Boxing Timeline

The red Schwinn bike of twelve-year-old Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay, Jr.) is stolen outside the annual Louisville Home Show. Reporting the theft to nearby policeman Joe Martin, he expresses a desire to “whup” the culprit. Martin—who trains young boxers—suggests he should first learn how to fight. (The result? Keep reading.)

1959:
Intercity Golden Gloves Light-Heavyweight Champion (Chicago)
Chicago Golden Gloves Light-Heavyweight Champion (Chicago)
US National Light-Heavyweight Champion (Toledo, Ohio)
1960:
Intercity Golden Gloves Heavyweight Champion (New York City)
Chicago Golden Gloves Light-Heavyweight Champion (Chicago)
US National Light-Heavyweight Champion (Toledo, Ohio)
Final record as amateur: 134 wins, 7 losses

Win - Technical Knockout in 8 rounds [Miami Beach, Florida]

Win - Technical Knockout in 3 rounds [Miami Beach]

Win - Knockout in 1 round [Miami Beach]

Win - Technical Knockout in 7 rounds [Miami Beach]

Clark still holds a world record of 44 consecutive knockouts, but is no match for Ali, who sends him into retirement with a broken nose in the second round.
Win - Knockout in 2 rounds [Louisville]

Win - Unanimous Decision in 10 rounds [Las Vegas, Nevada]

This fight is where Ali first saw Gorgeous George and was inspired by his arrogant way of promoting himself.

Ali’s first televised fight goes the distance with an exciting final round. Johnson would later become a sparmate to Ali.
Win - Unanimous Decision in 10 rounds [Louisville]

Win - Technical Knockout in 6 rounds [Louisville]

The final professional bout Ali would fight in his hometown of Louisville.
Win - Technical Knockout in 7 rounds [Louisville]

Muhammad Ali’s first fight in the famed venue of Madison Square Garden with Lucien "Sonny" Banks is also the first time he is knocked down by an opponent.
Win - Technical Knockout in 4 rounds [New York City]

Win - Technical Knockout in 4 rounds [Miami Beach]

Prior to this fight, former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey predicts that Muhammad Ali will one day take the world heavyweight title.
Win - Technical Knockout in 4 rounds [Los Angeles]

Win - Technical Knockout in 7 rounds [New York City]

Win - Knockout in 5 rounds [Los Angeles]

Ali predicts “Archie Moore will fall in four,” and he makes it so, knocking Moore down three times in the fourth round to the crowd’s dismay. Prior to training with Angelo Dundee, Ali briefly trained with Moore at the elder fighter’s camp “The Salt Mine.”
Win - Technical Knockout in 4 rounds [Los Angeles]

In a sold-out Madison Square Garden, Jones is heavily favored by the crowd. After Ali’s win by unanimous decision, Jones would seek a rematch for years. (They later fought in a non-scored 1966 exhibition fundraiser for the Children’s Hospital Foundation.)
Win - Unanimous Decision in 10 rounds [New York City]

To many fight fans, former champion Patterson is the “Great Black Hope” for taking the heavyweight title from Ali, now surrounded by controversy over his religious and anti-war statements. However, those hopes were dashed when the fight was stopped in round 12.
Win - Technical Knockout in 12 rounds [Las Vegas]

Though he was Canada’s heavyweight champion and a top contender for Ali’s title, Chuvalo was not the originally scheduled opponent: Ernie Terrell had backed out shortly before the event. This was Ali’s first fight to go the full distance of 15 rounds.
Win - Unanimous Decision in 15 rounds [Toronto, Ontario, Canada]

Win - Knockout in 3 rounds [London, England]

This is the first sporting event in history to be broadcast in color via satellite.
Win - Technical Knockout in 12 rounds [Frankfurt, West Germany]

This fight at Madison Square Garden would be Ali’s last fight for three years.
Win - Knockout in 7 rounds [New York City]

Win - Technical Knockout in 15 rounds [Madison Square Garden, New York City]

Ali fought his sparmate and fellow Louisvillian Ellis when basketball star Wilt Chamberlain decided to back out of their scheduled fight. This would be the second and final fight that Ali did not have his trainer-manager Angelo Dundee in his corner.
Win - Technical Knockout in 12 rounds [Houston]

Win - Unanimous Decision in 12 rounds [Houston]

Win - Knockout in 7 rounds [Zurich, Switzerland]

Ali walks into the ring with a ring card for round five, his forecast for a knockout of Foster. However, Foster proved tougher than Ali anticipated, with the fight going the full distance.
Win - Unanimous Decision in 15 rounds [Tokyo, Japan]

Win - Unanimous Decision in 12 rounds [Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada]

Win - Technical Knockout in 7 rounds [Las Vegas]

Win - Technical Knockout in 11 rounds [Dublin, Ireland]

Ali’s second fight with former champion Floyd Patterson marks the last of Patterson’s long career.
Win - Technical Knockout in 7 rounds [New York City]

The only fight in which Ali suffers a cut during the bout.
Win - Knockout in 8 rounds [Stateline, Nevada]

With that previous win under the belt of his Elvis-style bedazzled robe, Ali wears it again to his first fight against Norton. Ali leaves with the second loss of his career and a broken jaw, and would never again wear his gift from The King into the ring.
Loss - Split Decision in 12 rounds [San Diego, California]

Eager to redeem himself, a much more energetic Ali answers the bell in his rematch against Norton. Their fight once again comes down to a split decision, this time in Ali’s favor.
Win - Split Decision in 12 rounds [Inglewood, California]

Between rounds, Ali leans through the ropes to answer questions posed ringside by sportswriter Reg Gutteridge, an interview assumed to be the only of its kind.
Win - Unanimous Decision in 12 rounds [Jakarta, Indonesia]

One of only four fights in which Muhammad Ali is knocked to the canvas.
Win - Technical Knockout in 15 rounds [Richfield, Ohio]

Win - Technical Knockout in 11 rounds [Las Vegas]

Win - Knockout in 5 rounds [San Juan, Puerto Rico]

Win - Unanimous Decision in 15 rounds [Landover, Maryland]

Ali knocks out the English boxer Dunn using his new “accupunch” learned from taekwondo Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee. It is Ali’s final knockout of an opponent.
Win - Technical Knockout in 5 rounds [Munich, West Germany]

The third and final fight against Ken Norton ends with the champ keeping his title by unanimous decision in Yankee Stadium. Ali states he would never want to fight Norton again.
Win - Unanimous Decision in 15 rounds [New York City]

Win - Unanimous Decision in 15 rounds [Landover, Maryland]

In a tiring and mostly defensive fight, Ali is hurt in the early rounds but purposefully made Shavers think he was faking pain to avoid being knocked out. Ali would later state that Shavers had the hardest punch of any fighter he’d faced.
Win - Unanimous Decision in 15 rounds [New York City]

In what The Ring magazine would call the biggest upset of the year, Ali is defeated by Spinks on a split decision. In only his eighth bout as a professional boxer, Spinks is the first to take away Ali’s title in the ring.
Loss - Split Decision in 15 rounds [Las Vegas]

Despite protests from his cornermen and former sparmate Holmes himself, Ali enters Caesar’s Palace seeking a fourth championship. Unfortunately, he is in no shape to fight after taking thyroid medication to lose weight. Before round 11, trainer Angelo Dundee ends the fight.
Loss - Technical Knockout/Retired to Corner in 10 rounds [Paradise, Nevada]