Cassius Clay beats Sonny Liston for the heavyweight title
On this day · 25 February 1964
On February 25, 1964, a brash 22-year-old shocked boxing by dethroning Sonny Liston — and soon became Muhammad Ali.
On February 25, 1964, at the Miami Beach Convention Hall, a brash 22-year-old named Cassius Clay climbed into the ring as an 8-to-1 underdog against the fearsome heavyweight champion Sonny Liston — and walked out with the title. Liston had twice flattened Floyd Patterson in a single round; almost no one gave Clay a chance.
The fight didn’t follow the script. Clay danced, jabbed, and slipped Liston’s heavy punches round after round before a crowd of about 8,300. When Liston, complaining of a shoulder injury, failed to answer the bell for the seventh round, Clay had won by technical knockout.
Joe Louis called it one of the biggest upsets in boxing history. Two days later, Clay confirmed he had joined the Nation of Islam, and within weeks he took the name the world would come to know: Muhammad Ali.
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