World Stage: An Olympic Introduction to the Greatest of All Time

"In the first round, it seemed that Clay would be badly mauled. He was confused by his opponent's southpaw style, took some heavy punishment, and once showed his inexperience by closing his eyes in the face of a barrage of blows. Clay managed to keep out of trouble in the second round, and in the last minute he abandoned his show-off style with the fancy footwork and dropped hands, and stood his ground to throw four hard rights to the head. Even so, he was still behind on points at this crucial stage. 'I knew,' he explained afterwards, 'that I had to take the third round big to win.'

Clay did finish big. In that final round he suddenly found his top form, moving in and out with expert judgment, punching crisply and with perfect timing. This sharper, better coordinated Clay stormed back with a torrent of combination punching that left Pietrzykowski dazed. He no longer relied too much on his left jab, but made equal use of his right to penetrate the southpaw's guard. Ripping into the stamina-lacking Pole, he drew blood and came preciously close to scoring a knock-out. At the final bell, Pietrzykowski was slumped helplessly against the ropes. There was no doubting the verdict. All the judges made Clay the points winner."                                                                                                                       -- Description of Clay's final Olympic bout by British journalist John Cottrell in Man of Destiny, a read in Thomas Hauser's Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times