Show:15962

1961-02-21 Auditorium, Miami Beach, Florida, US

• Muhammad Ali W RTD Donnie Fleeman
• Johnny Sarduy W PTS Hector Rodriguez
• Otha Brown W PTS Cliff Morris
• Vince Bonomo W TKO Ray Sheppard

This was Ali’s (Clay’s) fifth fight. He KO'd Donnie Fleeman after six rounds, during which Fleeman suffered an injured rib.

The Miami Beach Auditorium is today called the Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater. It was an odd venue for a prize-fight because it had a proscenium stage, so most of the audience sat on one side of the ring.

Admission prices started at $1.50, which included free parking in the rear.

The program was a Chris Dundee (of the 5th Street Gym) promotion. The elder Dundee brother may have provided the venue and club fighters, while younger brother Angelo brought in budding star Cassius Clay.

On the under-card Johnny Sarduy defeated Hector Rodriguez by PTS over ten rounds. Hailing out of Cuba with a lifetime record of 33-7-4, Sarduy fought, between 1955 through 1960, almost exclusively in Cuba--before Fidel Castro showed up and outlawed professional boxing. He migrated to Miami during the great Cuban exodus of 1960. He would fight only twice in Miami (both victories over Hector Rodriguez) before retiring.

Hector Rodriguez must have been a classic "opponent." Although his lifetime record is a dismal 16-35-1, he was stopped only five times. He must have been a promoter’s dream come true, because you could depend on him to lose when you needed it, but were pretty much guaranteed a distance fight.

Rodriguez seems to have had two careers as an "opponent": first fighting almost exclusively in the Miami area from 1958 through ’62, and then disappearing for a year; only to reappear in the New England area, where he again fights almost exclusively in that area, campaigning for another 24 fights. It looks as though he may have worn out his welcome in Miami and decided to take his unique talent for habitually losing north. Over one span, in the New England area, Hector dropped 13 fights in a row, with no stoppages, going the distance every time.

Otha Brown did not fight Sammy Stone, as originally scheduled and advertised on posters, etc., but instead fought what looks to be a last minute replacement: one Cliff Morris, whose lifetime record reads 0-3-1. Somehow the limited Morris extended the undefeated Brown the distance (10 rounds). Brown eventually caught up to Sammy Stone two years later, at the same venue, winning a ten rounder on PTS.