Venue: Memorial Sports Arena, Los Angeles, California. 15th November, 1962.
Archie Moore took this fight
pure and simply because he needed the money. Clay saw ther
attraction of a name on his record. This was the typical up
and comer versus the faded legend. Clay had fought professionally
15 times, Moore over 200. Clay was 20 years of age and still
a minor; Moore was 47 and had been a professional boxer for
six years longer than Clay had been alive. They were two of
the best self promoters in the sport.
Clay opened up the pre fight
hype with the prediction of a fourth round win. Moore retorted
that, 'the only way I will fall in four is by toppling over
Clay's prostrate form. Even his contempories hope I beat the
socks off him.' Clay was not slow to respond by saying, 'I
wish people would get together and work out a pension for
him or something, or I'm going to have to do itonce and for
all.'
Clay finished up with a rhyme:
'Archie's been living off the fat of the land. I'm here to
give him his pension plan. When you come to the fight, don't
block the aisle or the door ..you will all go home after round
four.
The tournament of words as Archie
Moore called it, worked wel. A massive 16,200 tickets were
sold for the bout creating a record indoor gross for California
of $182,600. Clay was a 3-1 on favourite, but even those odds
seemed generous. In his prime Archie Moore had been Light
Heavyweight Champion, but now his girth was padded, his hair
was grey, his shorts were pulled up around his chest to hide
a multitude of sins.
When the fight began Clay was
initially respectful. On his guard for Archie's cunning but
after a few minutes he realised that the years had robbed
Moore of anything that might seriously trouble him. His Jab
landed home time and again. Moore replied just once when he
caught Clay with a right coming out of a clinch.
The KO came in round four, as
Clay had predicted. He dropped Moore with an uppercut and
a flurry of follow ups. The old man just beat the count but
one more punch was enough. Archie Moore was generous in defeat
predicting that the pretender might give Sonny Liston 'an
exceedingly interesting evening,' should he get to fight him.
Watch Muhammad Ali video from
the fight against Archie Moore:
