For Ali's 60th, The Guardian

January 18, 2002 2:29 PM

For Ali's 60th, The Guardian reprints Alistair Cooke's original account of the Clay-Liston title bout in 1964. "...quicksilver against concrete. Mercury v the Dragon, a live contemptuous picador planting the flags at will in the neck of a tottering old bull." Was the era that this fight ushered in the last hurrah for the sweet science?
posted by coudal (2 comments total)

They play the Clay-Liston fight pretty regularly on ESPN Classics and I never miss it. Watching Ali come out of the ring with barely a mark on him while Liston looks like he got beaten with a brick is simply amazing.

I honestly enjoy Heavyweight boxing and hope it someday comes back to it's previous glory. To much corruption (which I'm sure has always been prevalent, but never got as much publicity as it currently does), too few fighters who can be considered role models, and the current lack of anyone bound for greatness have killed the sport.

I say give it a few years. With all of the great FOP (and similar) programs getting kids interested in it, it'll hopefully make a comeback.
posted by ttrendel at 3:14 PM on January 18, 2002

I can't want until someone finds his star on the "walk of fame" and takes a piss on it.

What an asshole... made them put his star on the side of a building so people wouldn't walk on it... PLEASE!

of course, with almost 2,200 stars now, how much of an
honor is it really?
posted by BlitzK at 4:04 PM on January 18, 2002