Cassius Clay vs. Donnie Fleeman was a professional boxing match contested on February 21, 1961.

[1][2] Clay won the bout through a technical knockout after the referee stopped the fight in the seventh round.

[12]Prior to the Clay–Fleeman bout, it was held that Fleeman's experience and durability gave him an edge over Clay.

Although Fleeman was extremely durable and tough, Clay's speed overwhelmed the Texan in the fight.

[3][4][8]Straight-ahead guys like the slow Texan, who rarely took a step backwards or laterally, were made to order for Clay.

[8]Fleeman was able to absorb Clay's punches during the bout, and would have probably gone the full distance, but for the fact that he was badly cut around both his eyes, and his nose had started bleeding, due to which the referee stopped the fight in the seventh round.

Reflecting on the fight, Fleeman observed that Clay's arms were long and fast, and that he had felt as if he was a punching bag.

[13]After the fight, Clay struck a Tarzan of the Apes pose in the dressing room and, with clenched fists and glaring eyes, intoned, "He had to go.

Dundee later recalled what happened next:[The fight] with Fleeman was at the start of spring training, and so some of the heavyweights of the literary field—Shirley Povich, Doc Greene, Al Buck, Dick Young, Jimmy Cannon—were down here with time on their hands.

[15]Long after Fleeman's retirement from boxing, the writer Jon McConal tracked him down and visited him at his home in Ellis County.

McConal noted that at this time Fleeman was "still lean and looked like a fighter despite being in his late sixties.