Maybe the greatest Bragr ever was just flat out the Greatest, Muhammad Ali. He talked a big game and backed it up. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Always talking. Always moving. Always the greatest.

Ali was still an upstart, Cassius Clay then, when he beat the heavyweight champ Sonny Liston in 1964. Forty-three of 45 fight writers predicted Liston would win the fight. But at the weigh-in Ali was talking and talking and talking, “I’m the champ. Tell Sonny I’m here. Bring that big ugly bear on.”

After the seventh round, when Liston did not come out from his corner, Ali raised his arms and launched in to his famous Ali shuffle. With Howard Cosell shouting “Wait a minute. Liston is not coming out!”

To all the writers, Clay shouted, “Eat your words. I’m the Greatest. I shook up the world.”

Bragging and backing it up.

ell Sonny I’m here. Bring that big ugly bear on.”

The fight produced too one of the greatest sports photos of all time. Share the Game.