Alonso Johnson ducks away from Muhammad Ali, during exhibition bouts at the London Hilton, October 11, 1971
“WHAT’S wrong with me going to jail for something I believe in? Boys are dying in Vietnam for something they don’t believe.”
This defiant statement, made during an interview with “The Black Scholar” magazine in June 1970, encapsulates the greatness of Muhammad Ali more than any performance in the ring ever did before or would thereafter.
Surveying the arid topography of today’s boxing landscape, you cannot but be struck — when you compare and contrast — by the lack of any current elite level fighter who enters the ring in the name of anything more than self and personal wealth. And, after all, it’s not as if today there aren’t causes to be fought and fought for.
When Patterson and Liston met in the ring in 1962, it was more than a title bout — it was a collision of two black archetypes shaped by white America’s fears and fantasies, writes JOHN WIGHT
JOHN WIGHT tells the riveting story of one of the most controversial fights in the history of boxing and how, ultimately, Ali and Liston were controlled by others
JOHN WIGHT previews the much-anticipated bout between Benn and Eubank Jnr where — unlike the fights between their fathers — spectacle has reigned over substance