WHAT ALI, NIXON AND THE CIRCUS HAVE IN COMMON By Paul Scicchitano
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tuart Blumberg saved his Feb. 25,1964 heavyweight fight credential for the past 59 years, if for no other reason than to prove he really did witness the brash upstart Cassius Clay — before the future superstar took the name Muhammad Ali — as the young fighter overcame 8-1 odds to best then heavyweight boxing champion Sonny Liston at the Miami Beach Convention Center. The championship match would be dubbed by Sports Illustrated as one of the top 10 sports moments of the 20th Century. “People would say, ‘nah you weren’t there,’” recalled Blumberg, now 86 and retired as the founder and chief executive officer of the Greater Miami and the Beaches Hotel Association as well as a past chair of the Miami Beach Convention Center Advisory Board. “I don’t think the impact of [the fight] hit me until later as I was getting older because on that night, it was a job — like any other event at the center. When the fight turned out the
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way it did, it became part of the city’s history as well as sports history.” While few events have the capacity to thrust a venue onto the world stage quite like The Greatest’s very first heavyweight title bout, the convention center has hosted more than its share of notable events since opening its doors in October 1958 with the largest exhibition space in the south at the time. Today, the venue puts Miami Beach at the epicenter of the global art world each year with Art Basel Miami Beach, a celebrity-studded event that brings together thousands of collectors, galleries and artists from around the globe amid dozens of glamorous side events. The venue also taps into the $35 billion recreational boating market with Discover Boating Miami International Boat Show — the world’s largest boat and yacht show — and puts Miami Beach at the forefront of sustainability, technology and finance with eMerge Americas, Bitcoin and Aspen Ideas: Climate.