Has anyone seen the scores of the two judges and the referee at the time of the stoppage of the first Ali-Liston fight? It was interesting to see that the referee scored it even after 6 rounds and one judge had Liston up by two points while the other had Ali ahead by two points. Check it out on boxrec. Do these figures mirror what had happened in the fight up to that point? Go figure.
I had Ali up by a round with one round even. 3-2-1 for Ali. I also think the was one of Ali's best fights.
1st - ALI 2nd - LISTON - ali didn't seem to do much 3rd - ALI for his early work even tho liston came back strong 4th - EVEN - dunno would have to watch that round again 5th - LISTON - ali blind so liston's strongest round 6th - ALI easy - his strongest round 3-2-1 to Ali for me also but Ali was totally in control of the fight when it was stopped.
You could have it even at the time of the stoppage, but the tide was turning strongly in Ali's favour. Liston made a few minor comebacks in that fight but didn't have the strength left to pull off another. It certainly did not seem like a "fix" was in when Liston was battered in the 3rd round only to come back and land his own big punches at the end of the round.
I had it even. it was supprising cuz I heard from the start that Clay was playing with Liston. Instead I saw even fight. Liston had power, Clay had speed. Even before the blinding incident, Sonny landed heavy bombs.
I think that gives a pretty good assessment of how the match played out - each guy won 2 rounds clearly, and the other 2 rounds (the 3rd and 4th) were close and debatable. Personally, I feel Liston won the 4th with his constant pressure and bigger punching, and I think the 3rd was more appropriately called even, since both guys were clearly hurt.
This is a good post, as it points out some seldom-discussed facts. Every account of the fight claims that Clay slapped Sonny around and toyed with him, which is ridiculous. It was much closer than people care to acknowledge. Yes, it was going Ali's way in the seventh, but it was not the resounding victory that people think.
look at ali's face compared to liston's battered features - no contest. ali was giving rounds away by doing nothing and liston wasn't scoring heavily in rounds 2 and 4.
This is pretty much it. One shouldn't be blinded by a scorecard. It could well have been called even after six rds, but two of the rds going to Liston in that case was because of Clay coasting through them and the third because he was blind, whereas Clay staggered Liston in rds 1 and 3, and did pretty much what he wanted in rd 6. It was not a close fight in how it was fought, only on the cards. I do think you could have it 5-1 Clay, though, since Liston's aggression in rds 2 and 4 weren't really effective. It consisted mostly of hitting air and tiring himself out. You could give both to Clay based on his ring generalship. He made Liston follow him around and punch himself out.
