| Date | March 13, 1963 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Venue | Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tale of the tape | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Result | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Clay won in 10 rounds by unanimous decision | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cassius Clay vs. Doug Jones was a professional boxing match contested on March 13, 1963. Clay won on points in what would prove to be one of the closest fights of his early professional career. The fight was named 1963's Fight of the Year by The Ring. [1]
This was a ten-round heavyweight title elimination bout at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Clay and Jones held the second and third spots in the top ten rankings respectively. Former champion Floyd Patterson held the number one rank, and was preparing for a rematch with Sonny Liston.
Clay was given 3-1 odds of defeating Jones, and confidently predicted he would score a knockout victory in the fourth round.
The fight a hard-fought match, the more experienced Jones fought courageously against his larger opponent, taking everything thrown at him while countering effectively, greatly effecting Clay's timing. Neither man was knocked down, despite Clay attempting to knock his opponent out particularly in the third and fourth rounds. Upon failing to make his prediction, Clay was booed at the end of the fourth round. The final rounds picked up in speed and intensity, with Clay ultimately prevailing in a series of fierce exchanges, and went on to win the bout on points through a close but unanimous decision. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
The fight was Madison Square Garden's first boxing sellout in 13 years, [8] grossing a live gate of $304,943 ($3,034,846 inflation adjusted). The fight purses were $90,000 ($895,696 inflation adjusted) for Clay and $75,000 for Jones. [9]
The fight had a closed-circuit theatre television broadcast, which drew 150,000 pay-per-view buys, [10] including 9,000 in Texas [11] and 1,500 at Syria Mosque. [12] The fight grossed $500,000 ($4,976,087 inflation adjusted) in closed-circuit television revenue. In addition, the fight also had a pay-per-view home television broadcast in Toronto and Hartford, Connecticut. [8] The fight's combined live gate and closed-circuit revenue was $804,943 ($8,010,933 inflation adjusted).
| Country | Broadcaster |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | BBC |
Confirmed bouts: [13]
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Cassius Clay vs. Willi Besmanoff was a professional boxing match contested on November 29, 1961.
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