cassius-clay - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Fred VanVleet’s expletive-laden remarks cost him $30,000 and put him in a special groupFred VanVleet is now immortal. Hitting nearly every 3-pointer you attempt for two playoff rounds and winning a championship is great. However, only Toronto Raptors’ fans and non-causal NBA watchers remember that. The narrative in the 2019 NBA Finals was Kevin Durant’s injury and Kawhi Leonard playin...

Because Tokyo 2021 is weird and shouldn’t be happening, Deadspinners recall their favorite past Olympic momentsConflicted about tuning in tonight for the Opening Ceremonies of an Olympics that most of the host nation don’t even want in the middle of a pandemic where athletes are essentially being greeted with positive COVID-19 tests at the airport and rumors abound of possible cancellation even as it kicks o...

This Was AliMuhammad Ali’s recent death has opened the floodgates for eulogies, tributes, evaluations, historical perspective analyses, and writing of nearly every kind imaginable. This isn’t surprising; Ali was, by almost any reckoning, the most celebrated sports figure ever, and the one with by far the widest...

Muhammad Ali Was The Meanest Boxer Of All Time

Muhammad Ali had the most unsuccessfully imitated fighting style of all time. Even now, three and a half decades after his retirement, you can still find boxers making the mistake of trying to fight like him and getting their faces split open as a consequence. This is his most lasting contribution t...

The FBI Believed Clay/Liston I Was Fixed

There has long been chatter that Clay/Liston II, in which Sonny Liston went down to a phantom punch, wasn't on the up-and-up. But documents obtained by the Washington Times show the FBI suspected that their first fight, in 1964, may have been fixed by the mob....

The Champ And The Chump: The Meaning Of Liston-Clay I

Originally published on March 7, 1964, in The New Republic. Reprinted here with the permission of the author's family....

Private Stache: Cassius Clay Has Blood On His Hands

As keeper of Sports Illustrated's indispensable Vault, Andy Gray spends a lot of his time sifting through the sports photography of another time, when athletes wore short shorts and facial hair, and everyone looked vaguely uncomfortable. Here is one such photo....