‘I’m still pretty’ – Muhammad Ali’s 1964 fight with Sonny Liston

In February 1964, shortly before taking his new name, Muhammad Ali defeated Sonny Liston to become boxing’s heavyweight champion. From our archive, here is Murray Kempton’s piece on the fight.

Miami, Florida

There was this moment, just before the bell for the seventh round for the heavyweight championship of the world when Cassius Clay got up to go about his job. Then suddenly he thrust his arms straight up in the air in the signal boxers use to greet victory, and we laughed at his arrogance. No man resigned to the laws of organised society who had seen Cassius Clay that morning could have believed that he would be on his feet three minutes that night. He was the loud kid in the bar and Sonny Liston was the bouncer we pay to throw loud kids out of bars. And yet he was still in the bar, and he had given the bouncer a job of work and that was enough to give him the right to taunt us all.