Cassius Clay - Sonny Liston Fight Delay. - November 27, 1964 Life magazine

Exerpt From November 27, 1964 Issue.

Six-Month Delay for the Big Fight

Here it was the day before the scheduled heavyweight championship fight, with as 4.5 million gate practically in the till the Boston Garden and 230 closed-circuit TV theaters across the U.S. But there lay the once irrepressible champion Cassius Clay in a Boston hospital, stating woodenly at nothing and taking nourishment intravenously while his mother tenderly tidied his hair, The cause of Clay's predicament was emergency surgery-necessitated by an acute hernial attack in his lower abdomen that hit with the force of a knockout punch by his intended opponent. Sonny Liston, while under postoperative sedation, Clay for once in his life had little to say to his mother who came by bus from Louisville to be at his side, to his young bride Sonji who brought flowers, or to his Black Muslim colleagues who hovered around trying to cheer up the man they call Muhammad Ali, But when the drugs wore off and cassius began to perk up, he inevitably launched into his favorite subject, himself. Thanks to the operation, he said, he would probably level off at a lithe 200 pounds and be greater than ever. Meanwhile Lision will have to wait at least six months for another crack at Cassius, a long time for an aging ex-champ whose fighting days are growing shorter.

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