Venue: Las Vegas Convention Center, Nevada. 26th June, 1961.
The fights came thick and fast
for Louisville’s rising star. Now, for the first time
he fought in Las Vegas, boxing’s new Mecca, against
Sabedong, a giant Hawaiian who would cause him some concern.
Ultimately clay would come through easily enough. However,
a far more more significant meeting came a couple of days
before he would undergo the experience of having Sabedong
whack him below the belt in an attempt to provoke an upset.
As part of his promotional duties, clay appeared on a Las
Vegas radio programme. Another guest on the show was a wrestler
called gorgeous George. A flamboyant character known as liberace
in tights, George was a showman : he wore hair curlers into
the ring and would allow a minion to comb them out before
the fight began; he instructed another to daub him with aftershave
and then to spray insecticide on to the mat. And when talking
up a fight, he would work himself into a frenzy over his opponent:
“if this bum beats me, I’ll crawl down Las Vegas
boulevard on my hands and knees. But it won’t happen.
I’ll tear his arm off. For I am the greatest wrestler
in the world! ”
Young clay, no shrinking violet himself, was entranced by
George’s style and became even more so when he heard
that George’s bouts were always sold out. He went to
gorgeous George’s show as the wrestler’s guest.
“I saw 15,000 people coming to see this man get beat,”
he said, “and his talking did it.”
Duke Sabedong was big, strong and unlikely to be fazed by
clay’s lip. He started fighting dirty and he used his
experience to give clay a tough test. The younger fighter
was in no danger of losing; Sabedong lacked the speed and
skill truly to trouble him, but it was all useful experience
nonetheless.
The Louisville lip learned he wouldn’t always have
everything his own way, but in his usual fashion shrugged
off his difficulty – he blamed his sluggish showing
on Dundee’s decision to fly them to Las Vegas rather
than take the train.
