What really happened at the second Liston vs. Ali fight?

Most historians agree that the second Liston vs Ali fight was a huge mess, and the officiating a disaster. That said, they also agree that Liston was down, unable to defend himself, and had the fight continued, Sonny would have taken a serious beating.
The WBA, which had a rule against automatic rematches, stripped Ali for the second fight, put pressure on all fifty state boxing commissions not to license a rematch between the Ali and Liston, and it was extremely difficult to find a venue for the fight.
Finally, Massachusetts agreed to hold the fight, which caused a suspension of the Massachusetts Boxing Commission by the WBA. The fight was set for November 16, 1964, at the Boston Garden. Liston was listed as a betting favorite by 13-5. Three days before the fight, Ali suffered an incarcerated inguinal hernia. He underwent immediate surgery at Boston City Hospital. "It was such a marvelously developed stomach, I hated to slice it up," said one of the attending physicians.
Sonny had whipped himself into great shape for this fight, but at least 37, (and probably a lot older) he couldn’t hold his conditioning when the fight was delayed.
The fight was rescheduled for May 25, 1965. That delay ruined completely Liston’s timing, and in addition, forced him to go back into training after the New Year, and strained his chronically injured left shoulder.
The fight was rescheduled, but rumors of Sonny’s alleged ties to organized crime forced the fight out of Boston. Governor John H. Reed of Maine offered to host the fight in Lewiston, Maine, a small town of about 41,000, 140 miles north of Boston.
The venue selected was St. Dominic's Hall, a junior hockey rink. Lewiston was the smallest city to host a heavyweight title bout since Jack Dempsey fought Tommy Gibbons in Shelby, Montana (population 3,000) in 1923. It remains the only heavyweight title fight held in the state of Maine.
So the fight was a mess from the start, which has contributed to the conspiracy theories
Sonny himself said after the second fight in his dressing room, "I didn't know he (Ali) could hit so hard."
The fight started slowly, with Liston advancing, using his reach and jab to try to control the distance. But as he stepped into a follow up right, Ali countered with a lightening fast counter right just as Liston stepped forward into it, and that was all she wrote.
Angelo Dundee called what happened, “Slip, slide and bang!” Liston made a mistake that led directly to his knockout. Liston lunged as he threw his best punch, his left jab, hoping to follow it up with a straight right. As anyone in boxing can tell you, whenever a fighter lunges, he is off-balance and highly susceptible to getting knocked out with a quick counter. When you watch the film of the fight, anyone can see that Liston’s head is out over his front foot, which means that he was dangerously off-balance and wide open to a quick, powerful counter right hand.
And Ali hit him with a perfect counter right, and down Sonny went.
Liston, on his back, rolled over, got to his right knee and then fell on his back again. Many watching did not see Ali deliver the punch. The fight turned into complete chaos. Referee Jersey Joe Walcott, a former World Heavyweight Champion himself, had a hard time getting Ali to go to a neutral corner. Ali initially stood over his fallen opponent, gesturing and yelling at him, "Get up and fight, sucker!"
Under the rules of the Maine Commission, the referee was authorized to stop his count if a boxer refused to go to the proper corner. He was not authorized to disqualify the fighter unless he struck the defenseless man while he was down, or starting up, with a blatant foul. Ali did neither.
After Liston arose, Walcott, who had never resumed his count, wiped off his gloves. He then left the fighters to go over to the timekeeper. "The timekeeper was waving both hands and saying, 'I counted him out and the fight is over,'" Walcott said after the fight. "Nat Fleischer (editor of Ring) was seating beside the timekeeper and he was waving his hands, too, saying it was over."
Walcott then rushed back to the fighters, who had resumed boxing, and stopped the fight and awarded Ali a first-round knockout victory. The official time of the stoppage was announced as 1:00 into the first round, which was wrong. Liston went down at 1:44, got up at 1:56, and Walcott stopped the fight at 2:12.
Liston then left the ring and went to his dressing room as the arena erupted.
“It was a good right-hand punch," Liston said after the fight. "It made me groggy. I got to my knees but fell the second time because I was off balance."
Sonny also said that night, mournfully, "I walked into it." Anytime a man leans forward or steps forward into a punch it obviously magnifies the force.
I do remember reading stuff like this in the book Liston and Ali: The Ugly Bear and the Boy Who Would Be King by Bob Mees.
Aparently ,Liiston said years later, “I was off balance and he caught me with a stiff right hand. It rattled me. My head really hurt. It was a good shot.”

 

This is what 90% of the historians said (including liston himself). But IMO i agree with you.. just like Larry Merchant said, it was a real punch that was hard enough to put him down. But was it good enough to keep him down like that? I don't think so. It's still very strange, because Floyd Patterson himself said "The thing that bother me is that liston can take a hell of punche, i've seen him fighting guys that were devastating punchers".
By the way, it's still suprising to see guys like you, Seamus, Shavers, unforgiven after all this years...

 

I don't know What was supposed to have happened in the first fight that would make Liston think he couldn't beat ali (i mean, the 1st fight was dead even before Sonny refused to continue the match due to his badly injured left shoulder) or even needed to take a dive in the sequel.....But it's still suspect....all the things i wrote at the beginning was some of the historian's opinions on what really happened during the 2nd fight.

 

I feel like Bruce Seldon never really asked for a second chance, as he was clearly terrified and convinced that he could never beat Tyson.
As for Liston, Explain why he didn't deserve a rematch?

 

The reason he never beat a real contender after that fight cause liston could not get a promoter to put him on a card in America. Finally, Ingemar Johansson, who had refused to fight Sonny in 1958, promoted cards in Sweden with Sonny on them.
Promoters would not put him on cards in the US until 1968, years after the second Ali fight. He returned and called out Joe Frazier and every member of hte top 10, who all refuse to fight him.