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Muhammad Ali Biography >
Muhammad Ali vs Charlie Powell
Venue: Civic Arena, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 24th January, 1963.
Clay rolled into Pittsburgh
with all of his usual swagger, but he did not get things all
his own way. Having just beaten up and aged Archie Moore,
he arrived at the weigh-in for his next bout, with Charlie
Powell, to find himself facing a man bigger and more heavily
muscled than he was. Powelll was a fromer football player
who was not intimidated by the Louisville Lip in the slightest.
Charlie had also brought along his brother Art, whi was another
footballer, and whi was more than willing to trade words with
Clay.
Cassius was rattled. He put on
his vest the wrong way round and when Powell pointed this
out, Clay stomped for the exit, only to find the door of the
Janitor's closet.
It was a rare defeat outside
of the ropes, but any thoughts such silliness might undermine
Clay's confidence in the boxing ring were soon banished.
Despite the Pittsbugh winter,
17,000 came to watch Cassius Clay fight. The combination of
his skills and knack for self promotion had made him one of
the biggest draws in boxing.
Powell began the fight well enough,
catching Clay with a fine shot to the solar plexus, which
Clay swallowed before firing back. Powell based his strategy
on the assumption that he was strong enough to take a couple
of Clay's punches to land his own. But, just like Archie Moore,
he soon realised that Clay's power was deceptive.
The knockout arrived at the end
of round three, meaning that seven of the last eight fights
had ended exactly as Clay had predicted they would.
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