Cassius Clay vs. Alex Miteff was a professional boxing match contested on October 7, 1961.

[3][6] He had fought twice with George Chuvalo in boxing matches, in June 1958 and March 1961, drawing the first bout and losing on a split decision in the second.

During these rounds, Miteff would occasionally make strange faces, or let his hands drop, and challenge Clay to punch him.

[10][12] Miteff got up and moved towards a corner "in the determined important walk of a drunk" following which the referee stopped the fight.

[10] After the match, Clay commented that the right which had knocked out Miteff was the hardest punch he had thrown in the ring to date.

Angelo Dundee noted the technical improvements in Clay's boxing that were observed in this fight: You see the way he was tying up Miteff's left.

[22][10][13][23][11] Both Clay and Miteff featured in the 1962 film Requiem for a Heavyweight in which the protagonist Mountain Rivera, a boxer long past his prime, gets badly beaten in his final bout by a younger opponent.

The character of Mountain Rivera was played by Anthony Quinn, and the part of the younger boxer by Clay.

[24] Stephen Battaglio, in his biography of David Susskind, observes:It was a stunning early glimpse of Ali, an image that everyone in the country would soon recognize when he became the most dynamic and polarizing sports figure of the decade.

Off camera, Ali charmed the cast and crew so much that they passed a hat around the ringside set on Randall's Island Arena to take up a collection to supplement the modest fee he was paid.