“He was far too good for me,” London, now 81, tells Boxing News many years after his disastrous date with destiny. “He was a brilliant fighter and I wasn’t good enough to fight him. When they offered me the money to fight him I just said ‘yes’ and I thought that I’d go for it, but I knew I had no chance.
My problem was I never really fought for the love of it; I fought for the money.”
London was outclassed as Ali raided with astonishing speed and accuracy, yet the challenger’s collapse in the third round, despite it coming after almost 20 unanswered punches, angered many observers and media. Reporters, guilty of building the contest into something it wasn’t, felt cheated after taking several trips from London to Brian’s lavish training base at his local Pontin’s Holiday Camp. This publication declared what followed on fight night as “the worst flop in years.
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