I'm not sure why Ali said the anchor punch didn't exist, I assume he didn't know its a real punch he just happened on by chance. Its a rarely taught punch with devastating results when landed right, one which I was taught early in my career and caused me to win a number of bouts by one punch ko. It works like this; Anchoring the front foot you bring back the rear one about two feet (as Ali did in Liston 2), the opponent only sees you going backwards, not the anchored front foot, and comes forward. Springing forward the right hand lands square on the oncoming opponent doubling the impact. I was surprised a number of times when even landing lightly an opponent would be stunned but its because the punch's force is twice what it would be normally. Ali's "anchor punch", intentional or not was one but there was little weight in it, it was largely an arm punch.
Listons legs spasm as he lay on the canvas. Liston staggers to his right after the bout is halted and the crowd is entering the ring. Liston alone in his dressing room with his trainers after the bout asked for smelling salts. Listons trainer stated he never asked for smelling salts before. SI writers at ringside wrote that there was little controversy by those at ringside who were in position to see the punch.
Also you can see Ali stop other fighters with a very similar punch such as his ko of Foley. Prime Ali hit opponents full force as the stepped to him magnifying the punches effect.
Ali refused to remain in the neutral corner and Walcott broke off the count to return Ali which was proper. It was improper that Sonny was counted out even though. I do not buy that Sonny took a dive.
I'm near enough 100% sure Ali wasn't involved in the fix. His incredulity at Liston falling from a tap proves it for me. Walcott was inept, Fleischer should never have been near a ring after Harry Greb dies.
You may be right. I'm just saying that Ali and Walcott's behavior deserve consideration. Liston goes down. No argument about that. After 30 years in the ring, Walcott had been knocked down and had knocked other people down many times. He knew exactly how KDs were handled. Why was he at a loss in this fight? Ali had been through 20 fights. He had scored KOs in 5 or 6 of them. I don't know how many KDs he had dealt with but at least that many. He knew exactly what to do. Why was he totally at a loss in this fight? Let's say, for the sake of argument, they were both advised of a fix. Let's say Liston was to go down to one knee(holding the ropes) in round 2 and be counted out. Him going down in round one would have totally surprised them and sent them into the panic mode. Why had Liston broken script? Had the plan changed and they didn't know it? Would a first round KO be acceptable to the fixers?- the Mob or N.O.I or whomever. Had they bet all their money on a second round stoppage? I think the truth lies somewhere between stupidity on Walcott and Ali's parts and something similar to what I've outlined. I may be wrong.
The anchor Punch is actually a "reverse punch technique" motion in traditional Karate. A whipping technique that has the point of impact tighten up before the strike. Ali studied a bit of martial arts techniques and incorporated them in boxing ,at least with that punch. He was inducted into a martial Arts hall of fame in 2013 for his achievements in combat. I got first hand accounts that confirm this ,I was also at this event.
I don't think I'll ever be convinced Liston didn't take a dive that night. Nothing else seems logical to me
I don't see why you would need to bring a conspiracy theory into it going off Ali and Walcott's reaction. They were both incredulous because they knew there was no way Liston should have went down as a result of that punch. Ali immediately gestures to Liston to get up yelling something along the lines of "get up ya bum" Walcott is simply the proverbial rabbit caught in the headlights. He was a very inexperienced referee this was only his 11th fight as a referee, after starting in the late 40's he'd only took it up again in the sixties after 10 years or so out of it.
I never bought that crap about an "anchor punch", or anything about that 1 minute fiasco, that Liston was really put down, or anything about it.