Muhammad Ali vs Karl Mildenberger 10.9.1966 – World Heavyweight Championship (Highlights)

Muhammad Ali makes the 6th defence of his World Heavyweight title against Karl Mildenberger in the first World Heavyweight title fight fought on German soil. More info below…

Karl Mildenberger was a very successful and popular boxer on the European circuit who had been around since 1958. He started as a light heavyweight but after suffering a KO loss in an eliminator bout for the German Light Heavyweight title, he quickly switched focus to the heavyweight division. Mildenberger didn’t have the biggest punch in the division but he was a cagey south paw who presented a lot of experienced boxers with some serious problems, even if he was guilty of occasionally being boring to watch. Men such as Pete Rademacher, Wayne Bethea, Franco Cavicchi, Jimmy Slade and Wim Snoek all lost decisions to Mildenberger early on. In 1962 Mildenberger earned a shot at the European Heavyweight title held by Dick Richardson, and in an absolute shocker, Mildenberger was knocked out in the 1st round. It would turn out to be Richardson’s last win as well as he would retire the follwoing year after suffering losses to Ingemar Johansson and Henry Cooper. Mildenberger would go undefeated in his next 12 fights to earn another crack at the now vacant European Heavyweight title against Italy Heavyweight Champion, Santo Amonti. In a complete roll reversal, Mildenberger scored his own 1st Round KO to win the title. Over the next couple years Mildenberger continued to plow through journeyman while defending his European title against the likes of Italian Heavyweight Champion, Piero Tomasoni, German Heavyweight Champion Gerhard Zech and future European Light Heavyweight Champion, Ivan Prebeg. Mildenberger’s record was sitting at 49-2-3 and with the exception of Sonny Liston, he had the best record of anybody Ali had faced to date. Mildenberger also had the privilege of being the first ever south paw to fight for the World Heavyweight title.

Ali was undefeated with 25 fights under his belt and had won the World Heavyweight title in 1964 when Sonny Liston surprisingly retired on his stool after 7 rounds citing a dubious shoulder injury. Ali had since defended the title 5 times against Liston and Henry Cooper in rematchs, George Chuvalo, Floyd Patterson and most recently, Brian London.

Although Ali was in control for most of the fight and even dished out some big damage when dropping Mildenberger in rounds 5, 8 and 10, Mildenberger didn’t know how to quit. He would keep taking the fight to Ali, even landing a few decent shots of his own, including a solid liver shot in Rd 8. That particular punch frustrated Ali, with Angelo Dundee (Ali’s trainer) saying that Milderberger’s liver punch was the first punch that anybody had truly ever hurt Ali with. But, as game as Mildenberger was, the fight was stopped in Rd 12 to prevent further punishment to the German challenger with Ali clearly ahead on all 3 score cards. Ali was quoted in 1973 as saying that Mildenberger was the toughest fight he had been in.

After the fight with Ali, Mildenberger continued to defend his European Heavyweight title with wins over Billy Walker and Piero Tomasoni in a rematch to keep himself in the heavyweight spot light. In 1967 Mildenberger was picked to compete in an elimination tournament for the WBA World Heavyweight Championship following Muhammad Ali being stripped of the title for refusal to be drafted into the Vietnam War. Mildenberger was soundly beaten however in the first round of the tournament by the heavier hitting Oscar Bonavena and was dropped several times during the contest. Mildenberger was not the same fighter after the loss and almost exactly a year later he would retire from boxing following a KO loss to Leotis Martin and then getting disqualified against Henry Cooper, losing his European title in the process. Mildenberger retired from boxing with a 53-6-3 record in 1968 and took up a career as a lifeguard.