A licking for Blackpool ‘rock’ Brian
It was one of the biggest fights in British boxing history at the time as Muhammad Ali took on Brian London in London on August 6, 1966.
Here, we rerun the original Sunday Mail report from our man ringside, Allan Herron.
Cassius Clay, alias Muhammad Ali, alias The Greatest, retained his world heavyweight boxing championship at Earls Court, London, last night when he reduced Blackpool “rock” Brian London to puff candy in one minute 40 seconds of the third round.
This was the easiest fight Clay has had since he took the tile from Sonny Liston in 1964. London just didn’t land a punch. He couldn’t.
How do you nail a shadow? How do you hold a hurricane? London didn’t know.
As Clay danced around him, loose-limbed, relaxed, confident, London lumbered as though his feet were dragging lead weights.
In the second round, the 24-year-old champion handed out the sign of things to come when he buckled London’s knees with a right hand.
In exactly one minute 40 seconds of the third round – seven minutes 40 seconds of fighting which earned Clay some £90,000 – London lay unconscious in his own corner, the victim of a tremendous barrage of punching from Clay.
London must have thought the Blackpool Tower had collapsed on him. Clay pranced back to his corner, breathing easily, the slightest suspicion of sweat on his neck.
The pathetic Englishman never looked like beating the count. When he recovered all he could say was: “Clay is the fastest fighter I’ve ever met. He’s the greatest.”
Asked which particular punch did the damage he said: “They all kept landing. Boom... boom... boom.”
London finished his interview with a bit of advice to Karl Mildenberger of Germany who meets Clay next month: “DON’T BOTHER. STAY AT HOME.”