In the wake of Muhammad Ali’s death, I decided to pay tribute to The Greatest by looking back at his career through the lens of SMF. I haven’t reviewed too many fighters from previous generations, for two primary reasons - 1) styles did not have as much variance (due both to garment making limitations and sports customs) prior to the mid 1970s and 2) even if they did, black and white photos and videos make it difficult to decipher important details. I was a bit worried about these limitations when reviewing Ali, but I found that I was able to piece together sufficient details in most situations. Furthermore, as someone who was not alive during most of Ali’s reign, it allowed me to appreciate his career beyond the handful of fights that are most famous. Lets start at the beginning.



Cassius Clay began his professional career in 1960 against Tunney Hunsaker, pictured above. Limited information exists about these trunks - the USA Trunks - but I am led to believe that they were among the most colorful of his career.



If this painting is accurate, they are white trunks with a red waistband, blue stripe down the side and USA written in white down the blue stripe. What a classic look. He wore these trunks for the first several fights of his career, before switching, against Duke Sabadong in the summer of 1961, to white trunks, black stripe and black waistband - his Standard Set.



Here’s a better shot against Alonzo Johnson later that summer:



He wore the Standard Set for several fights in a row in the early 60s. The only real difference from fight to fight would be footwear (always white, but with some variations), socks (usually invisible, but occasionally white an red, other times white and black) and - most notably - the words on his waist band. Below, against Don Warner in February 1962, he sported EVERLAST:



4 fights (and just 9 months later), he beat Archie Moore wearing the Standard Set with a “UNITED” brand tag:



Against Doug Jones in 1963, Clay wore his Standard Set, this time by G&S:

G&S was a famous, family-owned apparel supplier for boxers, based on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

The storefront no longer exists, but they still sell fight gear online.



Clay started to branch out a bit for his June 1963 fight against Henry Cooper in London. He wore red trunks with white stripes and a white waistband with “AMPRO” on the front.



A colorized photo of Cooper’s knockdown of Clay illustrates a bit more:

Clay won anyway, and famously beat Sonny Liston in Miami Beach in February of 1964 wearing an outstanding set:



White trunks, black waistband with EVERLAST across it, red stripes and a vertical CC in red cursive on the left thigh. An accurate remake below:



Cassius Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali after this fight, and fought Sonny Liston again in 1965 in his Standard Set:

He fought in his Standard Set in his 1965 fights against Patterson, Chuvalo and Cooper, with only minimal changes - Everlast usually, swtiched to AMPRO in his rematch with Cooper:

Worth noting that one colorized version of this fight has Ali in white with royal blue.



While possible, I could not verify anywhere and I would suspect that this represents a bit of artistic license and Ali’s trunks were indeed white and black.



He wore his Standard Set against Brian London and then switched things up against Karl Mildenberger in Frankfurt Germany in September ‘66:

Ali sported white trunks, red trim (AMPRO on the waistband) and white & red adidas shoes. He returned to the US and beat Cleveland Williams in Houston in his Standard Set but with the adidas from his fight in Germany:

Ali repeated his Red look against Ernie Terrell (below) and Zora Folley in 1967 (but wore all white shoes in the latter).

Ali refused to enter the military draft for Vietnam, and as a result was out of boxing for 3 years. He returned in 1970 against Jerry Quarry in Atlanta in his Standard Set, but changed things up in his next fight against Oscar Bonavena in Madison Square Garden:

Its the first time that Ali wore non-white trunks since his first fight with Cooper, and his first fight wearing tassels on his shoes. He, of course, repeated this look in the Fight of the Century with Joe Frazier 3 months later in March of 1971 - a fight which looked so good that its the featured backdrop of this tumblr.



In his bounce-back fight 4 months later in Houston, he fought Jimmy Ellis wearing all-white trunks with Everlast on the waistband:

He beat Buster Mathis and Juergen Blin in his Standard Set, and then beat Mac Foster in Tokyo in April 1972 in his White w Red set.

From this point onward - the final 25 fights of his career - Ali wore only his Standard Set. The changes from fight to fight were minor. When he fought Bob Foster in November 1972, his Standard Set had an advertisement for “Williams Furniture” instead of a brand like Everlast or AMPRO:



After 1972 (in which Ali fought 6 times, unthinkable nowadays), he continued on with his Standard Set - against Bugner (sporting new all-white shoes) and twice against Ken Norton (with the only difference being some red and white socks)

And in 1974 he brought the same look to rematch Frazier in New York and meet Foreman in Kinshasa:

In ‘75, Wepner, Lyle, Bugner (not pictured) and the Thrilla in Manilla all followed suit:

In ‘76 Coopman, Young and Dunn fights had the same look, as did his third fight with Norton in Yankee Stadium– although for the Norton fight he did sport some new adidas shoes:

Ali’s trunks were made by Mitre for some of his later fights (below against Shavers):

Ali added red shoes against Larry Holmes, and his final fights had trunks made by Macgregor (as shown in his last fight against Trevor Berbick, in Nassau in 1981). Ali, in his entire career, never once wore his name on his trunks.



Rest in Peace Champ.



Respect Box.

