One crucial thing comes across. The talk about a fix is not retrospective. There was a lot of suspicion, even before the fight took place.
3.The black muslims held a near fifty year old Sonny Liston(if that's what you want to call him) at gunpoint several weeks prior to the fight and "advised" him to agree to an easy,reasonable solution in regards to how the fight should end.
The punch was legit, no doubt about it. Liston went down, could've easily got up, but wanted out as he realised the task at hand and quit. Nothing more to it.
Problem with every fix theory is, Ali lands a hard shot and plants Liston. A punch lands. And Liston drops. That is hard to fake, believe it or not; I used to try to bow out of sparring sessions as a lad when the pros were whipping me, and its hard to decide in a half second, "yep, that was a solid shot. I could go down there." The video evidence is indisputable. Ali lands a sharp shot and Liston falls very naturally. I don't think it was a hard shot; I think it was sharp. It hit a good place, and sometimes that takes the legs away for a split second. Now, I agree with everyone who says that Liston could have gotten up. But I always struggle with a fix, because Liston does eventually stand, and continues to fight even as Walcott botches the count. If you were laying down the first shot you were given to do so, wouldn't you pretend to be layed out? Why get up when the ref lets you and fight on I believe Sonny quit mentally after he got dropped for a myriad of reasons. Ive heard the stories surrounding the fight, but the action in the ring just doesn't prove much more than that, so one has to give a KO1 to Ali in this instance. I agree with the first guy. It wasn't a fix in the technical sense, just a quit job. I also agree with Rocky. Its clear he got hit with a shot.