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Listen now: History of the Heavyweight Championship, 1961

Welcome to the history of the heavyweight championship of the world.

Yahoo Sport will release a podcast led by legend Steve Bunce for each year of the golden age of boxing; the 1960s.

This podcast covers 1961, featuring Floyd Patterson’s third fight with Ingemar Johansson, the deadly Swede, for the championship. 15,000 spectators including Rocky Marciano and Joe Louis watched the back-and-forth fight unfold.

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Next up is Sonny Liston – introduced to the crowd before the Patterson-Johansson match-up – who appeared to be closing in on a title tilt of his own.

The pod ends with Bunce discussing the ascent of Muhammad Ali – then known as Cassius Clay – garnering both positive and negative press with his outspoken approach to boxing, and how he enjoyed his own meeting with Johansson.