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Post by profblues on Feb 25, 2014 8:54:41 GMT -5
it was fifty years ago tonight, that Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) scored a TKO over Sonny Liston to win the Heavyweight Championship of the World for the first time.  |
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Post by erik on Feb 25, 2014 9:41:48 GMT -5
And the first of many instances where Ali placed money where his mouth was.
As he himself once said: "If Cassius says a cow can lay an egg, don't ask how; grease that skillet!" (LOL)
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Post by jhar26 on Feb 25, 2014 10:08:23 GMT -5
Yeah, it was a huge upset. Liston was sorta the young George Foreman of his time. The guy who used Floyd Patterson for a basketball two times in a row. Liston should have been the champ much sooner than he was, but they wouldn't give him a shot because of his mob connections. Both Liston vs Clay fights were controversial. The first one (THIS one) because of the stuff that Liston put on his gloves that got in Clay's eyes and because the seemingly invincible Liston quit on his stool. The rematch because Clay knocked out Liston in the first round with a nothing punch. That second fight was not for real as far as I'm concerned. In the first fight Clay was just better while the second fight never happened.
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Post by profblues on Feb 25, 2014 10:41:03 GMT -5
Liston was viewed as unstoppable much like George Foreman and Mike Tyson (I would say Liston was closer to Tyson because of background and temperament ). I think that is a lot of the reason why Liston was held back as long as he was.
Clay had had a couple of uninspiring fights prior to this fight and that was a lot of the reason why he was considered an underdog although clearly neither of these fighters were necessarily crowd favorites going into this bout. I think one writer said it best..."the majority of fight fans would be just as happy if both fighters got knocked out". I'm also not sure that Liston was in the best physical shape either since he was suffering from bursitis in his shoulder and had only three very short fights in the nearly 3 years prior to this bout. Because he couldn't score an early knockout, the longer Liston had to go into the fight, the more it favored Clay.
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Post by jhar26 on Feb 25, 2014 10:54:26 GMT -5
Liston was viewed as unstoppable much like George Foreman and Mike Tyson (I would say Liston was closer to Tyson because of background and temperament ). I think that is a lot of the reason why Liston was held back as long as he was. The answer is somewhere in the middle I think. The powers that be didn't want a criminal, let alone an (alleged) mob controlled criminal as the champ, but Patterson's trainer Cus d'Amato (later also Tyson's guy) didn't want no part of him either because he knew that Patterson wouldn't stand a chance against Liston. It was Patterson himself who insisted on fighting him - much to his credit in my opinion. I think that Liston just considered Clay a clown and took him much too lightly. |
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Post by profblues on Feb 25, 2014 11:04:07 GMT -5
I also read where the British Heavyweight Champ at the time (a guy named Cooper I think) was also hoping for Clay to win so he wouldn't have to face Liston. As to the re-match (or non-fight as you call it). I think the fact that Liston automatically got the re-match rubbed a lot of people the wrong way (as well as Ali's conversion to Islam and becoming a member of The Nation of Islam). I think it is pretty clear in that fight that Liston took a dive.
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