Madigan vs Clay

Nineteen boxers competed in the 1960 Olympic Games. And after three rounds of wins, Australian Tony Madigan reached the semi-finals, looking for a place in the gold medal bout. His opponent? A promising but little-known amateur, boxing in his first ever Olympics: Cassius Clay. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Nineteen boxers competed in the nineteen sixty Olympic Games, and
after three rounds of wins, Australian Tony Madigan reached the
semi finals looking for a place in the gold medal bout.
His opponent was only a teenager, a promising but little
known amateur boxing in his first ever Olympics. His name

(00:26):
Cassius clay Hey. Welcome to the pool room where we
celebrate the winners, losers and the weird stuff between. I'm
Tony Armstrong Anthony Morgan. Madigan loved to throw a punch.

(01:03):
His boxing career began as an eight year old before
it fully bloomed. He played first class rugby in Sydney,
London and New York, but boxing was his real love.
He started as a middleweight at the Helsinki Games in
nineteen fifty two. When he arrived in Finland, Tony only

(01:25):
had fifteen fights to his name. He'd had to raise
the seven hundred and fifty pounds himself to get to
the Olympics, borrowing from friends and fans who believed in
his talent. That year, he finished fifth, but he wasn't deterred.
He would fight again. Then West Germany nineteen fifty five,

(01:50):
and Tony was making a living in Europe selling encyclopedias.
On icy winter roads. Headed to the ski fields, he
swerved to avoid a t and lost control of his car.
His passenger was killed in the accident, and Madigan suffered
serious injuries that could have been career ending, but Tony's
tenacity prevailed. He fought again in Melbourne in nineteen fifty six.

(02:14):
Once again he finished fifth. Lucky for him, neither the
accident nor the boxing did any lasting damage, especially to
his face. He had a strong jaw and cheekbones for days,
and in the fifties he moved to London to unleash

(02:34):
he's best blue steel. Those good looks took him from
Europe to New York, appearing in magazine ads and TV
spots advertising beer, men's products and other stuff were not
allowed to advertise anymore. Actually, his modeling career almost cost
him his Olympic medal. When he came home to Usustralia

(03:00):
for selection trials, the selectors had already picked another bloke,
assuming Tony had made a permanent shift overseas to be
professionally handsome. But he rocked up anyway, determined to face
off against the other guy at Queensland, the named Ken
Marshall and take his place in the national team. Officials
didn't like it, but when Madigan thrashed Marshall in a
box off, they didn't have much choice but to send

(03:22):
him to Rome. He arrived in Italy ready to face
almost anyone. Almost. Madigan and Clay had met before, only
eighteen months earlier, at the Intercity Golden Gloves Light Heavyweight

(03:43):
Championships in Chicago. Clay had won twice, both times on
the judges' cards. This time a spot in the gold
medal bout was on the line. Madigan was twelve years older,
but Clay already had one hundred victories under his ball.
After five tough rounds of fighting, it came down to points.

(04:05):
The judges scored at seventy sixty seven and Clay won unanimously.
The Sydney sports journal Ernie Christensen wrote that Tony had
been robbed. In fact, heaps of people thought Madigan should

(04:30):
have gone through to the final bout. According to legend
and onlookers, the crowd booed for so long that they
delayed the next fight for several minutes. Although if you've
ever seen Ossy's in a sporting crowd, you know they'll
boo pretty much anything, so who can say. Clay went

(04:51):
on to win the gold in nineteen sixty four. He
went pro, defending his heavyweight World Championship title nineteen times.
Rome was his only Olympic medal. According to Tony's friend
Anthony abrahams Cassius had once said, you won the fight,
but I got the medal. Total hearsay, but maybe a

(05:14):
reflection of how beloved Tony was and how much Australia
wanted him to win. Decades after the fight in Rome,
Tony was in Atlantic City. It was nineteen eighty eight
and the famous once and for all about between Mike

(05:35):
Tyson and Michael Spinx was about to get underway. Tony's
long ago opponent had become one of the greatest boxers
of all time, unbelievably famous, a living legend. Abraham says
there was a commotion at the door as the man
now known as Muhammad Ali entered, surrounded by fans. The

(05:57):
icon looked up, embraced his form of and said, Tony Madigan,
we're both getting old. On his return from Rome, Tony
Madigan made another attempt at a showbiz career and appeared
in a single episode of Whiplash and Australian Western set

(06:19):
in the nineteenth century outback, not a genre we've really
seen again. Surprisingly, it didn't blow the socks off any
reviewers and it wasn't Tony Madigan's big acting break. Madigan's
focus shifted. Eventually he settled into a quieter life in
the South of France, where he indulged his love of
sailing and so not. Having managed to make his name

(06:47):
as a Hollywood hunk, Madigan entered the record books as
a boxer. He fought everywhere from London to New Zealand.
In two thousand he was awarded the Australian Sports Medal,
and in twenty ten he was inducted into the Australian
National Boxing Hall of Fame. He's not our best performing amateur,

(07:10):
but Tony Madigan is still remembered as one of our greatest.
No Australian boxer has more Olympic appearances than him, and
his bronze medal is one of only six we've ever
won for Olympic boxing. But of course, most memorably, in
his whole career, only two men ever beat him more
than once. Australian Frek Casey was one and the other

(07:33):
was Muhammad Ali. Thanks for hanging out in the pool room.
I'm Tony Armstrong and this has been an iHeart production.

(07:56):
I'll speak to you next time for another brilliant sports story.
See ya.