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

Given what we know, that Liston was older than his listed age - some serous researchers think much older - was the result of the first fight an upset or unexpected? Not at all.

The 2nd fight stunk of fixed crookedness. No way such a light arm punch has Liston dropped and rolling around like he was shot
Walcott's performance didn't help.

 

Unbelievable performance from ali at the age he was. Every bit as good today as back when he first done it imo.

Liston was an absolute beast who just couldnt get to grips with ali,s movement and speed. No one would have been able to stand toe to toe with liston. Even just watching that....he could really hit.

The constant movement of ali frustrated him tho. Tiring work when your throwing your best and your opponent starts dictating the pace on you. I think both fights we,re a similar ending in that liston knew his chances of winning was diminishing fast. He,d regressed the second fight and ali had become a lot more confident.

Liston would beat most heavyweights imo.....what he struggled with was someone with the movement etc of ali. He could probably deal with guys with good movement....his timing was pretty good. Just came up against someone pretty special in ali that pretty much had the perfect style to give liston nightmares. Good speed of punch and good movement wouldnt have been enough to beat liston. Ali,s was sublime for a heavyweight tho in fairness.

One thing that annoys me is liston is downplayed massively nowadays off the back of them two fights and the other one he lost. He was a lot better than them 3 fights tho. Very few would have stood up to liston.