Did anybody ever see anything peculiar in the Liston-Clay I fight

MC5,

The printed information on the amount of TNT cameras was wrong.
There was the fixed-static camera (main camera) filming the ring action.
Viewing Sonny Liston (back left corner) and Cassius Clay (front right corner).

A 'creepy-peepy hand-held camera' as announcer Steve Ellis mentions.

Fixed-cameras above Sonny Liston's corner and back right neutral-corner.

And the cameraman-operated swing camera above the front left corner.
That camera could view Sonny Listons corner (right side) or Cassius Clay's (corner)
left side.

Also, high-up above Cassius Clay's corner, another cameraman-operated fixed-unit was used.

 

Fight scoring;
Referee; Barney Felix 3-3-0 Even
Judge; Bernie Lovett 4-2-0 Sonny Liston
Judge; Gus Jacobson; 4-2-0 Cassius Clay

 

R,

Heavyweight Dave Bailey sparred with Cassius Clay in Miami for the fight.
31-year old, 6' 1" out of Philadelphia, PA.
He did spar with Muhammad in the mid 60's also..
He also fought Sonny Liston a couple of years later in Sweden.

 

Yes,

Referee Barney Felix, not investigating Cassius Clay's claim of an attempt by Sonny to
blind him with a special 'linament'.
Not calling a time-out, to check Liston's gloves or Clay's eyes.
Not looking to or asking the Miami Boxing Commision to check out each corner.
Allowing a supposed blind fighter, to continue fighting, which may have
rendered him defense-less against a murderous puncher.

Angelo Dundee not screaming to Barney Felix to check-out the situation further.

When your eyes burn, the first thing you do is tough them or rub them with your hands.
Clay never brought the gloves toward his eyes.

 

Unforgiven,

The color footage of the Liston-Clay fight was filmed by an operated camera above and to the back right, shooting film over the right side of Sonny Listons corner.

Great footage of referee Barney Felix with an expression of disbelief.
In this footage, you can just see Sonny stop attacking with about 40 seconds left,
after throwing a left to the body of Clay, when he's on the ropes, just to the
left of Sonny's corner.
Liston does not appear hurt, it just seems like something in his mind said 'enough'.

 

None of Sonny's sparring partners were interviewed in depth after the fight.
None, as reported by Liston's camp, were taken to the hospital as busted up, in days leading up to the fight.

Leotis Martin, 24-year old, 6' 2" 175 lb., 9-1-0 [5 KO's] fought on the undercard and won by decision.
Martin, used as the speed-fighter in Sonny's sparring, was only hurt slightly in the
rib-cage early pre-training (out at the Thunderbird Hotel in Las Vegas).
At the Surfside Community Center, he did pretty good in boxing and moving away from
the plodding Sonny.
He sure didn't make Sonny look good.
He was kept quiet.
Years later, just before his bout with Sonny in Las Vegas (1969), he stated that he was boxing
rings around Sonny in the Surfside Community Center, before the Clay fight.
He was told by Willie Reddish and Teddy King to stop moving and stay still, let Sonny hit you.
Also said, the sparring sesions were stopped on several occasions due to Sonny having an inflamed
left shoulder. He could only go 3 or 4 rounds, before it went dead.
Much like a baseball pitcher, after throwing 100 pitches.

 

Very nice stuff McGrain,,,,,,,

I tried to find an old interview with Wendell 'Fig' Newton.
A Bahama-based heavyweight, that had a 10-8-3 (0 KO) record, at the time.
Newton was another tall & lanky quick fisted, but very light-hitting
heavyweight.
At 6' 4" and 210 lbs., "The Fig" did the jab and run, and slap-punch stuff.
Sonny couldn't catch him, so to slow Newton down, they made him wear
work boots, and then they eventually had to put weights around his ankles, to stop him from moving.
Also, helped Sonny for the proposed bout in Boston, then the Lewiston, Maine fight.
He liked J & B too.....................

 

If that first fight was truly fixed,,,,,,,,,,,
The after fight history didn't show too much.

Sonny Liston only went to the hospital with his manager Jack Nilon, and cut-man
Joe Pollino.
No other people were around, the so-called mob people or bag-men carrying cash.
The only other person there was boxing-writer Mort Sharnik.
When leaving the hospital (as per film footage), Sonny walked out with just a
bandage under his left eye, but his left arm was just fine, not in a sling, like
it was at the after fight press conference.

 

RC,

Not sure exactly, but if Sonny Liston's purse was $1,300,000 or so,
after managers fee's plus other cuts, and taxes, who knows what he ended up with.
The Las Vegas boxing commision had calculated Sonny only owned 10% of
himself during the 1964 meetings, determining if an Ali-Liston fight would be
permitted or worth the aggravation for a Vegas venue.

 

Jack McKinney did write,
'Sonny Liston was not stupid, but he was impeded by his neurosis'.
'Emotional level of a child'.

Jack Nilon, Sonny's manager had thoughts of holding the first Cassius Clay fight
in Philadelphia, with a possibilty of 100,000 people attending an outdoor fight in a
stadium.
Gross receipts with closed circuit revenue could go over $8,000,000.

At that time of the interview (June 26, 1963), Nilon was out over $150,000 in
covering Sonny Liston's costs and expenses, plus he still owed Sonny $150,000 in fight purse cuts.
The second Patterson fight would have brought him to the 'even' level in his costs,
or so he thought.
Despite all the supposed money coming in, ICP and Jack Nilon were not making any
money.