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Pitch Publishing Ltd - Norman Giller

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166 pages

English

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This book is for all Ali fans. It's more than thirty years since Muhammad Ali last threw a punch, yet he remains unquestionably the best-known sportsman of all time. A whole generation now only know the legend of The Greatest, never saw him fight, and yet are in awe of the man and his fantastic fistic feats. The Ali Files gives the facts behind the fable. Author Norman Giller became friends with Ali when he worked as his European publicist, and he has gathered many other intimate eyewitnesses - opponents, referees, trainers, sparring partners, celebrity fans and ringside reporters - to Ali's astonishing adventures in and out of the ring. Millions of words have been written about ringmaster Ali, but few books have concentrated on the 61 professional contests that turned him into a sporting legend. The Ali Files will give you a ringside seat to the greatest boxing career of all time.

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Boxing

Xian de Boxing

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Publié par	Pitch Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	01 avril 2015
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781785310805
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2015
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Waya
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Norman Giller, 2015
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 978 178531-014-0
eBook ISBN: 978-1-78531-080-5
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Contents
Author s Acknowledgements
Seconds Out: Norman Giller
1 Tunney Hunsaker WPTS6
2 Herb Siler WRSF4
3 Tony Esperti WRSF3
4 Jim Robinson WKO1
5 Donnie Fleeman WRET6
6 LaMar Clark WKO2
7 Duke Sabedong WPTS10
8 Alonzo Johnson WPTS10
9 Alex Miteff WRSF6
10 Willi Besmanoff WRSF7
11 Sonny Banks WRSF4
12 Don Warner WRSF4
13 George Logan WRSF4
14 Billy Daniels WRSF7
15 Alejandro Lavorante WRSF5
16 Archie Moore WRSF4
17 Charlie Powell WKO3
18 Doug Jones WPTS10
19 Henry Cooper WRSF5
20 Sonny Liston WRET7
21 Sonny Liston WKO1
22 Floyd Patterson WRSF12
23 George Chuvalo WPTS15
24 Henry Cooper WRSF6
25 Brian London WKO3
26 Karl Mildenberger WRSF12
27 Cleveland Williams WRSF3
28 Ernie Terrell WPTS15
29 Zora Folley WKO7
30 Jerry Quarry WRSF3
31 Oscar Bonavena WRSF15
32 Joe Frazier LPTS15
33 Jimmy Ellis WRSF12
34 Buster Mathis WPTS12
35 Jurgen Blin WKO7
36 Mac Foster WPTS15
37 George Chuvalo WPTS12
38 Jerry Quarry WRSF7
39 Alvin Blue Lewis WRSF11
40 Floyd Patterson WRSF7
41 Bob Foster WKO8
42 Joe Bugner WPTS12
43 Ken Norton LPTS12
44 Ken Norton WPTS12
45 Rudi Lubbers WPTS12
46 Joe Frazier WPTS12
47 George Foreman WKO8
48 Chuck Wepner WRSF15
49 Ron Lyle WRSF11
50 Joe Bugner WPTS15
51 Joe Frazier WRTD14
52 Jean-Pierre Coopman WKO5
53 Jimmy Young WPTS15
54 Richard Dunn WRSF5
55 Ken Norton WPTS15
56 Alfredo Evangelista WPTS15
57 Earnie Shavers WPTS15
58 Leon Spinks LPTS15
59 Leon Spinks WPTS15
60 Larry Holmes LRET10
61 Trevor Berbick LPTS10
Ali Facts
The Final Round
Previous books by Norman Giller
About the Author
Photographs
Dedication
Remembering with love, respect and affection my old boxing pals and gurus Terry Lawless, Reg Gutteridge, George Whiting, Angelo Dundee, Terry Spinks, my Boxing News editor Tim Riley, stats wizard Ron Olver, promoter czars Jack Solomons and Harry Levene, master matchmaker Mickey Duff and the one and only Sir Henry Cooper.
And with thanks to Muhammad Ali for the memories. Simply The Greatest.
Author s Acknowledgements
M UHAMMAD Ali did the fighting all on his own, but I could not have done the writing without a lot of help in my corner. I have named all the eyewitnesses in the book who willingly shared their observations on the greatest heavyweight fighter ever to climb into the ring, but there has been a lot of unheralded work in the background, particularly from Pitch Publishing pistons Paul Camillin and Jane Camillin, diligent editor Gareth Davis, jacket designer Duncan Olner, proof reader Dean Rockett, and lay-out master Graham Hales.
There are dozens of exceptional ringside reporters whose accounts of the Ali adventure have helped me put together the complete picture of his career, and I am indebted to my old Boxing News alma mater for factual checks and to BoxRec.com for its mindblowing online records collection. For our photographs, we bow the knee to the premier photographic agency, PA Photos. Most of all, thanks to my son, Michael Giller, who listened and learned when I was telling him all those bedtime stories of the great champions, and grew up to become a sports statistician who is a reliable safety net for all my facts and figures.
Oh yes, and thanks to Muhammad Ali. Simply The Greatest.
Seconds Out: Norman Giller
T HIS book is for all Aliphiles. It is more than 30 years since Muhammad Ali last threw a punch, yet he remains unquestionably the best-known sportsman of all time. There is a generation growing up who only know the legend of Ali, never saw him fight and yet are in awe of him and his fantastic fistic feats. Here in The Ali Files , I will give the facts behind the fable.
I was lucky enough to work as a publicist with Ali on some of his European fights, and got to know him as a friend as well as a fighter. In my corner to help me tell the story of The Greatest I have gathered many eyewitnesses of the Ali career - opponents, referees, his trainers, sparring partners, celebrity fans and ringside reporters, who were there as observers of his astonishing adventures in and out of the ring.
As a reporter for the trade paper Boxing News in the late 1950s I was aware before most people outside the United States that in Louisville, Kentucky, the descendant of a slave - Cassius Marcellus Clay - was emerging as an exceptional amateur boxer. He won the gold medal in the 1960 Rome Olympics to launch a career that saw him transcend the world of boxing to become, arguably, the most famous and feted man on the planet - and also with some, the most reviled of sportsmen.
The Muhammad Ali I got to know was a softly-spoken, modest gentleman, who became an actor of Olivier class if a microphone or camera came into range. He would switch to the public Ali, loudly, brashly selling seats and making life easy for headline-hunting, deadline-chasing newspapermen and interviewers. He was a born publicist, yet away from the camera was quiet and respectful, and with a mind hungry for knowledge.
Sadly, he got caught up in the poison of politics and what some would describe as the blind bigotry of religion. But, 50 years on from taking the world title from the big, bad bear Sonny Liston, Ali was a contented man as he battled ill health with the same bravery and resilience he used to show in the ring when he was justifiably known as, simply, The Greatest .
I have chosen Ali as the subject for the 99th book with which I have stupefied the great reading public because he is the most dynamic personality I have met in my 55-plus years scratching a living as a sportswriter. I have been lucky to have been in the company of many of the finest sports champions of post-war times, and Ali stands head and shoulders above them all as the most interesting and entertaining.
Millions of words have been written about the ringmaster but few books have given total concentration to each of his 61 professional contests. On the following pages I intend to give an accurate account of each of those fights that turned him into a sporting legend. And to give the book a fascinating twist I reveal what has happened to each of Ali s opponents since they took on The Greatest. You will be surprised, often shocked, by some of the revelations.
In the 1990s I worked with leading television sports producer Neil Duncanson on a TV series commissioned by C4. It was called Crown of Thorns and was a history of world heavyweight champions, from John L. Sullivan through to the then title-holder Evander Holyfield. We had just got the Muhammad Ali interviews and data into our file when the series was cancelled following a death in the ring. The project survived only in book form. Now, as a special tribute to The Greatest, I can share with you the facts and figures we could not reveal to the viewers. Here, fight by fight, are The Ali Files .
Seconds out come out writing.
Tunney Hunsaker (USA)
Venue: Freedom Hall, Louisville
29 October 1960
Clay 192lb, Hunsaker 186lb
Clay WPTS6
(Clay purse: $2,000)
C ASSIUS MARCELLUS CLAY, grandson of a slave, was owned by a syndicate of 11 wealthy Kentucky businessmen when he climbed into the ring for his professional debut. Waiting in the opposite corner, experienced but limited Tunney Hunsaker, a 30-year-old journeyman who, away from boxing, was a West Virginian police chief.
Clay was covered in blood at the end of his first fight in the paid ranks - his opponent s blood. Outclassed Hunsaker, pounded for six one-sided rounds by the fleet-footed Cassius, was bleeding profusely from his nose and a cut over his left eye. The 6,180 spectators sensed they were in on the start of something special as their local hero showed off with quick combination punches that continually rocked Hunsaker back on his heels.
Judge Sid Baer scored the fight 30-24 in Clay s favour, judge Walter Beck had it 30-23, and referee Paul Matchuny marked it as a runaway 30-19 for the Kentucky kid. At the suggestion of Clay, proceeds from the fight went to the local Kosair hospital for disabled children. Just 55 days earlier he had written his name into Olympic history by winning the gold medal in the light-heavyweight division in the Rome Games. They were the Olympics that Ali pleaded to miss!
He was petrified of flying, and asked the selectors to leave him out of the team after he had won back-to-back national Golden Gloves titles and the Olympic trials. The 18-year-old Clay, born in Louisville, Kentucky, on 17 January 1942, was finally persuaded to get aboard the Rome-bound plane, but only on the understanding he could wear a parachute. Here was early evidence that the brash young man who talked such a good fight was - in Monty Python lingo - something completely different .
Once on terra firma, Clay proved himself a larger than life character in the Olympic Village and he shook hands with so many fellow competitors before and after his contests that he was nicknamed The Mayor .
Clay was in huge demand by professional promoters after an amateur career in which he won 100 of 108 bouts. He wa