60 years ago today: Charles L. "Sonny" Liston♱ vs. Cassius Marcellus "The Louisville Lip" Clay, Jr.*

This content is protected

(the first bell rings nine minutes and thirty seconds in...)

Twas a balmy Tuesday evening in Miami at 75°F. (oh yeah, your boy researches )

More than eight thousand strong turned up, buzzing palpably even after something of a ho-hum undercard of mostly heavyweights (a young Bob Foster scoring the only knockout, blitzing Dave Bailey inside a round).

I could not think how to begin to emphasize sufficiently how meaningful it was to have both Marciano and Louis at ringside for this event. Think in modern terms if you had both Klitschkos, Lewis, Tyson and Holyfield all in the front row. That about measures up.

Also camped a stone's throw from the action were 46 of the day's leading journos, of whom 43 picked Liston by KO - that's 93%, for those playing at home.

Despite the champ's fearsome reputation and whispers of possible mob fixing; the brash undefeated contender balked at both press row's vote of no-confidence and being an 8:1 betting underdog - and seemed to subvert that betting line as he called his shot, prognosticating victory "in round 8 to prove I'm great!". It seems poetically fitting that he aimed for mere greatness and wound up with a result superlative to his goal - two rounds ahead of schedule, for the future Greatest.

Aggregated fan scorecards:
https://eyeonthering.com/node/9745

The majority had it level as of the stoppage; 57-all, followed by a number of 58-56 cards for Clay and then a small few with Liston ahead. This seems reasonably well borne out by the punch stats: Clay's percentages were higher in all but the 5th, but Liston connected on more net punches in the second & third as well.

In the posts to follow I'll give it my whack at scoring it properly, RBR.

Appelative footnotes:

♱ Liston's middle initial, like that of President Harry S. Truman, is believed now by most historians to have been simply a placeholder letter that stands for nothing in particular - in other words, the full middle name in fact is the single character "L".

* This was still the challenger's name on fight night and on all the promotional materials leading up to it. The very next morning he dubbed himself Cassius X and ten days later switched to Muhammad Ali (funfact: he never formally & legally changed it).

 

Charles L. Liston vs. Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. I, 15 rounds @ heavyweight

 

At stake were:

• the Undisputed World Heavyweight championship (second defense of Liston; captured and defended versus Floyd Patterson)
• the WBC Heavyweight title (first defense of Liston; the inaugural contest was the Patterson rematch)
• the inaugural WBA Heavyweight title (N/A)

 

Round 1

Lunging right hand lead downstairs by the champion. Fleet-footed evasive maneuvers and pot shot jabs by Clay. Solid right hands on the body from Liston, connecting multiple times. Commentator jumps the gun a bit thinking Clay is badly hurt. Felt it, for sure. Feels another moments later but still comfortably dancing around with his gloves low, baiting the dangerous animal in front of him with jabs and hooks about the mush while lolling his neck side to side to slip Liston's own high thudding jab. Liston overcommitting on that jab and leaving himself extended in position to be countered with quick jabs and short combos. Body and head combo by Clay in the final minute, peppering in hooks. A few hard jabs by Clay just before the bell - which rings LOUD AND CLEAR in the arena but the combatants and referee pretend to "not hear it" and we get an extra 9-10 seconds of action.

10-9 Clay

 

Round 2

Liston jabs Clay hard in the forearm, making him back straight off in a slight panic and clearing a lane for a right on the body. Clay warily circling much wider off than in the 1st now. Liston with a lunging leaping left hook that does get a piece of Clay's chin, to a roar from the crowd. Liston sticking with what's worked for him so far, eschewing his famous heavy jab for the most part and trying diving straight rights downstairs and leaping left hooks up top by turns. Clay now has him clocked and is fairly easily dancing away, turning his jaw aside on the backfoot to roll with anything that does reach him. Not many counters from Clay, lots of jab feints. Liston barrels him into the ropes and mauls him, hitting the body. Clay's mostly lateral head movement sees him yo-yo clear of a high straight right only to land in the path of a Liston left hook, grazing but hurtful. Clay cautiously circles and clinches when trapped on the ropes. Clay pumping a jab attempting to slow things down from outside. Right on the body from Liston grazing.

10-9 Liston, close

19-19

 

Round 3

Liston has a cut beneath his left eye from a quick piercing Clay jab. A few more of those, and then a 1-2 flush on the button from Clay. A series of hooks on the body, Clay sensing the door ajar to make something happen. Briefly pressing for a stoppage, but Liston quells the idea by sinking his chin to his chest and plowing into Clay's body with heavy torpedoes. Liston now unfurls a long jab into Clay's throat and turned-aside cheek while pursuing him across the ring, Clay's thoughts of closing the show now locked into cold storage. Liston turning everything completely around, now in as dominant a position as Clay seemed early, whamming both fists into Clay's midsection and flooding his face and neck with jabs to force a constant retreat speckled with unsuccessful clinch attempts. Liston effectively applying brute force and precision timing, overcoming the speed and movement advantage of the younger man that had seemingly overwhelmed him just a couple of minutes prior.

10-9 Liston, very close

29-28 Liston

 

Round 4

Liston is bent forward, intent on walking Clay down but getting tagged by jabs as the longer and taller youngster keeps up a leaned-away posture while gliding on his toes. Liston is defending well, his tank-like frame hunched over and dipping to catch shots on either beefy shoulder, making Clay lunge down low and miss with his headhunting jab. When he straightens up to chase, however, Liston is hit with that jab far more often & cleanly. Liston gets in a nice two-piece charging in but Clay's legs mostly just too swift for him to have a prayer of getting set in range. Clay with a powerful up-jab, parried aside off Clay's inner right forearm. One more hard jab, missed as Clay rapidly pins his ear to his clavicle.

10-9 Clay

38-38

 

Round 5

Clay complains during the stool break of a "substance" on Liston's gloves, saying it got into his eyes and is affecting his vision. Liston is going straight at him as Clay squints after answering the bell under protest. Defensive push-jabs by Clay, meant strictly as deterrents, drifting from ropes to ropes, dancing with far less agility than in the first four rounds. Clay getting nailed with hard left hook leads by Liston. The shorter man's feet clearing a good few inches off the canvas as he flings himself at the wounded prey before him, using his juggernaut momentum and turbocharging uppercuts and hooks. Liston landing an awful lot of clean power punches. Clay showing remarkable resistance in the face of a one-sided drubbing from a massively destructive hitter.

10-9 Liston

48-47 Liston

 

Round 6

Liston is ready with both mitts waiting to catch the Clay jab, but Clay after popping a few obligingly into his palms starts touching his face with it anyway. Clay's jab getting increasingly sharper and snappier as he pelts Liston with it at medium-long range and begins to stir in some crosses up top and hooks downstairs. Awkward stutter-step leaning and twisting by Clay as he closes the gap a bit, drawing near to bait the lead, then sinuously wrapping himself around Liston's outstretched arms to blast him from odd angles. Boxing clinic from young Mr. Clay here, baffling the vastly more seasoned man (Liston turned pro before Clay hit puberty). Liston does fake a jab and park a chopping right home on the jaw of Clay near the very end of the round, but that was the lone shining moment in an otherwise humbling three minutes.

10-9 Clay

57-57

 

The retirement in the corner of Liston has the commentator and crowd absolutely gobsmacked.

The sixth was an embarrassing round, but nothing you'd expect to warrant that response. Curiously, he also got in the last good lick of the match.

 

Have to say, I really don't care for the snarky & paternalistic (borderline mask-off racist?) demeanor of Stephen Ellis, the play by play commentator, ordering his broadcast partner and color analyst, the legendary Joe Louis, about the way that he did. Nor was him shouting down Clay and clipping off every sentence of his victory interview a good look.

Clay telling him to GTFO the way and barking at security to let Sam Cooke in the ring is a vibe, though. (sadly, the King of Soul wouldn't survive the calendar year - killed under senseless and somewhat mystifying circumstances ten months later. Cool that he got to be a part of this moment, at least...)

 

For the record: that Liston had in fact strained his left shoulder (from all that frequent lunging and missing with those jabs & hooks) is a matter of documented medical record. Eight doctors examined him and confirmed that damage was done. The question is whether a) this injury was brought into the fight (Liston claims it was a chronic issue that was reaggravated in training, essentially making it a baked-in excuse for losing) and b) whether the severity of pain was in fact enough to render him unable to continue, with consideration due the fact that he said it was hurt from the 1st but seemed to be fighting through it just fine afterwards, in the 5th round in particular - and many boxers have pushed through similar impingements, especially with a prize like the heavyweight championship in the balance.

 

Did they make a fuss about the "phantom" anchor punch live on air or was it just the live audience griping the night of?

 

Alternate (radio) commentary:

This content is protected