were holding out. Yet the first real signpost to the size of his talent would come before he stepped through the ropes to dispose of Donnie fleeman. Ingemar Johansson had come to Florida to fight Floyd Patterson for the heavyweight championship of the world. The bout was a rematch: Johansson had destroyed Patterson in their first scrap.

There are conflicting tales as to how Cassius clay ended up sparring with, and humiliating, Johansson. Both involve the pressman for the Patterson vs Johansson, Harold Conrad. Conrad maintained that he asked Angelo Dundee if he knew of anyone willing to spar with Johansson. Other commentators thought Conrad had heard about clay before he approached Dundee, Whatever the truth, clay was soon yelling, “I’ll go dancing with Johansson” across the fifth street gym.

From the second the pair crossed the ring towards each other, the 19 year old clay was boss. He jabbed Johansson half to death and while he did so he taunted his man: “you shouldn’t be fighting patterson, I should…” it was an astonishing display against a boxer just weeks from fighting for the title. Johansson was made to look foolish as he swung at clay and missed, not just by inches but by feet. Gil rogin of sports illustrated said: “I’ve never seen anything like it before or since.” After two rounds of sparring, Johansson’s trainer Whitey Bimstein called the session to a halt.

Angelo Dundee had selected fleeman as clay’s fifth professional opponent because he was a teak-tough Texan who wouldn’t take a backward step. But fleeman, like Ingemar Johansson, couldn’t cope with clay’s speed. He plodded forward like a soldier into the guns and clay picked him off at will. The fight was over in seven rounds, mainly because clay decided that seven was enough.

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