How it unfolded
The 22-year-old Cassius Clay was a 7-to-1 underdog. His opponent Sonny Liston was a feared champion who had put Floyd Patterson to sleep in the first round twice. Clay's manic behavior at the weigh-in was both provocation and psychological warfare. Before a crowd of barely 8,000 at the Convention Hall, Clay circled from the first round and stayed outside Liston's jab range, then opened a cut under Liston's eye in the third. Trouble came in the fifth. Something got in his eyes and he couldn't see; Clay asked his corner to cut off his gloves, but Angelo Dundee shoved him back out, and Clay survived a round until his vision cleared. He resumed his attack in the sixth, and when the bell rang for round 7, Liston did not rise from his stool, citing a shoulder injury. Clay climbed the ropes and shouted to reporters that he had shaken up the world.
Why it still matters
The center of boxing shifted after this night. It proved a heavyweight could move like a middleweight, and two days later Clay announced he had joined the Nation of Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali, launching a career that would produce the biggest cultural impact in sports history. It is the archetype of an overwhelming underdog opening a new era in one upset.