Why didn’t Ali box at heavyweight in the Olympics?

I think we can at least say with confidence that Price didn't beat Clay. Even ignoring the story that he was going to be dropped from the team if Allen Hudson hadn't been injured, the best case scenario is he won one round of an exhibition after losing the first two.

https://ibb.co/pXFPLP9

 

Very interesting read. It suggests that Clay, being smaller than Price, was moved down from HW to LHW in order for Price to get the HW spot. So Clay was originally planned to be competing as a HW it seems, according to the article.

 

I read somewhere that Franco Di Picolli, the 213lb Italian who won gold at heavyweight, was such an overwhelming favourite to win Gold. He was a good deal older and in a physical prime compared to Ali who was still rather boyish at that time. As it turned out Franco won the final in about 90 seconds. He didn’t do much as a pro, so maybe it worked out for the best that the USA aimed for the LHW gold instead tgat year?

 

Oh absolutely. It was interesting reading about Price too, a dedicated military guy.

 

I was hoping you'd sift tru this thread again. Always great on point info friend!

 

Yeah he was still growing in his last fight in 81 when he came in at over 235 pounds

 

The article certainly implies that, but that may just be the Philadelphia Daily News painting the rosiest possible picture of the Philadelphia fighter's achievements, just as the Louisville Courier Journal gives us a more pro-Clay line.

Looking at the reporting in chronological order:

May 25th - the Olympic team is announced with Clay and Price at light-heavyweight and heavyweight respectively, and Allen Hudson and Elmer Rush as alternates.

https://ibb.co/kh00Gg3

July 30th - the Courier Journal reports that Clay is taking over the heavyweight spot, with Hudson stepping in at light-heavy.

https://ibb.co/h7XXHzR

August 4th - Clay and Price box an exhibition at Fort Dix, with Hudson going against Rush.

https://ibb.co/59WTttM

August 16th - the Courier Journal states that Clay is dropping back down to light-heavy to fill in for the injured Hudson.

https://ibb.co/0jnRJH9

August 27th - the Philadelphia Daily News prints its story about Price impressing in the exhibition with Clay.

https://ibb.co/pXFPLP9

 

Great job.

 

You can grow after 18. Pretty simple. He got a bit taller, thickened up, etc. Why fight at HW if you can make LHW?

 

"Almost 20lbs", well, specifically 13.5lbs heavier than the LHW amateur limit.

I think you're reading too much into it. My guess is that like probably every other boxer at that Olympics, he fought in the lightest weight division he could safely make.

After turning pro, getting close to his eventual 6ft 3ins, with a lower pro LHW limit of 175lbs and realising at 18 he was only ever going to get bigger, it made sense to start in the HW division he was always going to have a pro career in.

For a guy that size who had likely been cutting to make 178.5lbs, its not that much to grow to 192lbs, which was his pro debut weight, with a diet to support it.

He was 188lbs vs Miteff a year after his pro debut, no crazy weight gain at a growing age more than a year since making 178.5lbs for the Olympics, relatively little actually, given he'd have gone from dieting to make weight to dieting to fill out his HW frame.

 

It was almost 8 weeks and 13,5 lbs.

As you can read in one of the articles posted here, he was on a special diet to make 178,5. After that he probably turned his diet in the other direction in order to become bigger. He then kept pretty much the same weight for more than a year.

If it was steroids, he must have been a real pioneer. It's true that steroids had been introduced to the American weight lifting team, but even they were still sceptical at the time of the Olympics. It wasn't until 1963 that the first team started with it in American Football.

 

In three weeks?

This was early 1960s. unheard of at that time.

 

In 8 weeks.

Way before that, Tommy Burns lost 12.5lbs and Bill Squires lost 15lbs, between their 1st and 2nd fights, which were around 9.5 weeks apart. There are more extreme examples than that, too. E.g. Sam Langford putting on 12lbs in the 1-week between 31st March to 7th April, 1916.

So, 8 weeks not 3, and not at all unheard of. Otherwise, good post.

 

Losing is different to gaining though. Whoever gained that much within that late 1950s era?

One would assume the Sam Langford days are less reliably recorded.