February 25, 1964: Muhammad Ali Becomes Heavyweight Champion of the World

February 25, 1964, 60 years ago: The Miami Beach Convention Center hosts a fight for the Heavyweight Championship of the World.

Neither fighter is popular. The Champion is Charles "Sonny" Liston, who had won the title in 1962, by knocking out the popular Floyd Patterson in the 1st round, then doing it again in the rematch. Liston was big, moody, nasty-looking, had served 2 years in prison for armed robbery, and wasn't exactly friendly with the media, or with anyone else.

The challenger is Cassius Clay. On the surface, the 22-year-old Clay seemed like the perfect antidote. He had won a Gold Medal for America at the 1960 Olympics in Rome. He was a stylish fighter, already known for "dancing" in the ring. He made himself accessible to the media, predicting the round in which he would knock out his opponent (and frequently turning out to be right), and reciting poetry made up on the spot. He may have been the original battle-rapper.

And he was a good-looking guy. As he said himself, comparing himself to Liston, "He's too ugly to be the world's champ! The world's champ should be pretty, like me!"

Still, a lot of people didn't like Clay. They saw him as a young upstart, a braggart, an egomaniac. The native of Louisville, Kentucky was nicknamed the Louisville Lip. If he'd been white, they might have called him "the Mouth of the South." Being black didn't help: Lots of white people didn't like that a black man was talking so big. Liston was also black, so bigots didn't like either man.

An interviewer asked Clay what percentage of the fans were coming to see him, as opposed to coming to see Liston. He said, "Well, 100 percent are coming to see me, but 99 percent are coming to see me get beat. Because they think I talk too much."

Liston was 35-1 as a professional fighter, his only loss a split decision 10 years earlier. His last 3 fights, including his dethroning of Patterson and a rematch with him, had all ended in 1st-round knockouts. Twice, he had beaten rising contender Cleveland Williams, in a total of 5 rounds. He had knocked out rising contender Zora Folley in the 3rd round. Of his last 8 fights, only 1 had gone beyond the 4th round.

The Las Vegas oddsmakers posted 8-1 odds in Liston's favor. Hardly anybody was willing to publicly say that Clay would win.

But Clay was sure he could. He had been trained to believe that by his trainers, Angelo Dundee and Drew Brown. Brown -- whom Ali always called "Bodini," a variation on his middle name, Bundini -- gave the boxing starlet his first big quote:

Float like a butterfly,
sting like a bee!
The hand can't hit
what the eye can't see!

Sometimes, to psych Clay up, Brown would look him in the eye, and, together, they would yell, "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee! Ahhhh! Rumble, young man, rumble! Ahhhh!" Clay was telling people, "I am the greatest!" Brown was telling him, "Born the champ in the crib!" Dundee wasn't yelling or creating quotes, but he and Brown were both getting him ready.

So when the fight with Liston for the title came, everyone wanted to know when he was going to knock out Liston. He said:

For those of you unable to watch the Clay-Liston fight, here is the 8th round, exactly as it will happen:

Clay comes out to meet Liston, and Liston starts to retreat!
If Liston backs up any further, he'll end up in a ringside seat!
Clay swings with his left! Clay swings with his right!
Look at young Cassius carry the fight!
Liston keeps backing, but there's not enough room!
It's just a matter of time: There! Clay lowers the boom!
Liston crashes through the roof with a terrible sound!
But the ref can't start counting until Sonny comes down!
Liston disappears from view! The crowd is getting frantic!
But our radar stations have picked him up: He's somewhere over the Atlantic!
Who would've thought when they came to the fight
that they'd witness the launching of a human satellite!
The crowd did not dream when they put down their money
that they would see a total eclipse of the Sonny!

Like Star Wars character Han Solo, this was a man you would never tell the odds. He'd tell anyone who would listen, especially Liston, "If you'd like to lose your money, be a fool and bet on Sonny!"

Clay was in Liston's head, citing his appearance, his courage, and his age: "You're 40 years old, if a day, and you don't belong in the ring with Cassius Clay!" (Like Archie Moore, whom Clay had demolished in 4 rounds, 2 years earlier, nobody really knew how old Liston was. Officially, he was 31, but nobody believed he was that young.) Sportswriter Bert Sugar, who knew more about boxing than any man alive, said, "Liston could handle anything except crazy people. And Clay, then his name, struck Liston as a crazy person."

In the 1st 4 rounds, Clay danced around the ring, and Liston hardly laid a glove on him. With advantages in height, reach and speed, Cassius messed Sonny's face up. Liston knew he was in trouble, and that cheating might get him out of it. In the 5th, he got his glove into Clay's eye, and suddenly, Clay started blinking. He couldn't see. And Liston finally started landing punches.

When Clay got back to his stool, he was, for the first time in his boxing career, scared. He told Dundee, "I can't see! Cut the gloves off!"

History -- that of boxing, and that of American culture -- hung in the balance at that moment. Everything this boxing contender would become, and everything he would come to mean to anyone, might not have happened.

Dundee saw a white powder on Clay's glove, from where he'd wiped it out of his eye. Dundee washed Clay's eyes out, and, acting as "bad cop" to Brown's "good cop," told him that he was too close to winning the title to give up now. He told Clay to use his great footwork to stay out of Liston's way until his eyes cleared, and then go after him again.

He did. The film shows Clay pretty much dancing away from Liston's blows in the 5th and 6th rounds. Late in the 6th, Clay's eyes cleared, and he resumed his methodical demolition of Liston's face.

The bell rang for the 7th round, and Clay was ready to finish the job. Liston decided that, his cheating unsuccessful, the job was finished. He quit on his stool. Cassius Clay was the Heavyweight Champion of the World.

On the surviving TV broadcast, he can be heard yelling, "I just knocked out Sonny Liston, I don't have a mark on my face, I just became the world's champ, and I'm only 22 years old! I must be the greatest! He wanted to go to heaven, so I knocked him out in seven! I am the king of the world! I'm pretty! I'm a bad man! I shook up the world! I shook up the world! I shook up the world!"

Certainly, he'd thrilled the world. But the shakeup was yet to come.

"I'm young, I'm handsome, I'm fast, I'm pretty, and can't possibly be beat!"

As it turned out, there was one man who could beat Cassius Clay. He even wiped him out of existence. And his name was Muhammad Ali.

Over the next 10 years, the world would change tremendously, and Ali would be one of the reasons why. He would become perhaps the most hated man in America, including by many people who would have been expected to be among his biggest fans. But times would change, and the general perception of him changed with them. When he won the title for the 2nd time, on October 30, 1974, he would be the most popular man in the world.

José Fernández, 1992-2016

Baseball was the victim of a tragedy this morning, as José Fernández of the Miami Marlins died in a boating accident.

José Delfín Fernández was born on July 31, 1992, in Santa Clara, Cuba. He grew up there, as a neighbor and friend of Aledmys Díaz, now the All-Star shortstop of the St. Louis Cardinals. In 2005, his stepfather defected to America.

Only 13 years old on the 1st try, José made 3 attempts to defect, but was caught and jailed each time. In 2008, just 15, he made a 4th attempt, with his mother and sister. His mother fell overboard when the boat hit turbulent waters, and he had to dive into the water to save his mother's life. They all made it.

They joined his stepfather in Tampa, where he became a high school pitching star. He had to sue to regain his eligibility for his senior year, as he had attended the 9th grade in Cuba, but he won his case. He did this despite getting a free-agent offer from the Cincinnati Reds, essentially turning down a bonus of $1.3 million -- proving that he wasn't in baseball just for the money.

He was drafted by the Miami Marlins (then in their last year under the Florida Marlins name) in the 1st round in 2011, and accepted a signing bonus of $2 million. A Cuban defector playing ball in Miami? Aside from playing in a liberated Cuba (which still hasn't happened), this was as good as it could get for him.

Before the 2013 season, Baseball America, the definitive source for baseball prospects, rated him the 5th-best in all of organized baseball. He made his debut against the Mets at Citi Field on April 7. "I've been in jail," he told the Miami Herald before the game. "I've been shot at. I've been in the water. I'm not scared to face David Wright. What can he do?"

Wearing the Number 16 that he would keep, he started and pitched 5 innings, allowing 1 run on 3 hits, with 8 strikeouts. But Marlins manager Mike Redmond pulled him after 5, and the bullpen blew it, and the Mets won it in the bottom of the 9th, 4-3. What could Wright do? He hit a home run off one of the Marlin relievers, making the Mets' win possible. But that did not diminish the impact of Fernández's arrival in the major leagues.

He was the National League Rookie of the Year in 2013, going 12-6 with a 2.19 ERA, and a sizzling WHIP of just 0.979. He finished 3rd in the NL Cy Young Award voting. He pitched a perfect 6th inning in the All-Star Game at Citi Field.

He even hit a home run against the Atlanta Braves on September 11 of that year. But he flipped his bat and took his time trotting around the bases. Braves catcher Brian McCann, now with the Yankees, didn't like that, and started shouting at him, and a bench-clearing brawl erupted. But Fernández was not intimidated. I guess when you've been in a Cuban jail, a loudmouthed Atlanta Brave isn't going to faze you. They later made peace with each other.

He had a rare bad start in an Interleague game with the Tampa Bay Rays on May 27, but their manager, Joe Maddon (now the manager of the Chicago Cubs), said, "José Fernández might be the best young pitcher I've ever seen, at that age. I believe he will go far."

He battled injuries in 2014 and 2015, going just 4-2 and 6-1 respectively, on the either side of Tommy John surgery. But when he could pitch, his ERAs were still low: 2.44 and 2.92. He was back in form this season. He was 16-8, his ERA was a strong 2.86, and his WHIP 1.119, making him an All-Star for the 2nd time.

His pitches included a 4-seam fastball, a changeup, a sinker and a slurve. (I used to think "slurve" was a portmanteau of "slow curve," but it's actually one of "slider" and "curve," because it's a curveball thrown with the grip used for a slider.)

His last game was on September 20. He pitched 8 shutout innings in a 1–0 win over the Washington Nationals at Marlins Park. He should have started today, and had 1 more start this season afterward.

His career statistics were 38-17, 2.58, 1.054. According to Baseball-Reference.com, the pitcher in baseball's entire history whose performance at age 20 most statistically resembled his was Fernando Valenzuela. The 20th Century pitcher whose stats through his current age most resembled his was Mark Fidrych. Valenzuela got hurt at age 26, Fidrych at 22, so neither got to build a Hall of Fame career.

Fernández had just turned 24. He was on a rising team in a city that doesn't always show it at the box office, but loves baseball. Today's Miami Herald called him "an electric fan favorite." What's more, he had a gorgeous girlfriend, Maria Arias, and was about to become a father for the first time.

He could have been told in sincerity what an infamous fictional Cuban-turned-Miamian, Tony Montana (played by Al Pacino in the 1983 remake of the 1932 gangster classic Scarface), was told in jest: "The world is yours."

*

In the middle of the night last night, José Fernández was killed in a boating accident off Miami Beach that also killed 2 other men: Eduardo Rivero and Emilio Jesus Macias. The Coast Guard found the boat, which Fernández had named Kaught Looking (a play on "strikeout," with a K) at about 3:15 AM, overturned on a jetty near Government Cut and South Pointe Park, and found 3 victims, 2 on top of the water, and 1 underneath the boat.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation, but the Coast Guard has said that none of the victims were wearing their life vests, suggesting that they didn't realize that they were in danger. The Coast Guard also said that they'd stopped the boat, belonging to a friend of several Marlins players, several times for safety inspections, and never found any infractions. They also said that there's no evidence that alcohol or drugs played a role in the crash.

It appears from reports that they crashed into a jetty, similar to the boating accident on a Florida lake during 1993 Spring Training that killed Cleveland Indians pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews, and badly injured Bob Ojeda, one of the stars of the 1986 World Champion Mets who was trying to revive his career in Cleveland.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/mlb/miami-marlins/article104073926.html#storylink=cpy

The Marlins canceled their game for today with the Braves. At the press conference announcing this, the Marlins' manager, former Yankee Don Mattingly, said, "When I think about José, I see such a little boy. The way he played, there was just joy with him." We can probably expect them to retire his Number 16. (UPDATE: Team owner Jeffrey Loria announced that the number was retired. Most likely, an official on-field ceremony will occur at their home opener.)

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/mlb/miami-marlins/article104073926.html#storylink=cpy

"His death is a huge loss for our community," Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado said in a statement.

Fellow Cuban superstar Yoenis Céspedes had a Number 16 Mets jersey with "FERNANDEZ" made up, and hung it in the Mets' dugout before today's game with the Philadelphia Phillies. Another exciting young Cuban star, Yasiel Puig of the Los Angeles Dodgers, tweeted, "Hermano (brother), wherever you are, you know how much I loved you. Sin palabras. (Without words.) My heart is with the families."

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/mlb/miami-marlins/article104073926.html#storylink=cpy

Met manager Terry Collins said, "This is not only one of the greatest pitchers in the modern game, but one of the finest young men you'd ever meet. He played the game with passion and fun, and enjoyed being out there."

Met pitcher Jacob deGrom, now having to consider Tommy John surgery himself, added, "You never know how long you get to play this game. You don't want to take this for granted. And I don't think he did. Every day, he went out there and gave 100 percent, and he put it all out on the field."

His former antagonist McCann said, "It's sickening. One of those competitors you loved competing against, because you knew he was going to bring his best. He was one of the best pitchers in the game. What he did in a short amount of time was incredible."

Yankee manager Joe Girardi, who managed the Marlins for a year, but well before Fernández got there, never met him, but said, "I don't know how you ever get over it. It's going to be difficult around baseball today. Your thoughts are always going to go back to José, and the Marlins, and the community."

José Fernández's last tweet was on September 19, showing a picture of pregnant Maria Arias on the beach, saying, "I'm so glad you came into my life. I'm ready for where this journey is gonna take us together. #familyfirst"

The journey had just gone into high gear. Now, it has stopped, in a shocking way. A woman has lost the love of her life, a child will never know his or her father, many people lost a friend, a team lost a very talented, much-admired teammate, and baseball has lost a star who seemed destined to shine very bright.

Now, we simply will never know.

UPDATE: On October 28, 2016, ESPN obtained the autopsy and toxicology reports, which determined that Fernández had cocaine in his system, and was legally drunk at the time of the crash. As a result, while the Marlins haven't given Number 16 back out, they have not retired it, and have no display honoring it at Marlins Park.

With considerable irony, given how he entered America and how he left life, he was cremated, and his ashes were scattered in the Atlantic Ocean. There is no gravesite.

The baby, a girl, was born in February 2017. She was named Penélope Fernández Arias.