He defeated boxers including Tony Esperti, Jim Robinson, Donnie Fleeman, Alonzo Johnson, George Logan, Willi Besmanoff, LaMar Clark, Doug Jones and Henry Cooper.

At the end of round four, Clay was returning to his corner when he began experiencing blinding pain in his eyes and asked his trainer, Angelo Dundee, to cut off his gloves.

Stratton claims that the conflict between Ali and Patterson was not genuine but was staged to increase ticket sales and the closed-circuit viewing audience, with both men complicit in the theatrics.

Williams had once been considered among the hardest punchers in the heavyweight division, but in 1964 he had been shot at point-blank range with a .357 Magnum by a Texas policeman, resulting in the loss of one kidney and 10 feet (3.0 m) of his small intestine.

While banned from sanctioned bouts, Ali settled a $1 million lawsuit against radio producer Murray Woroner by accepting $10,000 to appear in a privately staged fantasy fight against retired champion Rocky Marciano.

In the final round, Frazier knocked Ali down with a vicious left hook, which referee Arthur Mercante said was as hard as a man can be hit.

After the loss to Frazier, Ali fought Jerry Quarry, had a second bout with Floyd Patterson and faced Bob Foster in 1972, winning a total of six fights that year.

Referee Tony Perez mistakenly thought he heard the bell ending the round and stepped between the two fighters as Ali was pressing his attack, giving Frazier time to recover.

The defeat of Frazier set the stage for a title fight against heavyweight champion George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire, on October 30, 1974—a bout nicknamed The Rumble in the Jungle.

In assessing the fight, analysts pointed out that Joe Frazier and Ken Norton, who had given Ali four tough battles and won two of them, had both been devastated by Foreman in second-round knockouts.

I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick; I'm so mean I make medicine sick.

On June 1, 1976, Ali removed his shirt and jacket and confronted professional wrestler Gorilla Monsoon in the ring after his match at a World Wide Wrestling Federation show in Philadelphia Arena.

"[49] Today it is considered by some to be one of Ali's most influential fights and CBS Sports said the attention the mixed-style bout received "foretold the arrival of standardized MMA years later.

[51] After returning to box in two exhibition bouts in April 1977 against a then 18-year-old Michael Dokes[52] and journeyman Jody Ballard, Ali successfully defended his title for the 9th time against Alfredo Evangelista in May.

Ali started training early and even travelled to Moscow, Russia to box in three exhibition fights in June of that year against Soviet Amateur champion Igor Vysotsky, Pyotar Zayev, and Yevgeny Gorstkov.

[53][better source needed] Embarrassed by the Spinks loss, Ali purportedly sparred over 200 rounds in his preparation for the rematch, seemingly determined to regain his title.

[55] A fitter and sharper Ali, although noticeably slower than his prime years, danced around Spinks and scored from range for the majority of the bout, holding his much younger opponent every time he got in close.

His retirement was short-lived, however; Ali announced his comeback to face Larry Holmes for the WBC belt in an attempt to win the heavyweight championship an unprecedented fourth time.

[59] The fight took place on October 2, 1980, in Las Vegas Valley, with Holmes easily dominating Ali, who was weakened from thyroid medication he had taken to lose weight.

[67] Ali's early style was so unusual that he was initially discounted because he reminded boxing writers of a lightweight, and it was assumed he would be vulnerable to big hitters like Sonny Liston.

[citation needed] Jimmy Jacobs, who co-managed Mike Tyson, used a synchronizer to measure young Ali's punching speed versus Sugar Ray Robinson, a welter/middleweight who was considered pound-for-pound the best fighter in history.

During the early part of his career, he built a reputation for predicting rounds in which he would finish opponents, often vowing to crawl across the ring or to leave the country if he lost the bout.

[33] Ali adopted the latter practice from "Gorgeous" George Wagner, a professional wrestling champion who drew thousands of fans to his matches as "the man you love to hate.

"[33] When Ali was 19, Wagner, who was in town to wrestle Freddie Blassie and had crossed paths with Clay,[13] told the boxer before a bout with Duke Sabedong in Las Vegas,[13] "A lot of people will pay to see someone shut your mouth.

"[77] Bleacher Report called Clay's description of Sonny Liston smelling like a bear and his vow to donate him to a zoo after he beat him the greatest trash-talk line in sports history.

This physical change led in part to the "rope-a-dope" strategy, where Ali would lie back on the ropes, cover up to protect himself and conserve energy, and tempt opponents to punch themselves out.

[85][86] Writing in Sports Illustrated, William Nack commented: Of all the names joined forever in the annals of boxing—from Dempsey-Tunney to Louis-Schmeling, from Zale-Graziano to Leonard-Hearns—none are more fiercely bound by a hyphen than Ali-Frazier.

[86][101][102] In a press conference held on July 30, 1996, Frazier accused Ali of being a "draft dodger" and a racist,[e] and claimed he would have been a better choice to light the Olympic flame.

[107] Undisputed Heavyweight champion (3x) The following list does not include matches in which the opponent's name, location or exact date is unknown such as the one that took place in Genoa, Italy against Alonzo Johnson and Giorgio Bambini around 1971, his knockout victory over Alonzo Johnson in Doha, Qatar in 1971 (before The Fight of the Century), his two ten-round exhibitions against Roy "Tiger" Williams at Deer Lake in early 1975, his six-round exhibition on April 26, 1975 in Orlando, Florida, and the one that took place in Casablanca, Morocco around 1979.

[187][188] Ali had several fights broadcast on early pay-per-view home television: [Frazier] was harder for me than Liston or Foreman, because he had what I was vulnerable to—a good in-close left hook.