1960 Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) First Professional Fight Card Program. ...

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1960 Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) First Professional Fight Card Program. A month earlier, on September 5, 1960, an eighteen year old Cassius Clay stood proudly on the top level of an Olympic podium in Rome as the American national anthem played in his honor. Here we find what is arguably the rarest relic in the professional career of the Light Heavyweight Gold Medalist, the modest single-page fight card for Clay's professional debut at the Freedom Hall State Fairground in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, a six-round meeting with the thirty year old police chief of Fayetteville, West Virginia, Tunney Hunsaker on October 29, 1960. After the bout, Hunsaker would report, "Clay was as fast as lightning. I tried every trick I knew to throw at him off balance but he was just too good." And so began the path to a 1964 meeting with Sonny Liston at Miami Beach, and the Heavyweight Championship belt. The 7x9.5" page survives in astoundingly fine condition with no creasing or tearing. Unscored. This program originates from the granddaughter of Joe Martin. Joe Martin was the police officer who introduced Clay to boxing as a youngster.