December 6, 1969 Liston KO by Leotis Martin

Looked like Sonny just ran outta gas

 

Brutal KO this one.

Liston was legitimately unconscious here and Martin though a good puncher was still a sub-200 pounder when they met.

Sonny (though never real fast) had slowed a lot and was simply no longer a top echelon fighter by 1969 although still formidable. I'd favour Ellis, Quarry and Frazier over him here.

If the proposed Frazier fight in 1971 had eventuated then I think Sonny would have been destroyed. Prime4prime is a different fight completely though.

 

What was Sonnys real age by then. 45?

 

Sadly after scoring this huge upset Leotis Martin never fought again due to a detached retina.

 

Liston fought really well in this fight, but caught by a great shot.

It's one of the few cases where the man who got knocked out took much less damage than the man who knocked him out.

 

Yes he just expended too much energy trying to get Martin out of there.

 

A rather inconvenient fact I think!

 

Could Leotis have been a champion?

 

I feel he fell a bit short.Ellis beat him in the tournament Leotis suffered a badly cut lip.I saw Martin beat Thad Spencer at the RAH it was fight of the year in the UK!

 

Detached retina ended a lot of careers in those days.

 

By the mid-rounds, Sonny began to bleed badly from the nose and mouth, much like Leotis did against Ellis.
Given all Sonny's 'demons' his post-Ali career wasn't anything to write home about. The last thing to go in a fighter is his punch which Sonny showed in his comeback but...the only big win he had was against the rising young contender Henry Clark.
Always liked Leotis, a rather small heavy but in researching his career he warrants respect.
Watch the Ellis fight again. Don't know why he was body punching Ellis so much early in the fight; IMO he seemed to be finding his groove by the mid-rounds before the stoppage.
He went 'globe trotting' after Ellis trying to, I can only assume, build a resume. Look at his wins, and losses in context and I'm seeing a solid contender who may have contended into the early seventies sans the detached retina.

 

I think most like me who first saw listo n laying there live on tv hought he threw another fight...no after awhile it was legit

 

Foremans recounting of his meeting Sonny in the dressing room after the bout had a lasting affect on him. Sonny had told the young George he wasn't afraid of anything and losing wouldn't bother him but George found Sonny crying and realised he had lied. Sonny told George he had the flu and was weak as an explanation.