Muhammad Ali Vs. Sonny Liston - Baiting The Bear

Baiting The Bear

During training, Clay took to driving his entourage in a bus over to the site in Surfside, Florida where Liston (nicknamed the 'Big Bear') was training, and repeatedly called Liston the "big, ugly bear". Liston grew increasingly irritated as the motor-mouthed Clay continued hurling insults ("After the fight I'm gonna build myself a pretty home and use him as a bearskin rug. Liston even smells like a bear. I'm gonna give him to the local zoo after I whup him... if Sonny Liston whups me, I'll kiss his feet in the ring, crawl out of the ring on my knees, tell him he's the greatest, and catch the next jet out of the country."). Clay insisted to a skeptical press that he would knock out Liston in eight rounds.

Light Heavyweight Champion Jose Torres, in his 1971 biography of Ali Sting Like a Bee, said that as of 1963, Ali's prophetic poems had correctly predicted the exact round he would stop an opponent 12 times.

Clay's brashness did not endear him to White America, and in fact, made Liston a more sympathetic character. In The New Republic, the magazine's editor Murray Kempton (a future Pulitzer Prize-winner for distinguished commentary), wrote, "Liston used to be a hoodlum; now he is our cop; he was the big Negro we pay to keep sassy Negroes in line."

There were rumors that Clay even left the country the day of the fight, fleeing to Mexico, but they proved untrue.

Clay's outbursts continued at the pre-fight physical the day before the event. Clay worked himself into such a frenzy that his heart rate registered a surprising 120 beats per minute. He was fined $2500 by the Miami Boxing Commission for his behavior. Many observers took this to mean that Clay was either terrified or not in proper shape. However, Clay's heartrate was back to normal by the official weigh-in.