Why did Sonny Liston/his team attempt to cheat Vs a 7-1 underdog and then quit?

Sonny Liston was indeed a very intimidating man, he collected debts for the underworld, he once beat up a policeman in an alley in 1957, put the officer upside down in a garbage can. Sonny used to beat up fellow inmates in the prison yard. He was also handled by the underworld. He used to stuff towels underneath his robe before many of his bouts, he stood 6"1, weighed 218 lbs. He would give his opponents a very homicidal looking stare, many were beat before the bell rang. At the weigh in for the first Cassius Clay fight on the morning of Feb 25 1964, Clay went berserk, it freaked Sonny out, tough guys are scared of guys that are mentally unstable, because they are unpredictable. Clay, later to be known as Muhammad Ali, was not intimidated. The fight public at that time, had never seen a fighter with Ali's skills, most heavyweights were flat footed and they were plodders, Ali glided around the ring in those days, plus Ali got into Liston's head, something that no one had achieved up to that point. Sonny could not catch Ali and was getting beat, so between the 4th and 5th round it has been said that cutman Joe Polino put a Liniment on Liston's gloves thus blinding Ali. Ali wanted to quit because he could not see. Sonny began to unload on Ali, after Angelo pushed Ali into the ring, telling Ali, Run. Ali's eyes cleared starting round 6, he then started to take an exhausted Liston apart. Sonny Liston sat on his stool when the bell rang for round 7, he quit. Ali or Cassius Clay was the new World Heavyweight Champion.

 

Did Eddie Machen complain of this in his fight against Liston?

 

I do know he went 12 rounds with Sonny Liston on Sept 7 1960, but Sonny won by unanimous decision.

 

Never been proven.

 

This is all supposition of course, but he seems to have had an injury going into the fight.

That would tie together all the pieces of this narrative.

 

Feel like the problem w Liston and the Ali fights is Liston won the belt already...once he won and had money I’m not so sure the desire was there anymore. From what I’ve read he wasn’t as hungry, didn’t train as hard. Heard he really trained hard for the second bout but when it got postponed lost interest and went on a binge or something. I don’t think it’s fair to assume he would quit in prime...no evidence of that really. As far as the gloves go trainers are sneaky and look for any edge they can. Wouldn’t be surprised if his corner had done it previously.

 

Because Sonny found out before the fight he was Clays real father.

 

Now it all makes sense.

 

"Angelo Dundee, Clay's legendary trainer, finally dismissed that theory. Dundee, 82, revealed: 'People said Liston put liniment on his gloves to blind Ali, but that was a crock."

Source: http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/liston-didnt-blind-ali-6987354.html

 

Yes.

 

Lacking in the "heart" department!

 

But fought 6 or so rounds till the final bell with a broken jaw against Marty Marshall.

Gotcha.