May 30, 1964 - More than 25,000 wildly cheering fans watched world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali’s exhibition bout in Accra, Ghana, tonight. Ali boxed three rounds each with his younger brother Rudolph and with Ghanian light-heavyweight Jojo Miles.
At the end of the exhibition, Ali said:
“You should see me in action when I’m serious. What you just saw was the result of a deal with these two men. I am the king of the world. Isn’t it something for a man to enter the ring 182 times and come out without a scratch?”
Referring to Floyd Patterson, who Ali said “wants to fight me,” he said: “I repeat he’ll go down in one.”
Earlier, Ghanian artist John K. Sallah presented Ali an oil painting of himself as a traditional ruler dressed in a toga-like handwoven “kente” sitting on a stool with a “sword of state” — symbol of his authority — in his right hand.
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