Cassius Clay 1960 Golden Gloves 33rd Annual Inter-City bouts official Madison Square Garden amateur on-site programme, Monday March 21 1960, Madison Square Garden, New York.

Cassius Clay fought brilliantly as an amateur during 1960. He was aged 18 and stood 6 feet, 1 inch tall and weighed a sleek 180lbs. He breezed to his sixth Kentucky Golden Gloves title and early in March, his flashy, fast-punching style won him the Tournament Of Champions Competition in Chicago. He was fighting as a heavyweight now (so that his brother Rudy could compete as a light-heavyweight wthout the threat of having to meet Cassius), yet he consistently confounded opponents with his great foot speed.

After his victory in Chicago, Clay went on to the Golden Gloves finals in Madison Square Garden in New York and, before more than 15,000 fans, he came from behind to score a third round knockout over Eastern champion Gary Jawish of Washington, D.C. Jawish out-boxed Clay in the first round and carried the fight to Clay in the second. Cassius opened up in the third and floored Jawish with a pair of rights. The fight was over in 1.59 of the third round. Physically, Clay was at a terrible advantage for the bout. He had to load up with water to make the weight and even then Jawish held a forty-pound advantage over him.


Condition very good (has some wear and soiling on covers, a small abrasion on back cover, a few tiny red dots here and there, otherwise intact, no other markings, or cutouts. Just a marvelous RARE AMATEUR HARD-TO-FIND PROGRAMME associated with The Greatest!!)

Price: £ SOLD

Cassius Clay Defeats Gary Jawish To Win The 1960 Inter-City Golden Gloves

Like future opponents and fellow world heavyweight champions Patterson, Frazier, Foreman and Spinks, Clay crowned his amateur career by winning an Olympic gold medal. This he achieved in the light-heavyweight division at the XVII Olympiad held in Rome during the summer of 1960. His well known fear of flying almost prevented him from appearing at the games and it took all of Joe Martins persuasive powers to convince his young protege that this was one plane ride he had to take. Clay's opening bout was against Belgian Yvon Becaus who was unable to cope with the young American's combination punches and was stopped in the second round. Next up was the Russian Guennadiy Shatkov who was Olympic middleweight champion 4 years before, he was far more experienced than his opponent but Clay's superior ability saw him through to an undisputed victory. In the semi-final the 18 year old met up with old rival Tony Madigan whom he had beaten the previous year in the national golden gloves. The aggressive Australian pressed forward throughout the 3 rounds but Clay boxed intelligently on the retreat, scoring effectively to register another unanimous points win. His opponent in the final was Zbigniew Pietrzykowski, a 25-year old southpaw. Pietrzykowski was a tipple European champion and an Olympic bronze medallist but Clay handled him with surprising ease once he had solved the problem of the pole's awkward style. In the last round the Louisville youngster administered a fearful battering, opening up a cut over the pole's left eye and rendering him out on his feet at the bell. Even the Pole's in the 16,000 audience could not disagree as all 5 judges voted Clay Olympic champion.