Cassius Clay (soon

Muhammad Ali Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, a ...

) and Doug Jones fought a ten-round boxing match at

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...

in New York City, on March 13, 1963. Clay won the bout on points through a close but unanimous decision.

Viewership and revenue

The fight was Madison Square Garden's first boxing sellout in 13 years, grossing a live gate of $304,943 ($ inflation adjusted). The fight purses were $90,000 ($ inflation adjusted) for Clay and $75,000 for Jones. The fight had a closed-circuit

theatre television An Eidophor was a video projector used to create theater-sized images from an analog video signal. The name Eidophor is derived from the Greek word-roots ''eido'' and ''phor'' meaning 'image' and 'bearer' (carrier). Its basic technology was th ...

broadcast, which drew 150,000

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program guid ...

buys, including 9,000 in Texas and 1,500 at Syria Mosque. The fight grossed $500,000 ($ inflation adjusted) in closed-circuit television revenue. In addition, the fight also had a

home television broadcast in Toronto and

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

. The fight's combined live gate and closed-circuit revenue was $ ($ inflation adjusted).

References

Jones 1963 in boxing March 1963 sports events in the United States Pay-per-view boxing matches {{boxing-stub