26 Feb 2014

50 years since Ali won his first world title

6:02 am on 26 February 2014

It is 50 years ago that Muhammad Ali won his first heavyweight boxing championship of the world.

On this day in 1964 Cassius Clay dethroned Sonny Liston in Miami Beach to launch a career that would end with him known as "The Greatest".

The next day Clay announced he was joining the religious black power movement, the Nation of Islam, and changing his name to Muhammad Ali.

Ali won 56 of his 61 bouts and remains the only three-time World Heavyweight Champion; he won the title in 1964, 1974, and 1978.