Ali versus Liston
Encyclopedia
The two Ali
versus Liston
fights for boxing
's world heavyweight championship were among the most anticipated, watched and controversial fights in the sport's history.
by a first round knockout in September 1962. With an impressive knockout record to that point, Liston was a fighter many other heavyweights were reluctant to meet in the ring. Henry Cooper
said that if Cassius Clay (Ali's name at the time) won, he was interested in a title fight, but if Liston won, he was not going to get in the ring with him. Cooper's manager Jim Wicks said, "We don't even want to meet Liston walking down the same street." Liston was an ex-con with ties to organized crime whose ominous, glowering demeanor was so central to his image that Esquire
Magazine caused a controversy by posing him in a Santa Claus hat for its December 1963 cover.
Cassius Clay, on the other hand, was a glib, fast-talking 22-year-old challenger who enjoyed the spotlight. Known as "The Louisville Lip", he had won the light-heavyweight gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics
and had great hand and foot speed—not to mention a limitless supply of braggadocio and confidence. Nevertheless, Clay had been knocked down by journeyman Sonny Banks
early in his career and—more seriously—was almost knocked out by the cut-prone converted southpaw Henry Cooper
. Although Clay rallied to win, it seemed to show he would be vulnerable to Liston's formidable left hook.
The brash Clay was not liked by most reporters, and his chances were widely dismissed. Lester Bromberg's forecast in the New York World-Telegram
was typical, predicting "It will last almost the entire first round." The Los Angeles Times
' Jim Murray
observed, "The only thing at which Clay can beat Liston is reading the dictionary," adding that the faceoff between the two unlikeable athletes would be "the most popular fight since Hitler and Stalin—180 million Americans rooting for a double knockout." The New York Times' regular boxing writer Joe Nichols declined to cover the fight, assuming it would be a mismatch. By fight time, Clay was a seven to one betting
underdog
. Of the 46 sportswriters at ringside, 43 had picked Sonny Liston to win by knockout.
did multiple segments about the title fight. Panelists Bill Cullen
, Henry Morgan
and Betsy Palmer
predicted that Liston would win in the third, second, and first rounds, respectively. Host Garry Moore
was even more pessimistic about Clay's chances, estimating a Liston Knockout "in the very early moments of round one," adding, "if I were Cassius, I would catch a cab and leave town". Actor Hal March
went a step further: "I think the fight will end in the dressing room. I think [Clay] is going to faint before he comes out."
The night before the first fight, on February 24, 1964, the show featured Clay and Liston's sparring partners as guests. Harvey Jones brought with him a lengthy rhyming boast from Cassius Clay:
Jesse Bowdry brought a much terser written message from Sonny Liston:
The following week, I've Got a Secret brought on two sportswriters, whose secret was that they had been the only writers to correctly predict Clay's victory.
, Clay took to driving his entourage in a bus over to the site in Surfside, Florida
where Liston (nicknamed the 'Big Bear') was training, and repeatedly called Liston the "big, ugly bear". Liston grew increasingly irritated as the motor-mouthed Clay continued hurling insults ("After the fight I'm gonna build myself a pretty home and use him as a bearskin rug. Liston even smells like a bear. I'm gonna give him to the local zoo after I whup him... if Sonny Liston whups me, I'll kiss his feet in the ring, crawl out of the ring on my knees, tell him he's the greatest, and catch the next jet out of the country."). Clay insisted to a skeptical press that he would knock out Liston in eight rounds.
Light Heavyweight Champion Jose Torres
, in his 1971 biography of Ali Sting Like a Bee, said that as of 1963, Ali's prophetic poems had correctly predicted the exact round he would stop an opponent 12 times.
Clay's brashness did not endear him to White America, and in fact, made Liston a more sympathetic character. In The New Republic
, the magazine's editor Murray Kempton
(a future Pulitzer Prize
-winner for distinguished commentary), wrote, "Liston used to be a hoodlum; now he is our cop; he was the big Negro we pay to keep sassy Negroes in line."
There were rumors that Clay even left the country the day of the fight, fleeing to Mexico, but they proved untrue.
Clay's outbursts continued at the pre-fight physical the day before the event. Clay worked himself into such a frenzy that his heart rate registered a surprising 120 beats per minute. He was fined $2500 by the Miami Boxing Commission for his behavior. Many observers took this to mean that Clay was either terrified or not in the proper shape. However, Clay's heartrate was back to normal by the official weigh-in.
, Clay weighed in at 206lbs while Liston was 218 lb (at age 22 Liston had weighed 206 lbs while at 32 Ali weighed 217lbs). Many of those watching were surprised during the referee's instructions to see that Clay was considerably taller than Liston, the so called 'Big Bear'.
In the third round, Clay opened up his attack and hit Liston with several combinations, causing a bruise under Liston's right eye and a cut under his left. At one point in the round, Liston's knees buckled under Clay's attack and he almost went down. During the fourth round, Clay coasted, keeping his distance. However, when he returned to his corner Clay started complaining that there was something burning in his eyes and that he could not see. Clay shouted: "cut off my gloves," but trainer Angelo Dundee responded, "this is the big one, daddy . . . we're not quitting now!". He rinsed Clay's eyes with a sponge and pushed him off his stool to begin the fifth round, telling him to "get out there and run." Clay managed to survive the round.
It has been theorized that a substance used to stop Liston's cuts from bleeding (possibly Monsel's solution) may have caused the irritation, either through accidental contact with Clay or by being purposely applied to Liston's gloves by his corner, possibly at Liston's request. Neither explanation has ever been proven..
By the sixth Clay's sight had cleared, and he resumed control of the fight, landing combinations of punches seemingly at will. "I got back to my stool at the end of the sixth round, and under me I could hear the press like they had gone wild," Clay later said. " I twisted round and hollered down at the reporters, 'I'm gonna upset the world.'" In Liston's corner, he told his corner-men that he couldn't continue, complaining of a shoulder injury. Clay was the first to notice Liston spit out his mouth guard; he moved to the middle of the ring with his arms raised, dancing the jig that would become known as the "Ali Shuffle." Liston failed to answer the bell for the seventh round and Clay was declared the winner by technical knockout.
Sensing that he had made history, Clay quickly ran to the ropes to remind sportswriters that he had told them so all along, shouting "eat your words!" In a scene that has been rebroadcast countless times over the ensuing decades, Clay repeatedly yelled "I'm the greatest!" and "I shook up the world!" The day after the fight, Clay announced that he was changing his name to Cassius X, but then he adopted the name Muhammad Ali
the following week.
ordered a rematch, this time with Liston as challenger. The World Boxing Association
disagreed, as immediate rematches were against its rules, and stripped Ali of his title. Originally scheduled for the Boston Garden
in Boston, Massachusetts in November 1964, the fight was postponed six months when Ali needed emergency surgery for a strangulated hernia
.
boxing authorities balked over allowing the rescheduled fight to go on, as a Bay State prosecutor claimed that it wasn't properly licensed. The promoters, Intercontinental Promotions, Inc. and Sports Vision, Inc., had $3.5 million (approximately $25 million in 2011 dollars) in closed-circuit TV contracts to preserve. If the fight didn't go off in Boston, it was feared that there would be no rematch between Clay and Liston and a lucrative payday would be lost.
The promoters contacted small-time promoter Sam Michael, who scheduled the bout in the Central Maine Civic Center, a junior hockey rink in Lewiston, Maine
, a milltown with 40,000 residents located 35 miles north from Portland
on the Maine Turnpike. Lewiston is the smallest place to host a heavyweight title bout since Jack Dempsey
fought Tom Gibbons in Shelby, Montana
(population 3,000) in 1923. It remains the only heavyweight title fight held in the state of Maine
.
The second Ali-Liston fight was embraced by The Pine Tree State. Maine Governor John H. Reed
announced to the press, "This fight is one of the greatest things to happen in Maine." Nevertheless, it would go down in history as a debacle.
Due to the remote location (140 miles north of Boston), only 2,434 fans were present, setting the all-time record for the lowest attendance for a heavyweight championship fight.
, a former world heavyweight champion himself, appeared confused after Ali refused to retreat to a neutral corner. Instead, Ali stood over his fallen opponent, gesturing and yelling at him, "Get up and fight, sucker!" The moment was captured by ringside photographer Neil Leifer
in what has become one of the most iconic images in sport, chosen as the cover of the Sports Illustrated
special issue, "The Century's Greatest Sports Photos". Ali then raised his fists in the air celebrating the knockdown.
While Walcott tried to sort out the situation, 20 seconds passed, and by then Liston had gotten to his feet and resumed boxing. Nat Fleischer
, publisher of The Ring
, took it upon himself to climb into the ring and tell Walcott that as Liston had spent over 10 seconds on the canvas he had been KOed. Walcott stopped the fight — awarding Ali a first-round knockout. However Fleischer was quite wrong in his interpretation of how the rules applied: since Clay had deliberately not gone to a neutral corner, Walcott had been correct in not counting Liston out; the actual time Liston had been down was beside the point. The counting officially begins only when a fighter is in the neutral corner.
The blow that ended the match became known as "the phantom punch," so named because most people at ringside did not see it. Even Ali was unsure as to whether or not the punch connected, as footage from the event shows Ali asking his entourage "Did I hit him?" after the match. Slow motion replays show Ali connecting with a quick, chopping right to Liston's head (known as the "Anchor Punch" according to Ali) as Liston was moving toward him. In their book on Ali, Felix Dennis and Don Atyeo argued that "the blow generated enough power to lift Liston's left foot, upon which most of his weight was placed, off the canvas." Liston was unsteady when he finally got to his feet, and the fight continued momentarily, with Ali connecting with four additional unanswered punches before Walcott belatedly declared the knockout, ending the contest. In the final analysis, it remains inconclusive whether the blow was a genuine knockout punch.
. Others believe that he feared for his safety from Nation of Islam terrorists who supported Ali. The latter theory was supported by Mark Kram's book Ghosts of Manila, which included an interview with Liston conducted years after the fight. Liston claimed to have intentionally lost because of his fear of retaliation from the Black Muslims. No independent substantiation of this claim has come to light.
in 1967. After one successful defense as the universal World Heavyweight Champion, Ali would be stripped of his titles for refusing to enlist when drafted later that year, being a conscientious objector
from the Vietnam War
.
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...
versus Liston
Sonny Liston
Charles L. "Sonny" Liston was a professional boxer and ex-convict known for his toughness, punching power, and intimidating appearance who became world heavyweight champion in 1962 by knocking out Floyd Patterson in the first round...
fights for boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
's world heavyweight championship were among the most anticipated, watched and controversial fights in the sport's history.
Background
At the time of the first Liston-Ali fight on February 25, 1964, Sonny Liston was the world heavyweight champion, having beaten Floyd PattersonFloyd Patterson
Floyd Patterson was an American heavyweight boxer and former undisputed heavyweight champion. At 21, Patterson became the youngest man to win the world heavyweight title. He was also the first heavyweight boxer to regain the title. He had a record of 55 wins 8 losses and 1 draw, with 40 wins by...
by a first round knockout in September 1962. With an impressive knockout record to that point, Liston was a fighter many other heavyweights were reluctant to meet in the ring. Henry Cooper
Henry Cooper (boxer)
Sir Henry Cooper OBE KSG was an English heavyweight boxer known for the effectiveness of his left hook, "Enry's 'Ammer", and his knockdown of the young Muhammad Ali...
said that if Cassius Clay (Ali's name at the time) won, he was interested in a title fight, but if Liston won, he was not going to get in the ring with him. Cooper's manager Jim Wicks said, "We don't even want to meet Liston walking down the same street." Liston was an ex-con with ties to organized crime whose ominous, glowering demeanor was so central to his image that Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
Magazine caused a controversy by posing him in a Santa Claus hat for its December 1963 cover.
Cassius Clay, on the other hand, was a glib, fast-talking 22-year-old challenger who enjoyed the spotlight. Known as "The Louisville Lip", he had won the light-heavyweight gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
and had great hand and foot speed—not to mention a limitless supply of braggadocio and confidence. Nevertheless, Clay had been knocked down by journeyman Sonny Banks
Sonny Banks
Sonny Banks , born Lucien Banks,was an American boxer best known for being the first fighter to drop a young Muhammad Ali . At the time Banks was a rising prospect and known for a fast sharp left hook....
early in his career and—more seriously—was almost knocked out by the cut-prone converted southpaw Henry Cooper
Henry Cooper
Henry Cooper may refer to:*Sir Henry Cooper , British Heavyweight boxer*Henry Cooper from Tennessee*Henry Cooper , English recipient of the Victoria Cross...
. Although Clay rallied to win, it seemed to show he would be vulnerable to Liston's formidable left hook.
The brash Clay was not liked by most reporters, and his chances were widely dismissed. Lester Bromberg's forecast in the New York World-Telegram
New York World-Telegram
The New York World-Telegram, later known as the New York World-Telegram and Sun, was a New York City newspaper from 1931 to 1966.-History:...
was typical, predicting "It will last almost the entire first round." The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
' Jim Murray
Jim Murray (sportswriter)
James Patrick Murray was an American sportswriter at the Los Angeles Times from 1961 to 1998.Many of his achievements include winning the NSSA's Sportswriter of the Year award an astounding fourteen times...
observed, "The only thing at which Clay can beat Liston is reading the dictionary," adding that the faceoff between the two unlikeable athletes would be "the most popular fight since Hitler and Stalin—180 million Americans rooting for a double knockout." The New York Times' regular boxing writer Joe Nichols declined to cover the fight, assuming it would be a mismatch. By fight time, Clay was a seven to one betting
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
underdog
Underdog (competition)
An underdog is a person or group in a competition, frequently in electoral politics, sports and creative works, who is popularly expected to lose. The party, team or individual expected to win is called the favorite or top dog. In the rare case where an underdog wins, the outcome is an upset. These...
. Of the 46 sportswriters at ringside, 43 had picked Sonny Liston to win by knockout.
Pre-Fight Publicity
The television series I've Got a SecretI've Got a Secret
I've Got a Secret is a panel game show produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS television. Created by comedy writers Allan Sherman and Howard Merrill, it was a derivative of Goodson-Todman's own panel show What's My Line?...
did multiple segments about the title fight. Panelists Bill Cullen
Bill Cullen
William Lawrence Francis "Bill" Cullen was an American radio and television personality whose career spanned five decades...
, Henry Morgan
Henry Morgan
Admiral Sir Henry Morgan was an Admiral of the Royal Navy, a privateer, and a pirate who made a name for himself during activities in the Caribbean, primarily raiding Spanish settlements...
and Betsy Palmer
Betsy Palmer
Betsy Palmer is an American actress, best known as a regular panelist on the game show I've Got a Secret, and later for playing Pamela Voorhees in the notorious slasher film Friday the 13th.-Life and career:...
predicted that Liston would win in the third, second, and first rounds, respectively. Host Garry Moore
Garry Moore
Garry Moore was an American entertainer, game show host and comedian best known for his work in television...
was even more pessimistic about Clay's chances, estimating a Liston Knockout "in the very early moments of round one," adding, "if I were Cassius, I would catch a cab and leave town". Actor Hal March
Hal March
Hal March was a Jewish-American comedian and actor.-Early career:March first came to note as part of a comedy team with Bob Sweeney. The duo had their own radio show for a time and performed, in the early 1950s, as "Sweeney & March." He also partnered with actor/comic Tom d'Andrea in the early...
went a step further: "I think the fight will end in the dressing room. I think [Clay] is going to faint before he comes out."
The night before the first fight, on February 24, 1964, the show featured Clay and Liston's sparring partners as guests. Harvey Jones brought with him a lengthy rhyming boast from Cassius Clay:
Jesse Bowdry brought a much terser written message from Sonny Liston:
The following week, I've Got a Secret brought on two sportswriters, whose secret was that they had been the only writers to correctly predict Clay's victory.
Baiting the Bear
During trainingBoxing training
Boxing training is the training method that boxers use in order to get more fit for their sport. This training method is often cited by medical doctors, boxing trainers, and writers as one of the most spartan forms of sports training.- Training :...
, Clay took to driving his entourage in a bus over to the site in Surfside, Florida
Surfside, Florida
Surfside is a town in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The population was 4,909 at the 2000 census. As of 2005, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 4,710.-Geography:...
where Liston (nicknamed the 'Big Bear') was training, and repeatedly called Liston the "big, ugly bear". Liston grew increasingly irritated as the motor-mouthed Clay continued hurling insults ("After the fight I'm gonna build myself a pretty home and use him as a bearskin rug. Liston even smells like a bear. I'm gonna give him to the local zoo after I whup him... if Sonny Liston whups me, I'll kiss his feet in the ring, crawl out of the ring on my knees, tell him he's the greatest, and catch the next jet out of the country."). Clay insisted to a skeptical press that he would knock out Liston in eight rounds.
Light Heavyweight Champion Jose Torres
José Torres
José Torres , was a Puerto Rican professional boxer. As an amateur boxer, he won a silver medal in the junior middleweight at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. In 1965, he defeated Willie Pastrano to win the WBC and WBA light heavyweight championships...
, in his 1971 biography of Ali Sting Like a Bee, said that as of 1963, Ali's prophetic poems had correctly predicted the exact round he would stop an opponent 12 times.
Clay's brashness did not endear him to White America, and in fact, made Liston a more sympathetic character. In The New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
, the magazine's editor Murray Kempton
Murray Kempton
James Murray Kempton was an influential, Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist.-Biography:Kempton was born in Baltimore on December 16, 1917. His mother was Sally Ambler and his father was James Branson Kempton, a stock broker...
(a future Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winner for distinguished commentary), wrote, "Liston used to be a hoodlum; now he is our cop; he was the big Negro we pay to keep sassy Negroes in line."
There were rumors that Clay even left the country the day of the fight, fleeing to Mexico, but they proved untrue.
Clay's outbursts continued at the pre-fight physical the day before the event. Clay worked himself into such a frenzy that his heart rate registered a surprising 120 beats per minute. He was fined $2500 by the Miami Boxing Commission for his behavior. Many observers took this to mean that Clay was either terrified or not in the proper shape. However, Clay's heartrate was back to normal by the official weigh-in.
Ali/Liston I
The 32 year old Liston defended his title against the 22 year old Clay on February 25, 1964, in Miami Beach, FloridaMiami Beach, Florida
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on a barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter which separates the Beach from Miami city proper...
, Clay weighed in at 206lbs while Liston was 218 lb (at age 22 Liston had weighed 206 lbs while at 32 Ali weighed 217lbs). Many of those watching were surprised during the referee's instructions to see that Clay was considerably taller than Liston, the so called 'Big Bear'.
The Fight
When the fight began it became apparent that Liston was out of condition. Right from the first round, Clay's superior speed was evident, as he slipped most of Liston's punches with seeming ease. Clay was constantly moving, and his superb reflexes and fast, effective jab made it difficult for Liston to score with his slower arm-speed and heavy punches. Toward the end of the round, Clay hit Liston with a combination of punches that electrified the crowd.In the third round, Clay opened up his attack and hit Liston with several combinations, causing a bruise under Liston's right eye and a cut under his left. At one point in the round, Liston's knees buckled under Clay's attack and he almost went down. During the fourth round, Clay coasted, keeping his distance. However, when he returned to his corner Clay started complaining that there was something burning in his eyes and that he could not see. Clay shouted: "cut off my gloves," but trainer Angelo Dundee responded, "this is the big one, daddy . . . we're not quitting now!". He rinsed Clay's eyes with a sponge and pushed him off his stool to begin the fifth round, telling him to "get out there and run." Clay managed to survive the round.
It has been theorized that a substance used to stop Liston's cuts from bleeding (possibly Monsel's solution) may have caused the irritation, either through accidental contact with Clay or by being purposely applied to Liston's gloves by his corner, possibly at Liston's request. Neither explanation has ever been proven..
By the sixth Clay's sight had cleared, and he resumed control of the fight, landing combinations of punches seemingly at will. "I got back to my stool at the end of the sixth round, and under me I could hear the press like they had gone wild," Clay later said. " I twisted round and hollered down at the reporters, 'I'm gonna upset the world.'" In Liston's corner, he told his corner-men that he couldn't continue, complaining of a shoulder injury. Clay was the first to notice Liston spit out his mouth guard; he moved to the middle of the ring with his arms raised, dancing the jig that would become known as the "Ali Shuffle." Liston failed to answer the bell for the seventh round and Clay was declared the winner by technical knockout.
Sensing that he had made history, Clay quickly ran to the ropes to remind sportswriters that he had told them so all along, shouting "eat your words!" In a scene that has been rebroadcast countless times over the ensuing decades, Clay repeatedly yelled "I'm the greatest!" and "I shook up the world!" The day after the fight, Clay announced that he was changing his name to Cassius X, but then he adopted the name Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...
the following week.
Speculation
There has been speculation about whether Liston's shoulder injury was severe enough to actually prevent him from continuing the fight. Alexander Robbins, physican for the Miami Beach Boxing Commission, diagnosed Liston with a torn tendon in his left shoulder. However, author David Remnick states that he spoke with one of Liston's corner men years after the fight, who told him Liston could have continued: "[The shoulder] was all BS. We had a return bout clause with Clay, and if you say your guy just quit, who is gonna get a return bout. We cooked up that shoulder thing on the spot."Ali/Liston II
Because of the unexpected ending of the first bout, the World Boxing CouncilWorld Boxing Council
The World Boxing Council was initially established by 11 countries: the United States, Argentina, United Kingdom, France, Mexico, Philippines, Panama, Chile, Peru, Venezuela and Brazil plus Puerto Rico, met in Mexico City on February 14, 1963, upon invitation of the then President of Mexico, Adolfo...
ordered a rematch, this time with Liston as challenger. The World Boxing Association
World Boxing Association
The World Boxing Association is a boxing organization that sanctions official matches, and awards the WBA world championship title at the professional level. It was previously known as the National Boxing Association before changing its name in 1962...
disagreed, as immediate rematches were against its rules, and stripped Ali of his title. Originally scheduled for the Boston Garden
Boston Garden
The Boston Garden was an arena in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Designed by boxing promoter Tex Rickard, who also built the third iteration of New York's Madison Square Garden, it opened on November 17, 1928 as "Boston Madison Square Garden" and outlived its original namesake by some 30 years...
in Boston, Massachusetts in November 1964, the fight was postponed six months when Ali needed emergency surgery for a strangulated hernia
Hernia
A hernia is the protrusion of an organ or the fascia of an organ through the wall of the cavity that normally contains it. A hiatal hernia occurs when the stomach protrudes into the mediastinum through the esophageal opening in the diaphragm....
.
Lewiston, Maine
MassachusettsMassachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
boxing authorities balked over allowing the rescheduled fight to go on, as a Bay State prosecutor claimed that it wasn't properly licensed. The promoters, Intercontinental Promotions, Inc. and Sports Vision, Inc., had $3.5 million (approximately $25 million in 2011 dollars) in closed-circuit TV contracts to preserve. If the fight didn't go off in Boston, it was feared that there would be no rematch between Clay and Liston and a lucrative payday would be lost.
The promoters contacted small-time promoter Sam Michael, who scheduled the bout in the Central Maine Civic Center, a junior hockey rink in Lewiston, Maine
Lewiston, Maine
Lewiston is a city in Androscoggin County in Maine, and the second-largest city in the state. The population was 41,592 at the 2010 census. It is one of two principal cities of and included within the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area and the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine...
, a milltown with 40,000 residents located 35 miles north from Portland
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
on the Maine Turnpike. Lewiston is the smallest place to host a heavyweight title bout since Jack Dempsey
Jack Dempsey
William Harrison "Jack" Dempsey was an American boxer who held the world heavyweight title from 1919 to 1926. Dempsey's aggressive style and exceptional punching power made him one of the most popular boxers in history. Many of his fights set financial and attendance records, including the first...
fought Tom Gibbons in Shelby, Montana
Shelby, Montana
Shelby is a city in and the county seat of Toole County, Montana, United States. The population was 3,216 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Shelby is located at ....
(population 3,000) in 1923. It remains the only heavyweight title fight held in the state of Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
.
The second Ali-Liston fight was embraced by The Pine Tree State. Maine Governor John H. Reed
John H. Reed
John Hathaway Reed was the 67th Governor of Maine. He was once an Aroostook County potato farmer. Reed is a Republican, who took office following the death of Governor Clinton Clauson....
announced to the press, "This fight is one of the greatest things to happen in Maine." Nevertheless, it would go down in history as a debacle.
Due to the remote location (140 miles north of Boston), only 2,434 fans were present, setting the all-time record for the lowest attendance for a heavyweight championship fight.
Phantom Punch
The ending of the second fight remains one of the most controversial in boxing history. Midway through the first round, Liston fell to the canvas, in what many have argued was not a legitimate knockdown. Referee Jersey Joe WalcottJersey Joe Walcott
Arnold Raymond Cream , better known as Jersey Joe Walcott, was a world heavyweight boxing champion. He broke the world's record for the oldest man to win the world's Heavyweight title when he earned it at the age of , a record that would be broken on November 5, 1994, by George Foreman, who...
, a former world heavyweight champion himself, appeared confused after Ali refused to retreat to a neutral corner. Instead, Ali stood over his fallen opponent, gesturing and yelling at him, "Get up and fight, sucker!" The moment was captured by ringside photographer Neil Leifer
Neil Leifer
Neil Leifer is a photographer and filmmaker known mainly for his work in the Time Inc. family of magazines. He is generally considered the greatest sports photographer in history.- Early career :...
in what has become one of the most iconic images in sport, chosen as the cover of the Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
special issue, "The Century's Greatest Sports Photos". Ali then raised his fists in the air celebrating the knockdown.
While Walcott tried to sort out the situation, 20 seconds passed, and by then Liston had gotten to his feet and resumed boxing. Nat Fleischer
Nat Fleischer
Nathaniel Stanley Fleischer was a noted American boxing writer and collector. Fleischer inaugurated in 1922, encouraged by Tex Rickard, the Ring Magazine publication...
, publisher of The Ring
The Ring (magazine)
The Ring is an American boxing magazine that was first published in 1922 as a boxing and wrestling magazine. As the sporting legitimacy of professional wrestling came more into question, The Ring shifted to becoming exclusively a boxing oriented publication...
, took it upon himself to climb into the ring and tell Walcott that as Liston had spent over 10 seconds on the canvas he had been KOed. Walcott stopped the fight — awarding Ali a first-round knockout. However Fleischer was quite wrong in his interpretation of how the rules applied: since Clay had deliberately not gone to a neutral corner, Walcott had been correct in not counting Liston out; the actual time Liston had been down was beside the point. The counting officially begins only when a fighter is in the neutral corner.
The blow that ended the match became known as "the phantom punch," so named because most people at ringside did not see it. Even Ali was unsure as to whether or not the punch connected, as footage from the event shows Ali asking his entourage "Did I hit him?" after the match. Slow motion replays show Ali connecting with a quick, chopping right to Liston's head (known as the "Anchor Punch" according to Ali) as Liston was moving toward him. In their book on Ali, Felix Dennis and Don Atyeo argued that "the blow generated enough power to lift Liston's left foot, upon which most of his weight was placed, off the canvas." Liston was unsteady when he finally got to his feet, and the fight continued momentarily, with Ali connecting with four additional unanswered punches before Walcott belatedly declared the knockout, ending the contest. In the final analysis, it remains inconclusive whether the blow was a genuine knockout punch.
Rumors
There were claims that Liston had bet against himself and "took a dive" because he owed money to the MafiaMafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
. Others believe that he feared for his safety from Nation of Islam terrorists who supported Ali. The latter theory was supported by Mark Kram's book Ghosts of Manila, which included an interview with Liston conducted years after the fight. Liston claimed to have intentionally lost because of his fear of retaliation from the Black Muslims. No independent substantiation of this claim has come to light.
Universal Champ
Ali would reclaim the WBA version of the Heavyweight Championship from Ernie TerrellErnie Terrell
Ernie Terrell is an American singer, record producer, and former World Boxing Association heavyweight boxing champion. At , he was very tall, by the standards of the day....
in 1967. After one successful defense as the universal World Heavyweight Champion, Ali would be stripped of his titles for refusing to enlist when drafted later that year, being a conscientious objector
Conscientious objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....
from the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.