Thousands of people lined the streets of downtown Louisville, Kentucky to enjoy the festivities as the city honored one of its own with a well-deserved parade.  The local High School band played on as the new Heavyweight Champion of the World rode with his wife in an open convertible, proudly acknowledging the cheering crowd.   The city’s Mayor proclaimed the special day in honor of the newly crowned champion.    

On this day, the celebration was not to acknowledge the accomplishments of Cassius Clay (later to be known as Muhammad Ali),  the city’s most famous native son.  The recipient of this day’s accolades was Jimmy Ellis, the recently crowned world Heavyweight champion.   Ellis was being honored after completing an improbable evolution from being Clay/ Ali’s  main sparing partner to winning the top prize in the Heavyweight division.   Quite an accomplishment for the skinny kid who ran around the streets of Louisville with his childhood friend, the self proclaimed  “Greatest of All Time” Cassius Clay.  

James Albert Ellis was born February 24, 1940 in Louisville, Kentucky.  One of eight children,  Ellis excelled in sports while in High School, especially basketball.  However, in his early teens he was attracted to boxing after watching several fights on television, and decided to join a gym to pursue his newfound interest in the sport.  As fate would have it, a young Cassius Clay was training at the same gym as Ellis.  Unknown to either one, their chance meeting would develop into a lifelong friendship that was fueled by their training together and sparing with each other.  Their friendship would also endure their several encounters inside the ring both as amateurs and as professionals. 

In their amateur days, Ellis and Clay met twice, with Clay winning their first bout and Ellis victorious in the second.  After an amateur career in which he won 59 of 66 bouts,  including a Golden Gloves championship, Ellis made his debut in the professional ranks in April 1961 with a “TKO” victory over his more experienced  opponent.  He began his “fight for pay” career in the Middleweight division by winning 11 of his first 12 encounters,  his only loss by a decision against the vastly experienced and dangerous Holley Mims, a veteran of 81 fights against the division’s top fighters.  

Ellis recovered from his initial loss by winning his next six fights, including a rematch with his conqueror, Holley Mims.   However,  his career took a downward turn, as he proceeded to lose four of his next eight fights.   Apparently rushed too quickly into fighting the division’s top fighters,  Ellis found himself on the short end of decision losses against highly ranked Henry Hank,  Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, Don Fullmer and George Benton. 

While contemplating his future in the ring after the losses, Ellis made a decision that would forever change his life and his fortune inside the sport.  He wrote a letter to one of boxing’s best trainers and a future Hall-Of-Famer, Angelo Dundee, asking for help in resurrecting his fading boxing career.   Dundee agreed to manage Ellis, and the fighter quickly joined Dundee’s stable of fighters at the fabled  “Fifth Street Gym” in Miami Beach, Florida.  The shining star of Dundee’s stable was Ellis’ boyhood friend from his Louisville days, Cassius Clay, now known as Muhammad Ali after winning the “WBA” Heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston.  Ellis became Ali’s primary sparing partner, which helped to quicken his development into a full-fledged heavyweight fighter. 

At the urging of Dundee, his new manager and trainer, a newly inspired Jimmy Ellis began to slowly transform himself from a Middleweight fighter into the ranks of the Heavyweight division.   He won his next eight fights, five by knockouts, and was quickly establishing himself as a legitimate threat.  With his new found punching power and naturally bigger body,  the slick boxing Ellis became a highly ranked fighter in the Heavyweight division. 

At the height of the Vietnam War,  Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali was drafted into the armed forces.  In April 1967,  he refused induction into the military due to his religious beliefs and opposition to the war,  and was later convicted of evading the draft.   Due to his refusal to serve his country, the “WBA” quickly stripped Ali of his title and declared the title vacant.   Needing to find a successor to Ali’s now vacant title,  the “WBA” held an eight-man elimination tournament pitting the division’s top fighters.   The widely accepted number one challenger, Philadelphia’s Joe Frazier, did not agree with the proposed format and refused to take part in the tournament.  

Jimmy Ellis was one of the fighters invited to the tournament, and in August 1967 he won his first fight by a “TKO” over Philadelphia’s Leotis Martin due to Martin’s severely cut lip.  In his next tournament fight, Ellis was brilliant while winning a decision over Argentina’s Oscar “Ringo” Bonavena, in the process dropping the tough Argentinean in the third and tenth rounds.   Reaching the tournament’s championship fight in April 1968 against “Irish” Jerry Quarry,  Ellis was once again the underdog, as he had been in the previous two fights.  However,  Jimmy boxed beautifully,  frustrating Quarry with his boxing ability and fast hands.  After 15 rounds of boxing,  Jimmy Ellis was declared the winner and new Heavyweight champion of the world.   The remarkable transformation from being a non-descript Middleweight fighter to winning the most prestigious prize in all of sports was complete! 

However,  the new champion’s title reign was short lived, as he made only one successful defense of the title against former Heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson in Stockholm, Sweden.  In a highly controversial decision,  Ellis retained his title by getting the decision from the fight’s only voter, referee Harold Valan.  

While the eight-man tournament was under way, the boxing commissions of several states, led by the New York State Athletic Commission (“NYSAC”), did not approve of the tournament’s format and therefore refused to recognize the winner as new Heavyweight champion.  Supported by the commissions from the states of Illinois, Pennsylvania, Maine and Maryland,  the “NYSAC” approved a fight between top rated “Smoking” Joe Frazier and Buster Mathis with the winner to be recognized as the Heavyweight champion of the world.   In a competitive and exciting fight in New York’s Madison Square Garden in March 1968,   Frazier beat Mathis by a  “TKO” in 11 rounds and claimed the vacant Heavyweight title.   

After Frazier successfully defended his portion of the title on four occasions, he met Jimmy Ellis in February 1970 in what was billed as a “unification” bout, the winner to be recognized by both the “NYSAC” and the “WBA” as undisputed Heavyweight champion.   The fight, held in New York’s Madison Square Garden, was an even affair in the early rounds as Ellis held his own against the stronger and superior opponent.   However, Frazier’s relentless attack took its toll on Ellis, and a powerful series of punches knocked a hurt Ellis to the canvas in the fourth round.   Ellis beat the referee’s ten count, but another devastating left hook once again knocked Ellis down.   Displaying his undeniable courage and ability to take a punch,  Ellis was able to get up before the count of ten and barely survived until the bell ended the round.  A very hurt and wobbly Ellis barely made it to his corner, and his manager Angelo Dundee refused to let Ellis come out for the fifth round.   With his overwhelming victory,  Joe Frazier thus gained world wide recognition as the undisputed Heavyweight champion of the world.   Jimmy Ellis’ reign as champion had come to a painful end at the hands of the great “Smoking” Joe. 

Having lost his prized title, Ellis continued boxing and won 11 fights in the next three years, losing only once.  That loss came via a twelve round stoppage at the hands of his long time childhood friend,  Muhammad Ali, at the Houston Astrodome in Texas after Ali was allowed to resume his boxing career.  Ironically, this fight was the only time in Ali’s entire career that Angelo Dundee was not in his corner.   Being the manager of Ellis, but only Ali’s trainer, Dundee had no choice but to be in Ellis’ corner for this fight.    

With his skills in decline,  Ellis suffered five losses in his final eight contests, including a first round KO loss to Earnie Shavers,  and losses to Boone Kirkman, Ron Lyle, Hungary’s Joe Bugner and another “KO” loss in a rematch with Joe Frazier.   After a first round  KO victory against Carl Baker in May 1975, Ellis retired from boxing at the age of 35 as a result of a training accident that left him partially blind in one eye.    He finished with a career record of 40 wins (24 by KOs) 12 losses and one draw.  

** (On a personal note, this writer was in attendance for Ellis’ unification bout against Joe Frazier, and also at the Ellis fight against Earnie Shavers, both contests held at New York’s Madison Square Garden.  Frazier’s punches were devastating, and the hard punching Shavers hit Ellis with a single terrific uppercut late in the first round and Ellis was knocked out). 

In his retirement, Ellis worked for the city of Louisville Parks Department and also was involved in the sport by training some local fighters.  He and his wife Mary Etta, his high school sweetheart, were married when Ellis was 18 years old and she was 16.  For years, they both sang with a spiritual group at their Baptist Church in Louisville.  They raised six children.  Unfortunately, Ellis currently suffers from “dementia pugilistica” as a result of his boxing career. 

Jimmy Ellis has never received the recognition he deserves as a very good fighter mostly because he fought in an era with other outstanding Heavyweight fighters, such as Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Earnie Shavers, Ron Lyle and Jerry Quarry.  He was a very skilled fighter, with quick hands, an ability to take a good punch and  unquestioned courage. 

He combined his skills with his great desire to succeed in boxing,  making an inspiring evolution from being Muhammad Ali’s sparing partner to Heavyweight Champion of The World!