Boxing Classics. My Top 5 Fighters of the 1960’s.

This is My List of the Top 5 Fighters of the 1960’s.

1. Muhammad Ali. The decade began with his name Cassius Clay, but after his defeat of Sonny Liston on February 25, 1964, Clay changed his name to Cassius X, then Muhammad Ali when he announced he was now a member of the Nation of Islam. Ali defended his title until April 1967, when he was stripped of his belts for his refusal into the United States Army. Forced into retirement, he would never step into ring for the remainder of the decade.
2. Joe Frazier. Joe won the 1964 Olympic Gold Medal in Tokyo, Japan then returned home to embark on a successful professional career. Frazier captured a portion of the title by defeating Buster Mathis on March 4, 1968 with an 11th round knockout at Madison Square Garden in New York City. He would defend his title successfully four more times to round out the decade as the heavyweight champion in Ali’s absence.
3. Sonny Liston. Charles ‘Sonny’ Liston captured the heavyweight title on September 25, 1962 with a first round knockout of Floyd Patterson at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Sonny repeated his performance a year later on July 22, 1963 at the Las Vegas Convention Center with another first round stoppage of Floyd, which set up his bout with Cassius Clay. After losing to Clay, then the rematch to the then Ali, Sonny would return to action after a hiatus but never contend for the world championship again.
4. Bob Foster. In many opinions, the 6′ 3′ Foster is the greatest light heavyweight in history and held his title for 6 years. His punching power is legendary and his knockout of Dick Tiger in 1968 with a single left hook ranks as one of the greatest in the history of the sport. His two biggest losses were to Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali in his attempts to move up to the heavyweight division, but there no doubt that Bob was the single best light heavyweight champion of the 1960’s.
5. Emile Griffith. Emile held world titles in both the welterweight and middleweight division on several occasions and is ranked one of the greatest fighters in history. He is tragically known for his brutal knockout of Benny Paret in 1962 that resulted in Paret’s death, but finished the decade of the 1960’s at top of the sport. Emile was deservedly inducted into the IBHOF and passed away on July 23, 2013 at 75 years old.

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