Why does everyone mention marty marshall to attempt to degrade sonny?

Well even if he was ranked, it was briefly because he's not in the yearly ratings. So hardly anyone to make a 22-1 favorite against an upcoming prospect.

 

Liston had won golden gloves as an amateur and beat up the big strong Olympic champion Ed Sanders, and had impressed everyone who'd seen him, so it would have been insane to make a run-of-the-mill marginally experienced "contender" like Summerlin a 22-1 favourite over him.

And I definitely seem to remember someone posted a report of that fight that seemed to imply LISTON went into the fight expected to win, and had more trouble than expected.

Still, it all proves Liston's pedigree, the way he was matched against these tough cookies after his first 4 or 5 pro fights.

 

Summerlin was 20 1 1 going into his first bout with Liston.

 

True enough, but he had been in the army for two years and had only had two fights with Oscar Pharo since getting discharged. In his earlier career he had been stopped by the one fringe contender he had fought, lightheavy Wes Bascom. Liston had actually been doing a lot more fighting from 1952 to 1954 than Summerlin.

I don't think the odds were 22 to 1. There must be some mistake. In fact, off the Ring Magazine report on the fight, I would think Liston was the favorite.

 

You know how the fight went with Liston? I had read it was hotly contested.

 

On a related note, he got a bum rap on the second Ali fight. Liston said that he didn't want Ali to hit him as he tried to get up, that he was caught off balance but wasn't hurt. Walcott didn't know what he was doing as referee, and couldn't control Ali. Liston was up and fighting when it was over. Nat Fleischer was sitting at ringside and told Walcott it was over. Liston's account makes sense to me.

 

I will retype the Ring report on this fight from the August 1954 issue of the Ring. The correspondent was Jack Weine:

"Every once in a while you watch a fight that after the official decision is announced you can't help but feel that perhaps some of the advance publicity had swayed the arbiters. Such was the case when Johnny Summerlin, 193, spotted his highly-billed foe, Charles 'Sonny' Liston, 13 lbs and lost a most puzzling verdict. The bout itself was as torrid as any seen here for several years. But by having scored more often with the cleaner and more effective punches, veteran observers wre 100% in favor of Summerlin."

Of course, this should be kept in context. Liston was early in his career and there were controversial decisions with most other ATG champions also.