Muhammad Ali vs. Cleveland Williams

Date

November 14, 1966

Venue

Astrodome
Houston, Texas

Title(s) on the line

WBC, NYSAC, and The Ring heavyweight titles

Tale of the tape

Boxer	Muhammad Ali	Cleveland Williams
Nickname	The Greatest	Big Cat
Hometown	Louisville, Kentucky	Griffin, Georgia
Pre-fight record	26-0-0	65-5-1
Height	6 ft 3 in (191cm)	6 ft 2 in (188cm)
Weight	212+3⁄4 lb (97 kg)^[1]	210+1⁄2 lb (95 kg)^[1]
Recognition	WBC, NYSAC, and The Ring heavyweight champion	None

Result

Ali won via 3rd round TKO

Boxing competition

Muhammad Ali and Cleveland Williams fought each other in a boxing match at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas on November 14, 1966. Ali won the bout through a technical knockout in the third round. Many experts and boxers, including Mike Tyson, regard Ali's performance in this fight to be the finest of his boxing career. This was also the fight in which Ali made famous the move he called the "Ali shuffle".^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]

Background

On the evening of November 29, 1964, 2 years before the fight, Williams was shot in the stomach by a highway patrolman, for supposedly resisting arrest. The .357 magnum bullet moved across his intestines and lodged in his right hip, doing immense damage to his colon and right kidney. He underwent four operations over the next 7 months which resulted in the eventual removal of his right kidney and a loss of 60 pounds, which he later recovered by doing weight-lifting. Williams later said that "I died three times on that operating table." The bullet left vestigial damage: a partial paralysis of some hip muscles and a severely weakened right hip joint. Despite this incident, Williams returned to the ring in 1966 and won four consecutive fights before facing Ali.^[6]

In heavy contrast to Williams, Ali came into this fight in peak physical shape. He successfully defended his WBC, NYSAC and The Ring heavyweight titles against Karl Mildenberger of Germany on September 10, 1966, after also beating 5 heavyweight contenders, including Henry Cooper, Floyd Patterson and Sonny Liston, in the years prior. By the time of the Williams fight, Ali had great success with his "stick and move" style: employing a strong left jab, to whittle down his opponents, and a low guard, allowing him to anticipate and dodge incoming punches. Ali's 2-year dominance in the heavyweight division made him a 5 to 1 favorite going into this fight.

References

^ ^a ^b Kirkby, Evans (February 25, 1964). "Howling Ali fined $2,500 for his antics at weigh-in". Milwaukee Journal. p. 11.
^ Thomas Hauser (1991). Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times. Simon & Schuster. pp. 158–61.
^ Felix Dennis; Don Atyeo (2003). Muhammad Ali: The Glory Years. miramax books. p. 150.
^ "YOU WATCH OUT, ALI!". Sports Illustrated. 14 November 1966. Retrieved 6 October 2016.
^ "Greatest Knockouts: Ali vs. Williams". ESPN. 28 September 2006. Retrieved 6 October 2016.
^ "Muhammad Ali vs. Cleveland Williams". BoxRec. Retrieved 30 January 2021.

Muhammad Ali

Fights

Media

Docu films and series	Whicker's World (1967 episode) a.k.a. Cassius Clay (1970) Facing Ali (2009) When Ali Came to Ireland (2012) The Trials of Muhammad Ali (2013) I Am Ali (2014) Icons: The Greatest Person of the 20th Century (2019 episode) What's My Name: Muhammad Ali (2019) Blood Brothers: Malcolm X & Muhammad Ali (2021) Muhammad Ali (2021 series)