Nov. 16, 1964 - Heavyweight boxing champ Muhammad Ali paced a flower-filled hospital room tonight across the city from the arena where on this night he was to have defended his crown against Sonny Liston.
Ali was floored by an incarcerated hernia and underwent immediate surgery Friday night, just 72 hours before he was scheduled to step into the Boston Garden ring against Liston.
Dr. William McDermott, professor of surgery at Harvard University and director of surgery at Boston City Hospital, said Ali will not be able to fight again for at least six months.
He said, however, that the 22-year-old Ali is making remarkable progress and already is walking around his room at the hospital.
Dr. McDermott said Ali will be discharged from the hospital next weekend and will be permitted to go back home to Louisville or to Miami, as he wishes, for another three weeks of quiet recuperation.
Clarence X, a spokesman for the Boston branch of the Nation of Islam, said Ali is talking about “getting the big bear, Liston, before he gets too far away.”
“He’s anxious to get back into training,” said Clarence X.
Liston left Boston for his home in Denver Saturday with the lament: “I feel very bad. I was ready to go. Clay probably got that hernia because when he opens his mouth so wide with so much talk, a lot of wind gets in. His hernia gave me some financial surgery.”
The hospital said that although the doctor chose to perform the operation without fee, Ali would be billed $24 a day for his private room like any other patient.
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