Clay - Liston II - The Rematch

And the most famous photo in boxing history

INTRODUCTION from The Sports Time Traveler

15 months ago, I traveled back to February, 1964 to cover the story of Cassius Clay’s shocking victory over Sonny Liston. Liston was the overwhelming favorite. Experts expected him to pound Clay. Boxing pundits actually feared Clay might die in the bout by using his intended strategy of dancing away from punches and eschewing the traditional guard-your-head stance. But Clay, who changed his name to Muhammad Ali after the fight, stunned the sports world as he won the fight and became the heavyweight champion of the world.

You can read or listen that article at the link below. My favorite part is announcer Howard Cosell’s famous screams, “Sonny Liston’s not coming out!”

Clay - Liston I - February, 1964

After 15 months, in May, 1965, the fighters were finally ready for the re-match. Of course, I had to make the virtual trip back to experience this fight.

Clay - Liston II - Lewiston, ME - May 26, 1965

I’m here virtually in Lewiston, Maine, one of the most unlikely places for a heavyweight championship bout, but that’s what took place here yesterday between the champion, Cassius Clay, and the former champion, Sonny Liston.

The 33-year-old Liston is listed as a 13 - 10 favorite. Many believe that if not for hurting his shoulder in the first bout, he would have torn apart the 23-year-old Clay. Now, Liston is deemed to be healthy.

The fight was originally supposed to take place last November, 1964, in the Boston Garden, but Clay had to have an emergency hernia operation 3 days before the bout. It was then re-scheduled for Boston Garden on May 25th. However, Massachusetts officials investigating the Liston camp sought to block the fight over concerns about ties to organized crime. Rather than fight the state, the promoter moved the fight out of Boston just 3 weeks ago. And that’s how it wound up in Lewiston, Maine.

So the venue for last night’s fight was the Central Maine Youth Center where just 5,800 seats were available. They didn’t even need that many as the promoters could not sell all the tickets. And that created the smallest crowd ever to see a heavyweight championship fight, with less than 5,000 on hand.

The fight was also available on closed circuit TV in about 250 theaters across the country. About 1,000,000 fans were estimated to have watched the fight live that way.

You too can watch the fight, on tape, at the link below.

Here’s the highlights with the time stamps for quicker viewing:

2:22 - Clay tries to intimidate Liston during the weigh-in earlier in the day by shadow boxing

4:40 - Just prior to the fight, several former heavyweight champions are introduced in the ring for all to see. It was stunning to see these legendary fighters. They were, in order:

• James J. Braddock - champion from 1935 - 1937. Braddock is introduced by his nickname, the “Cinderella Man,” which was coined by fabled sportswriter Damon Runyon.

• Floyd Patterson - champion from 1956 - 1962.

• Jack Sharkey - champion from 1932 - 1933.

• Rocky Marciano - champion from 1952 to 1956. Marciano retired undefeated. He received a huge ovation from the crowd.

• Joe Louis - champion from 1937 to 1949. Louis was introduced by his nickname, “the Brown Bomber.” Louis received a slightly lesser ovation than Marciano.

7:10 - One more former heavyweight champion is introduced separately because he is serving as the referee for the fight. It’s “Jersey” Joe Walcott, who was champ from 1951 to 1952.

8:30 - The challenger and former champion, Sonny Liston, is introduced to supportive cheers. And then the champion, Muhammad Ali, is introduced to loud boos. It is notable that he is introduced by his new name as most of the sports world continues to call him Cassius Clay.

10:05 - The bell rings to begin the fight. Clay comes out dancing and keeping his hands low. He moves in a sweeping circular motion around Liston, as Liston, standing in the center of the ring, must continually turn to face Clay. Liston maintains the stance of a traditional boxer with his huge arms guarding his face and looking for opportunities to fire his fists at Clay. But the few punches that Liston gets in are easily evaded by Clay, either ducking or leaning away, without disrupting his perpetual dancing.

11:10 - Clay, after throwing almost no punches, finds an opening and throws a vicious right that connects. The impact can be heard clearly on the tape. The announcer, Steve Ellis, calls it, “the best punch thus far.”

11:45 - After another 30 seconds of dancing around, Clay gets in a quick right jab that sends Liston down to the canvas. The count does not begin right away because the referee, Walcott, can’t get Clay to move to a neutral corner. Clay circles around the back of Liston and appears to be taunting him. Walcott again tries to get Clay to move away from Liston. While Walcott is chasing Clay, Liston tries to get up. He makes it onto his knees, then tumbles back down, flat on his back. This is 10 seconds after the initial knock down, but the referee hasn’t indicated that count has even started. Meanwhile, Clay is dancing around the ring with his hands in the air, as if he has won the fight.

12:15 - Liston finally gets back on his feet after 15 seconds, and the referee, Walcott, gets in his face to talk to him. Walcott yells to the judges and moves away, allowing Clay to re-engage Liston. Clay immediately abandons his dancing strategy and throws a wild flurry of punches at Liston.

12:20 - Walcott dashes back to the fighters, steps in between them, and stops the fight. It’s over! Clay has won in just 2 minutes in a 1st round knockout.

16:20 - In the melee inside the ring after the fight, for just a second, you can see in the background a frustrated Howard Cosell. A year earlier, Cosell had been the announcer in the original Clay-Liston fight that had jumped into the ring quickly after he was the first person in the building to realize the fight was over. He cordoned off Clay for his exclusive interview. Now, announcer Steve Ellis has done the same thing, getting into the ring quickly and conducting an exclusive interview with Clay and shutting out all other announcers, most notably Howard Cosell.

20:30 - Clay is still being interviewed by Steve Ellis, who is showing him the slow-motion replay. Clay thanks Ellis for showing the action in slow motion. He says, “I’m so fast I don’t think you can see me in real action.”

20:45 - In slow motion, we see the right jab that sent Liston down. Ellis asks Clay why he stood over him. Clay yells, “I’m trying to tell the bum to get up and fight.”

Cassius Clay, or if you prefer his new name, Muhammad Ali, has retained the heavyweight championship of the world.

The entire fight lasted just 1 minute and 42 seconds. It was the shortest heavyweight championship fight since 1908.

On the front page of the Boston Globe today, was a photograph of Cassius Clay standing over the defeated Sonny Liston.

A slightly different version of that picture has become perhaps the most famous photograph ever taken of a boxing match.

You can see the famous photo at this link:

Clay Standing Over Liston

CONTROVERSY

Immediately after the fight there were concerns about the outcome. Most observers could not see the punch that floored Liston. And this lead to cries of a fix.

The front page of the New York Times today had a headline, “Clay Knocks Out Liston in One Minute Bout, Like First, Ends in Controversy.”

Cries of, “fake, fake, fake,” could be heard in the arena according to Robert Lypsyte of The New York Times. Lipsyte wrote in his front page article that the punch, “did not seem to have enough knockout power.”

Tim Moriarty, writing for UPI, in an article that appeared today in the Portland, ME Press Herald noted, “Some writers at ringside weren’t even sure that Clay landed the knockout blow. They thought at first that Liston merely had slipped to the canvas.”

But Arthur Daley, also of The New York Times, was at ringside and he thought the punch was real. In his article on page 54 of the newspaper, he wrote, “The knockout punch seemed solid enough.”

It certainly was a surprise however, as Sonny Liston had not been knocked down in a fight in 10 years.

However, despite some analysts’ insistence that the punch Clay threw did indeed have knockout potential, the rumors about Liston taking a dive persisted because of Liston’s known ties to organized crime and the fact that he had spent time in jail for robbery 15 years earlier.

There was also controversy around the manner in which the referee, former champion “Jersey” Joe Walcott, handled the knockdown. Walcott was unprepared to handle Cassius Clay, who danced around the ring taunting Liston rather than going to a neutral corner.

But this didn’t seem matter in the end. Clay’s punch was real, as the slow-motion replay reveals. It was lightning fast, and that’s why so many missed it. And Liston had been beaten.

NOTE from The Sports Time Traveler

I’m now reporting to you from May 28, 1965. In the New York Times, Arthur Daley reported on a conversation he had with former heavyweight champion James Braddock who had a close-up view of the bout.

Braddock dispelled any notion that the knockout punch by Clay could not have taken out Liston.

Braddock had this to say, “That guy, Clay, is a pretty fair fighter. I have a feeling he’s a lot better than any of us gave him credit for being. It isn’t the knockout punch that sticks in my mind as much as the punch he let go a few moments earlier. It was a right to Liston’s jaw, and it was a beauty. It shook Liston to his shoe tops. For all we know, it could have been the one that set up the knockout. You might call it delayed action. When anyone is as old as Liston must be, he’s liable to fall apart without warning.”

Braddock was referring to rumors that Liston is older than his listed age of 33. Daley revealed that some people claim Liston may actually be close to 40.

Daley also noted that in the final pre-fight training session to which he was a personal witness, Liston sparred only with, “his slowest moving partner, avoiding the fast-moving ones who had made him look so leaden-footed,” in his prior sparring sessions. Daley speculated that the sparring session was designed to make Liston look good and boost his morale.

Daley also noted that Liston’s handlers were concerned about “the departure of his skills.” Supporting that notion was a quote Daley got from the heavyweight champ prior to Liston, Floyd Patterson. Patterson had lost 2 fights to Liston. He told Daley, “Sonny sure has slipped badly since I fought him. It’s hard to believe that a man could go back so far so fast.”

Daley concludes, “Was it a fix? This ringside observer does not think so.”

TWO MORE NOTES from The Sports Time Traveler

FIRST - Now it’s May 30, 1965 and ABC’s Wide World of Sports has just shown a fascinating analysis of the fight hosted by Howard Cosell, who was there ringside. You can watch the show at the link below. First, ABC shows the entire fight, as we’ve seen already. But starting at the 17:50 mark, they have some incredibly insightful analysis supported by photographs from various angles that demonstrate Clay’s knockout punch was no phantom blow, but in fact was a quick and powerful strike, which was more like a karate punch with a twisting motion that made it lethal as it connected on the side of Liston’s head.

Then at 23:55 watch as Howard Cosell interviews Jack Dempsey, the heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926, and Rocky Marciano.

Marciano, who was sitting ringside during the fight, contended that Liston slipped when he was hit by Clay. While Dempsey, who had only watched the tape of the fight this morning, indicated that only Sonny Liston can ascertain how powerful the punch was.

Cosell concluded that the controversy around the fight remains unanswered.

SECOND - This morning in the New York Times, writer Joseph Sheehan penned an article today, that offers a different viewpoint on the outcome of the fight.

Here are some excerpts of Sheehan’s article:

“Has it occurred to anyone that the magnificently proportioned 23-year-old Clay just might the ‘greatest’ fighter,’ as he claims?”

There probably never has been a faster, nimbler heavyweight (Joe Louis, perhaps was as fast of hand, but certainly never as nimble).

The blow that knocked out Liston has been downgraded as a ‘powder puff’ swipe. That’s prejudiced nonsense. With all the strength of his young, vital, rawboned, 6-foot-3-inch, 206 pound frame, a firmly-braced Clay delivered, with perfect timing, a direct hit on a forward-moving, off-balance, over-aged rival…

In true artistry, effort never is obvious, what’s well done is done easily, and there is a complete absence of strain.

Supreme athletes, and supreme artists in any field, are those who make the game look easy.

Thanks for reading.

Please share The Sports Time Traveler.