On second thought it must've been a different fight because I'm not seeing the domination you guys are.
Ali/Clay was winning clearly by dominating the rounds he won (particularly rounds 1 and 3) plus the fight was barely a third over. Liston was cut, swollen, tired and gassed. The judges scores were only close by virtue of the fight only going 6 rounds (one of which Ali was blinded and just ran) and some over generous favouring of the “champion” in the scoring of two of the judges. Liston was well on his way to getting a beating. If anyone thinks the fight was up in the air until Sonny’s shoulder gave out then they’re mistaken.
Nothing was wrong with his shoulder. In the prior rd before he quit he was popping his jab with authority.
I would never dare to suggest that a man with sketchy mob ties and just happened to quit a year later would ever fake an injury to avoid a humilating ass whooping.
It’s clutching at straws. It reminds me of the Klitschko fans who moan about Vitali being up 4-2 against Lewis when they fought. That’s all good but the fight was only half way over and Vitali’s face looked like it had been mauled by a great white shark. He couldn’t continue because he was legitimately beaten already. Ditto Liston in this fight.
As was mentioned in the link I posted, Liston was on cortisone five days BEFORE facing Ali confirmed by the senate subcommittee on antitrust and monopoly and Dr. Lester Russin who examined Liston confirmed he had an inflamed tendon in his left arm and estimated Liston's age to be between 38 to 41, stating his condition was more prevalent in older athletes.
Their was no "generous favoring of the champion" that night. Liston was just about the most hated man in boxing at that point.
I'm at Las Vegas South Premium Outlets. There's a store with fight goods. They have a poster of Ali celebrating his first victory over Liston. He looks so fresh. Liston looked like he went 15 rounds with every heavyweight champion in history.
For one judge to have Liston in front and the other to have it even is being very generous to him. The judge who had Clay/Ali up by 59-56 was closer to the money by far than the other two.
The only time Liston looked good was the round where Ali couldn't see. He believed Liston tried to blind him . If Liston didn't quit Ali would have lumped him up badly.
This simply isn't true. Most scored round 2 for Liston and thought Round 4 was close as well. Including die-hard Ali fans.
This was Liston's face after 6 rounds with Ali. He quit because he was getting his ass whooped. If the fight continued, Liston is going down within a few rounds [url]https://www.thefightcity.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Liston-in-corner.jpg[/url]
