Muhammad Ali KO 1 Sonny Liston

Mr. Magoo, what's happening!

Ok, I will answer your question now. Ali was a little to sharp at this stage and Sonny was a dried up over the hill piece of ****

 

Show me one time where Liston Really tried to hit Ali hard in the head in this fight. He punches his ARMS or even stopping the shot in the middle of the way. It looks like he's chasing Muhammad just for show and Ali is confident that he won't get hurt.

 

Because he couldnt catch him, thats why.
For what its worth, heres my two cents;
1. The knockdown was legit
2. Liston 'swallowed it' when he relapsed from getting up, for whatever reason.
3. To his credit, he did get up eventually before HE heard 10
4. The brief attack Ali put on Sonny before Walcotts intervention would have made it an early night anyhow, if he was allowed to continue.
Ali was a different guy that night both mentally and physically from the boy who beat liston in the previous fight. A legit win IMHO

 

Yeah, I'm inclined to agree.

To elaborate...

Ali immediately hit Liston with a right hand to start the fight, thereby making the statement that he could land on Sonny whenever the hell he wanted. He only followed with a handful of punches, most of which were power shots, but they all seemed to connect at least partially against Liston throughout that minute and a half.

In contrast, it was already apparent that Liston was being driven just as crazy by Ali's side to side movement as he was in their first encounter. His vaunted jab couldn't land and that was why he was reduced to throwing at his opponent's body...which in turn gave Ali the chance to counter over the top as his foe was reaching in.

People talk about Liston's durabilty...And they should. But Ali had already proved that he could affect Liston with his punches in the first fight when he wobbled him badly with a single left hook in the third round. When one considers that the "phantom punch" clearly connected to the temple of an already off-balance Liston as he was reaching forward, the result of a knockdown doesn't surprise me at all.

So, within the space of two minutes, Ali has already shown that he can land more or less at will, and that Liston isn't capable of reaching him. Liston's already hit the mat once, and even if it was only a flash knockdown, it certainly seems as though dominance has been established.

And regardless of whether Liston called it a night as he was lying on the mat, that makes this performance of Ali's pretty impressive, imo.

 

While the ring announcer was making the introductions, Muhammad Ali was loosening up
in his corner, bouncing on his toes and looking good.

Sonny Liston tried to bounce, and stumbled back and to his left, almost falling.
He looked completely awkward, like he was partially intoxicated.

Amos Lincoln, Listons top sparring partner, and who also fought the next immediate fight in the ring (after the 1 Round sham), had some interesting things to say about
Sonny Liston, after the fight.
Alcohol consumption was out-of-control at The Mansion House in Poland Spring,
Liston training headquarters in Maine.

 

ha ha ha ha ha! Good ol Il Duce, ya never give up do you? So, what now? Liston was drunk?

 

Pretty accurate :good After what transpired in their first fight,Liston was intimidated by Ali. Not intimidated in the "you hit me...I hit you...and we'll see who can do it the hardest.." sense,but Sonny was completely and utterly baffled by Muhammad.

 

Liston's head hunting in the first fight has been used as "evidence" on this forum that it was a fix. That really goes to show how you always can find an argument if one wants to.

I think Liston simply felt very early what he must have suspected before the fight: Ali had improved while he himself had detoriated. He knew it would be a mismatch and when he was caught off-balance by an unexpected shot and went down he choose to stay there.

He quit to save himself a painful and humiliating beat down. London, by his own admission, later did just that against Ali, so why wouldn't Liston? We know that he quit the time before, even if injury played a part in that one. Here a widening gap in quality played the same part.

 

For those who don't think Ali's right couldn't be enough to even floor Liston, look at 0:19 in this clip:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khitSUOqQrw[/ame]

 

No Dive

 

JM36,

That was from Amos Lincoln,, who was with Sonny Liston for 6-weeks.
20-days in Dedham, Massachusetts
17-days in Poland Spring, Maine.

Terry Carson, one of the Marshalls that had the detail of protecting Sonny Liston, and drove with Liston from The Mansion House to the fight site Central Maine Youth Center
in Lewiston, Maine that early evening, would not say anything when interviewed
about Sonny Listons general condition on the ride to the fight, and the walk through the
Arena.

 

I find it hard to believe that Sonny Liston who was known to have good whiskers to go down from such a punch. I don't really think Liston could have beaten Ali based on fight 1 (which I believe was on the level) and Ali never showed that one punch ability before or after. Now Liston got cracked good and often against Leotis who was a better than fair puncher and he got flattened but did Liston always disguise a glass jaw or was he just a poor actor...Ali had good leverage at times and had speed and pinpoint power but in his 3 fights with Norton he could not crack that china land as he did

 

it was a fix.simple

 

The punch that Moore put Marciano down with seems even weaker to me, and we certainly know Rocky could take a punch...

 

Jimmy Cannon,,,,,'the atmosphere surrounding this fight, had an odor'