King of the World by David Remnick was an enjoyable book from the first page to the last page. It was interesting in more than many ways. It pointed out many events that began to change throughout that decade. I thought I knew a lot about Cassius Clay and boxing, but I was wrong. I annotated several parts while reading the King of the World, but if I choose to write about all of them, then you would be reading this paper until the end of this decade. I narrowed my list down to what I thought was some of the most revealing parts of the book. .
Some of those points include Cassius Clay's rebelliousness that nearly cost him his chance at the title, his conversion to the Islamic religion, his defiance to be drafted in the Vietnam War, and the way in which blacks were treated during the 1960's. These all were interesting parts of the book, but for me the fourth round in the Sonny Liston fight was by far the most intriguing.
At the end of the third round Liston had realized that Muhammad Ali was not only faster and stronger, but also smarter then him. When Liston soon realizes that he is tiring fast and under prepared, he decides to perform the most desperate act in the sport of boxing. Liston in a cowardly attempt to gain the advantage, instructs his corner man Joe Pollino to rub a substance on his gloves. At the beginning of the fourth round Liston tries to rub the unknown substance into Ali's eyes to cause temporary blinding and severe stinging. The chemical could either be liniment oil of wintergreen, or ferric chloride, which is used to seal cuts.
Liston succeeds in administering the liquid into Ali's eyes, but fails in everything else. Though Ali suffers from the pain it still isn't enough to stop the swift Kentucky kid. When the round ends, Ali heads back to his corner in excruciating pain screaming to his corner man Angelo Dundee to take off his gloves. Ali cry's "cut "em off! Cut "em off! I can't see! At this time Dundee makes the most important decision of the two decades of working with Clay.
