The Zora Folley vs Sonny Liston encounter of July 18 1960.

Is this fight on film?

 

I’ve asked this, at least twice on previous threads, with no joy.
The 2 leading heavyweight contenders in action, 4 weeks after Floyd regained the title, yet no existing film!

 

Well their are quite a bit of fights that were filmed but not available to the general public such as Liston-Valdez

 

Some websites used to provide
listings of fights known to have been filmed but they only focused on the really old, early 20th century fights.

I didn’t know Liston-Valdez existed.

Here’s a thread on boxrec in which Klompton confirms the Liston vs Folley fight wasn’t televised with an explanation as to why.

https://boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=240286

Still, unreal that a fight of such status wasn’t filmed. Not that I don’t believe Klomp, but my heart keeps telling me there must be something out there - LOL, wishful thinking.

Of course I’ve only read a description of Liston vs Folley. IIRC, it seems after arising from the first KD of 2 in the second round, Folley really stuck it to Sonny and forced him back - but then Zora was KD’d again and stopped in the next round.

Great result for Liston IMO. With the Machen fight only a few months later, perhaps Folley’s election to slug, leading to his ultimate demise probably screamed to Eddie to stay on his bike vs Liston, whilst also focusing on spoiling and avoiding any protracted exchanges.

As it was, I believe it was a fine performance by Liston against a guy, Machen, who only looked to survive.

 

It does seem incredible now that a fight between two top heavyweight contenders could go unrecorded, but in those days it did happen - Archie Moore v Nino Valdes was another one. With no deal in place to broadcast the fight there was no commercial incentive to go to all the trouble of dragging in heavy cameras and paying someone to operate them.

 

If the fight played out as described then it's more proof that Liston had heart and could comeback in a tough fight ..

 

I’ve never seen it or read anything about it. But as long as it was on the level then it was an excellent win for Liston. That was a big year for Sonny. Five consecutive stoppage wins - four of which were over contenders all the while maintaining a consistent weight of 212 lbs

 

Other odd omissions in the Sonny Liston film catalogue are his 2 fights with Howard King, especially the second one.
It was fought in Miami Beach, 5 days before the 3rd Floyd - Ingo fight, also in Miami.
Sonny and Ingo were photographed together there.
I think, from memory, Sonny had a run in with the law shorty afterwards, leading to a suspension of his world rating for a few months. A photo appeared in the press of him in a police van in handcuffs.

 

The Liston-Folley contest was promoted by Milt Willner, a Denver restaurateur who was inexperienced in the boxing promotion business. He might not have had the knowhow or the connections to set up a telecast.

 

SI Vault Article with description of Liston vs Folley: -

https://vault.si.com/vault/1960/08/01/heavyweight-in-waiting

 

A lot of boxing insiders in that day thought TV was the end of boxing. Having regularly-televised fights killed the gates at fight clubs that had operated for years with weekly, bi-weekly or monthly cards. So they began to fade from existence.

Having a fight on TV would keep paying customers in the market at home rather than them buying tickets to see it in person. So some promoters probably didn’t want TV for their shows … the ‘rights fees’ to televise wouldn’t offset the gate losses.

 

Absolutely true in that day and age.