Bu Brandon Zhu
On this day in 1960, Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) won the light heavyweight boxing gold medal at the Rome Olympics. The legendary boxer beat 3-time European champion Zbigniew Pietrzykowski of Poland by unanimous decision. Ali, one of the most vocal fighters, was famous for his trash talk and ability to back it up. In his words, “ I wrestled with alligators, I’ve tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning, and thrown thunder in jail. You know I’m bad. Just last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick. I’m so mean, I make medicine sick.” Ali was as fierce as they came, and at thirty two years old put on one of boxing’s most famous fights dubbed “The Rumble in the Jungle.” Ali came in as a 4-1 underdog against the unbeaten, heavy-hitting George Foreman. Ali won the fight with a knockout victory, and the fight was the world’s most watched live television broadcast at the time.