Muhammad Ali versus Sonny Liston

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Ali (then still known as 'Cassius Clay') and Liston on the cover of Referee Magazine (dated: November 21st, 1964)

The two Ali versus Liston fights were among the most anticipated, watched and controversial fights in boxing history.

[edit] Pre-first fight records and chaos

Liston was the world Heavyweight champion, having dethroned Floyd Patterson by a knockout in the first round in 1962 to win the title; with an impressive knockout win record, Liston was a fighter that not many other fighters of his division at that era were willing to fight. For example, Henry Cooper said that if Clay won, he was interested in a title fight, but even if Liston won, he was not going to get in the ring with him.^{[citation needed]} Often described as reclusive and timid,^{[attribution needed]} Liston did not like to smile or talk to the press too much.

Ali, then under the name of Cassius Clay, on the other hand, was a fast-talking 22 year old challenger who enjoyed the spotlight; he had won the gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics; he had hand speed and a lot of confidence. Nevertheless, he had been dropped by journeyman Sonny Banks four years previous and by Henry Cooper in the fight leading up to the Liston match. Few observers and fans believed he could beat Liston,^{[attribution needed]} and he was made a seven to one betting underdog.^{[citation needed]}

During training, Clay took to driving a school bus across to the site where Liston was training; he started to call Liston the big, ugly bear.^{[citation needed]} Liston resented this very much. Clay told everyone within ear range that he would knock Liston out in eight rounds.

During the check-up the day before their first fight, Clay's heart beat came at 120 pulses per minute. Many thought of this as a sign; either Clay wasn't in proper shape, or he was nervous about fighting Liston. Later, after the weigh in, when it was again checked, Clay had a normal blood pressure.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] The first fight

Their first fight was held on February 25, 1964, in Miami Beach, Florida, where Clay was residing (his trainer, Angelo Dundee, operated a gym nearby). The fight began with Clay showing a lot of movement, making it difficult for Liston to score with many punches, although he did manage to land some blows. Clay showed a good fast jab and several quick combinations. This pattern continued in the second round. In the third round, however, Clay opened up his attack and hit Liston with several combinations which caused a mouse to form underneath Liston's right eye and a cut to open up under his left eye. During the fourth round Clay coasted, but when he went back to his corner after the round he started complaining to Angelo Dundee that there was something burning in his eyes and that he couldn't see. It has been theorized that it may have been a substance that was used to stop Liston's cuts from bleeding (possibly Monsel's Solution), but this has never been confirmed. At the beginning of the fifth round, Dundee pushed Clay off his stool and told him to stay away from Liston. Clay managed to survive the fifth round and by the sixth round Clay had resumed control of the fight. During the sixth, Clay landed several combinations, seemingly at will. Between the sixth and the seventh rounds Liston told his cornermen that he couldn't continue. He complained of a shoulder injury. As the bell rang for the seventh round Liston remained on his stool, resigned to defeat. Sensing that he had made history, Clay sprang to the center of the ring, did a victory jig and then quickly ran to the ropes, over to the area where many of the sportswriters were. Many of them had doubted that he had any chance to beat the once feared Sonny Liston. Clay yelled at them, "I'm the greatest" and "I shook up the world!"^{[citation needed]}

[edit] The second bout

Because of the strange ending of the first bout, boxing authorities ordered a second bout, this time with Clay (now Ali) as the defending world champion and Liston as challenger. The bout would have been held in November, 1964, but Ali became ill and needed emergency surgery for a strangulated hernia. The fight was then postponed, and re-scheduled to be fought at Boston, Massachusetts. But the fight's promoters did not have a license to promote fights in Massachusetts, so the fight ended up being held at a small auditorium in Lewiston, Maine, the state's second largest city, on May 25, 1965. As a direct result of the fight's remote location (approx. 140 miles north of Boston), only 2,434 fans attended it live, setting an all-time record for the lowest attendance in a world championship boxing fight.

This proved to be one of the most controversial fights in history. Midway through the first round, Liston fell to the canvas, in what many have argued was not a legitimate knockdown. Referee Jersey Joe Walcott, a former world Heavyweight champion himself, seemed to be confused after he sent Ali to a neutral corner and the champion refused, instead posing over his fallen rival, yelling at him to get up, then with his fists up in the air, celebrating the fall. Walcott took twenty seconds to figure out what to do. Nat Fleischer, publisher of Ring Magazine, finally told Walcott that Liston had spent about twenty seconds on the canvas, and Walcott then stopped the fight, awarding Ali with a first-round knockout.

Ali taunts a canvas ridden Liston

The Ali-Liston rematch became known as "the phantom punch fight". Most people at ringside did not see the punch with which Ali knocked Liston out. Many actually continue to claim that Liston had bet against himself because he owed money to the mafia; therefore, according to the ones who believe that theory, he went to the floor on purpose. Slow motion replays of the knockout moment, however, show Ali connecting with a quick right to Liston's head the second before Liston fell, all the more powerful because he caught Liston coming in. The replays also show that Liston was wobbly and listless as he rose to his feet - Ali appeared to connect on about four unanswered punches before Walcott belatedly declared the knockout.

Nonetheless, although Ali is recognized by many boxing experts and fans as the greatest boxer of all time, many still continue to question the results of his rematch with Liston. Author Mark Kram, in his book Ghosts of Manila, included an interview he held with Liston years after the fight in which Liston claimed to have taken a dive because of his fear of retaliation from the Nation of Islam, the radical Muslim sect that was coming to sponsor Ali's career. This is questionable in its credibility on multiple levels. First, Kram is an avowed detractor of Ali, and by his own account wrote the book in part to undermine the popular esteem in which Ali was held and which Kram viewed with contempt. Kram can be considered a receptive source of attention to anyone willing to give him testimony that supported Kram's own negative view of Ali. Secondly, Liston claimed not to have been hit at all, and Kram knew or should have known this to be false; whatever else may be said about the event, Ali did land a punch to Liston's head. In view of the uncertainty regarding the extent of Liston's claimed shoulder injury in Miami, it seems a reasonable possible interpretation that Liston was simply salving his ego, by fabricating a story to fit rumors of the punch that he had already heard.

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