MUHAMMAD ALI (then CASSIUS CLAY) RTD 6 SONNY LISTON
Florida, USA 1964. World heavyweight title
“It was the first Henry Cooper fight that convinced me Muhammad was ready for Sonny Liston because Cooper could punch. Nobody gets up from the shot that put Muhammad down. After that I knew he was mature enough.
“They thought we were both crazy for taking that fight – so much so that they tried to stop the fight with all the hysteria at the weigh in and pull my guy out. That was strictly pre-empted. He practiced it twice beforehand to make it convincing. He convinced the doctor and he convinced everybody.”
WILLIE PASTRANO RSF 11 TERRY DOWNES
Manchester, England 1964. World light-heavyweight title
“A great fight and a great night in Manchester. Willie came back to the corner after the tenth round and he was shaking his head, I screamed at him, “What are you doing you son of a bitch? Why are you screwing around out there?” I called him every name in the book and Reg Gutteridge was at ringside holding his ears! I got Willie so mad he stopped Terry in the next round. Terry never forgave me for that!”
SUGAR RAMOS PTS 15 FLOYD ROBERTSON
Accra, Ghana 1965. World featherweight title
“That was some night. It was a tough fight for my guy (Ramos) but he won the fight easily. He won the first 10 rounds and then he got tired. They tried to steal it from him though. It was scary out there in Ghana. I got to the hotel after the fight and called the airport – I asked when the first plane out of there was. They said, “Where do you want to go?” I said, “Anywhere!” I ended up in the Canary Islands at 4am. The judges – guys from Mexico and Miami Beach – stayed in Ghana all night. They’re the bravest guys I ever met!”
GEORGE FOREMAN KO 10 MICHAEL MOORER
Las Vegas, USA 1994. WBA, IBF heavyweight titles
“George talked to me about the time I was in Muhammad Ali’s corner when we beat him. Apparently George was about to throw a right hand at Ali and he heard me scream “Don’t play with that sucker!” He said if anybody can affect anyone with that voice I want them in my corner! So I worked with him on the comeback. He used to stand up between rounds because he didn’t want the TV microphones picking up on what we were saying to each other. We knew we were going to beat Moorer and we did.”
SUGAR RAY LEONARD PTS 12 MARVIN HAGLER
Las Vegas, USA 1987. World middleweight title
“Nobody gave us a shot against Hagler. Ray had fought a great fight and surprised everybody. The referee came over to tell us it was the last round so I leapt up and shouted, “That’s right! It’s the last round! New Champ!” Ray had his arms in the air and we knew then. The referee helped me that night. As a trainer, you have to take advantage of these little things and I did as much as I could throughout my career to do things like that.”
