Rating Ali's first win over Liston

Very big.

The way he did it was wonderful. He started to take Liston apart and that's when Sonny just sat in the corner and let the title go away. You just do not see too many champions taken apart. It takes an absolute ton of skills to do that to a reigning champion. To me anyway, taking a guy apart is more impressive than the ko results.

 

Sonny's left hand seemed to be functioning quite alright while beating up blind Ali. It seems to be a strange case of Liston's shoulder getting worse as Ali's sight ameliorates.

 

Liston had confirmed injuries going into this fight, and was on cortisone shots to treat bursitis.

That being said, it's still a very big win.

 

Great and big win although I think the fight was close before the stoppage. It wasn't a demolition job the way I've seen some people describe it, but Ali had all the momentum

 

I agree. I've seen people call it a domination and that couldn't be further from the truth but you're correct. Momentum was on Ali's side.

 

It wasn't domination yet but what happened in the sixth round was a sign that domination was on the way, Sonny had no answer for anything and I don't know that he would have if his shoulder had been 100%.

I think he and his handlers completely and totally misjudged who and what was across the ring from him that night, and got enlightened very quickly when not only did Ali not fold up like a cheap card table in the first round, he was popping the crap out of Sonny who was having trouble finding him.

 

To me it was surprising that Liston quit after a fairly uneventful round 6. Apparently he felt his energy flagging and believed he was about to take a beating.

 

Just re-watched the fight again because this thread put me in the mood and yeah, the 6th was brutal for Liston. He had one good punch which was a left hook that didn't phase Ali one bit (none of his power punches seemed to have any effect on him in the fight). But other than that one punch in the 6th he barely even threw and just seemed utterly perplexed by Ali's movement and rhythm while Ali was scoring again and again with his jab.

So yeah, it was a close fight, but it definitely wasn't going to be that way for long

 

The commentators on the radio broadcast in real time, if I'm not mistaken, said even though the scoring was like dead even at the time the fight ended, they thought the momentum was clearly in Ali's favor.

 

A great victory. Along with the George Foreman one,probably Muhammad's greatest. As has been said,even though the scoring was pretty level,the bout was definitely swinging Muhammad's way.

 

Amazing win. I believe Liston quit out of embarrassment and the promise of a big purse in the rematch. It must have been other worldly to see in real time

 

Spot on Swag

 

It’s Ali’s most underrated win in my opinion.
I think people forget Ali’s last fight was against Cooper where he looked sloppy clowned around and was heavily decked, this guy was going to be decimated by Liston.
Instead we saw a disciplined and polished performance which Liston struggled against.
If memory serves me right I think the scorecards were pretty even until the stoppage but Ali was clearly outboxing Sonny.
The ill discipline he showed against Cooper was gone because he knew if that was present he’d be ko’d we saw his foot speed, the fast jab was working and by the stoppage he was starting to do a job on Liston and also considering he was so young it was a quite remarkable performance.

 

Agree with your post completely Cec.

Ali didn’t screw around at all - he understood and appreciated the skills and threat that Liston brought to the table.

Just imo, I’ve always said/felt that Ali perhaps put on his most “conventional” display of boxing ever in the first Liston fight -very serious and punching very purposefully and very hard. For all his athletic displays during the fight, there was also a lot that Ali was doing “by the book”.

And finally, as he did 10 years later vs Foreman, Ali made an incredible, ATG statement in the very first round to let Sonny he was for real, take the reins and to set the tone for the rest of the fight.

In commentary, even Joe Louis said it was one of the greatest first rounds he’d seen in many years