If there's anything I enjoy more than making home made barbecue ribs and drinking beer, its watching this fight.. The way that Liston got tagged and dropped like a sack of potatoes was absolutely priceless. There are some who say that Liston was forced to throw the fight, but I don't buy it.. I think that it comes down to two things. A. Ali was really THAT good B. Liston wasn't Grab some pop corn and a box of raisinettes and enjoy!!!!! [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzWynvBLJ4I[/ame]
It's funny though; nobody really gives Ali credit for KO1 Liston. It's very rarely listed amongst his best wins, even by the guys on the forum who think the KO might have been dead gen (Magoo, you are basically the only guy, I think, that flat out states that it is). Whatever your individual feelings about Liston, he ranks amongst the best HW's...if it was a genuine knockout, then it would be amongst the very best boxing results in the history of fighting. Oddly, though, inspite of near universal suspicion, this thread will almost certainly descend into a debate about whether or not Liston jerked the fight. I think that's about what people want to be true. It would be lovely to believe that Liston just got knocked out by a genuinely wonderful fighter. For me, i'm as sure as it's possible to be that he dived, but all the evidence is circumstantial, apart from what you see on film, and clearly it's possible for an observer to believe that this is a genuine knockout.
The punch knocked Liston off balance, and he was too embarrassed/scared (his own words about seeing a crazy Ali screaming at him) to get back up before the count of 10. Ali was in Liston's head and seeing Ali standing over him was enough for Liston to cave.
Someone's been winding him up about Foreman. Somehow Foreman and Liston have become diametrically opposed on the forum. **** knows what it is all about really.
Yeah, I made that same observation and thorught "when the **** did Liston and Foreman fans become like Duran and Leonard fans". Kind of funny. It really seems to be wind-up week here on ESB.
"to get back up before the count of 10." There was no count of 10. Liston was never counted out, so the fight should have just gone on.
I know...the really mad thing is that whilst Duran and Leonard have one of the most celebrated rivalries in ring history, Liston and Foreman really liked each other. It's an odd one.
It does seem to get a bit 'stir crazy' like that here at times, suddenly there's a bitter war erupting between Marcus Rhode fans vs Wimpy Halstead fans and half-a-dozen threads about how Rhode would kick David Jaco's ass pop up.