Muhammad Ali vs. Brian London
Muhammad Ali vs. Brian London was a professional boxing matching between Muhammad Ali and Brian London. The match took place at Earls Court Arena, London, England on August 6, 1966. It was scheduled for fifteen rounds. The match ended in the third round with Ali defeating London by KO.[1][2][3][4][5]
Date | August 6, 1966 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Venue | Earls Court Arena, London, England | |||||||||||||||||||||
Title(s) on the line | WBC, NYSAC, and The Ring heavyweight titles | |||||||||||||||||||||
Tale of the tape | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Result | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Ali won via 3rd round KO |
The fight
Ali at 24 years old put on a masterful performance against a clearly out-classed 32 year old opponent, with Ali having the advantages of height, weight, reach and youth on his side, almost hitting London at will as the fight went on. As London put it in an interview with the BBC: "he was just getting through all the time".
Ali bouncingly circled continually, whilst London tracked doggedly after him for the first two rounds seemingly with a strategy of trying to land a single knock-out punch to the American champion. London succeeded in landing only one blow in the match, a left jab to Ali's jaw midway through the 1st Round which caught Ali by surprise and left him for a moment stunned (and wide-open for a follow through right cross, which London failed to take advantage of), but the blow lacked weight and Ali was able to quickly recover.
On coming out for the 3rd Round London displayed a patent degree of hesitation to come forward to engage, and Ali sensing this advanced to the attack flashly, penning him back into a corner and throwing a 12-punch combination in 3 seconds in a showboating display of speed and athleticism, but with a suspicion of Ali holding back, with few of the blows actually connecting or possessing weight behind them, and the one blow that did (the 10th) being just enough to knock London down and end the fight.[6]
In a post-career media interview London described his contest with Ali in stark terms, describing Ali as being:-
"Big, fast and he could punch, whereas I was smaller, fatter and couldn't punch. He stopped me in three rounds and that was it, I don't think I hit him. It was good money and I got well paid for it - that's all I fought for. Every fight I ever had I always had a go, but with Muhammad Ali I thought don't get hurt Brian, and I therefore didn't try, which was wrong, totally wrong."[7]
References
- ^ "If Cassius Can't Punch, Then London Isn't Down". Sports Illustrated. 15 August 1966. Retrieved 7 October 2016.
- ^ Stephen Brunt (2002). Facing Ali. The Lyons Press. pp. 75–9.
- ^ "Brit boxer battered by Muhammad Ali says it was an 'honour' to have fought him". Mirror. 5 June 2016. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
- ^ "On This Day: Muhammad Ali annihilated Brian London". Boxing News. 6 August 2016. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
- ^ "Muhammad Ali's ring record". ESPN. 19 November 2003. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
- ^ 'Muhammad Ali vs Brian London full fight', published on Youtube 18 January 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWnt4Z2Z9N0
- ^ Interview with Brian London, 'When Ali Came to Britain' (2012), television documentary made by ITV Sport. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2256051/
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- Boxing at the 1960 Summer Olympics
- Clay vs. Hunsaker
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- Ali vs. Liston II
- Ali vs. Patterson
- Ali vs. Chuvalo
- Ali vs. Cooper II
- Ali vs. London
- Ali vs. Mildenberger
- Ali vs. Terrell
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Docu films and series |
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- Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962 film)
- I Am the Greatest (1963 album)
- The Super Fight (1970 film)
- "Black Superman (Muhammad Ali)" (1974 song)
- The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay (1976 album)
- The Greatest (1977 film)
- I Am the Greatest: The Adventures of Muhammad Ali (1977 animated series)
- Superman vs. Muhammad Ali (1978 comic book)
- Muhammad Ali Heavyweight Boxing (1992 video game)
- Foes of Ali (1995 video game)
- When We Were Kings (1996 film)
- King of the World (2000 TV film)
- Ali: An American Hero (2000 TV film)
- "Muhammad Ali" (2001 song)
- Ali (2001 film)
- "The World's Greatest" (2002 song)
- One Night in Miami (2013 play)
- Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight (2013 TV film)
- Approaching Ali (2013 opera)
- One Night in Miami... (2020 film)
associates
- Chuck Bodak (trainer, cutman)
- Angelo Dundee (cornerman)
- Drew Bundini Brown (trainer, cornerman)
- Ferdie Pacheco (personal physician, cornerman)
- Joe E. Martin (first trainer)
- Archie Moore (trainer)
- George Dillman (instructor)
- Jabir Herbert Muhammad (manager)
- Luis Sarria (trainer, cutman, masseur)
- Joe Frazier (opponent, friend)
- Richard Durham (autobiography co-writer)
- The Greatest: My Own Story (1975 autobiography)
- The Fight (1975)
- Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times (1991 biography)
- The Tao of Muhammad Ali (1997)
- King of the World (1998 biography)
- Facing Ali (2002)
- Muhammad Ali: The Glory Years (2002 biography)
- The Soul of a Butterfly (2004 autobiography)
- Twelve Rounds to Glory (2007 biography)
- Ali: A Life (2018 biography)
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