When NBA Legend Wilt Chamberlain Challenged Muhammad Ali to a Boxing Fight at Madison Garden

The fight that never happened but could have taken a piece of history if it ever did. The Greatest, Muhammad Ali vs NBA star Wilt Chamberlain.  It was back in 1967 when for the first time there appeared a prospect of this encounter. Well, over time due to immense reasons, fans never got to witness it.

On Howard Cosell’s show on ABC in that year, the two incredible stars decided on a potential matchup in the ring. At that time, Wilt Chamberlain was stepping in the last stage of his NBA career and had broken numerous records in basketball. He wanted to prove his worth in the sports world by defeating the beast of all time.

The big face-off was going to take place at the Madison Square Garden. While Wilt was a 2-time NBA champion by then, Ali was new to the boxing world. He had just made a beginning to the future studded career that he went on to have.

Ali refused to sign the deal in 1967 and this followed up till 1970. At that time Ali had refused to enter the military and his boxing license was denied until 1971. With his arrival back in the ring, talks over the Wilt-Ali fight began again.

Wilt Chamberlain didn’t turn up for the big fight

Wilt was done with his NBA career by then. He had completed 13 years of career in the NBA and touched heights in his field. On the other hand, Muhammad Ali had reached a peak in his career and recorded 31-0 with 25 knockouts by then. But around that time he had faced defeat against Joe Frazier in heavyweight championship title.

The duo was finally set up by Jim Brown to go up against each other. Well, the day had arrived. Ali was at the press conference waiting for Chamberlain to arrive. But guess what? That never happened. Wilt didn’t make his appearance and it became a piece of huge news all over the sporting world.

Rumors started encircling around why the NBA star didn’t make an appearance at the final moment. Chamberlain’s attorneys had made a statement in response to all these questions. The reason that they gave was that the after-tax money was going to be only $500,000 which wasn’t worth the effort and time.

There was plenty of gossip around this for a long time. Later in an interview, Wilt mentioned his reasoning. “I remember leaving my place in L.A. and — my father is a big fight fan — and I said, `Dad, I got a couple of days off, and I’m getting ready to go to Houston to sign to fight Muhammad Ali.’” His father rather advised him to go and play his game. “And I looked at my Dad and said, ‘Well, Dad, you’re probably right.”

There have been various assumptions about WIlt sneaking out of the whooping matchup of these two stars. But at the end, those rumors are all we got. Imagine what would have happened out there in Madison if this actually happened?

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