Why Sonny Liston didn't get up (the suspicious victory of Muhammad Ali )

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | 02/10/2006 | Jack Cashill

[SirLinksalot]

Why Sonny Liston didn't get up

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Posted: February 10, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern

Editor's note: In his eye-opening new book, "Sucker Punch: The Hard Left Hook That Dazed Ali and Killed King's Dream," Jack Cashill un-tells what may be the most mis-told story of the late 20th century – the heroic rise of boxer Muhammad Ali. This re-telling sheds bright new light on some slighted boxing greats like Joe Louis, Joe Frazier and George Foreman, and reveals the surprising role that Christianity has played in the sports culture. Today, we cover part 5 in this special 10-part series.

By Jack Cashill

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© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

Despite his championship status, Ali was one anxious man in the spring of 1965. In addition to the very real fear of facing Sonny Liston once again, his marriage was in shambles, and his life in jeopardy.

On Feb. 21, the night of Malcolm's assassination, a highly suspicious fire erupted in his apartment. Two days later, someone firebombed the Nation of Islam headquarters in New York. As Ali trained for his May rematch with Liston, he had reason to be grateful for the protection the FBI offered.

"The atmosphere surrounding the fight was ugly," reflects sportswriter Jerry Izenberg. Rumors abounded of a retaliatory strike against Ali. There were rumors, too, of Muslim threats against Liston. The stone-faced Fruit of Islam guards were intimidating and everywhere. Although Izenberg would accept Ali as "Ali" long before most of his peers, the Ali of this period unnerved him.

Izenberg recounts an impromptu press conference a week or so before the fight. When a reporter asked Ali if he was worried about Malcolm's "people," Ali snapped back, "What people. Malcolm ain't got no people." Izenberg was one of the few journalists of the period, in or out of sports, to respect Malcolm X. It chilled him that Ali would dismiss the now dead Malcolm so coldly just "because somebody tells you he's nobody."

Held in the unlikely town of Lewiston, Maine, this second Liston fight proved to be more "Punch and Judy" than the expected horror show. It began much like the one in Miami with Liston stalking and Ali circling and jabbing. Less than two minutes in, while many in the small crowd were still settling into their seats, Liston slumped on to the canvas. "What happened?" Ferdie Pacheco remembers the crowd shrieking as if one. Ali, understanding the ramifications, stood above Liston yelling, "Get up, you bum. No one is going to believe this."

Almost too casually, Liston rolled over on to his back and looked up at the ranting Ali. Celebrity referee Jersey Joe Walcott could not begin the count until Ali headed for a neutral corner, but Walcott was slow to corral him. Meanwhile, boxing historian Nat Fleischer – "a little, wrinkled old man," as Pacheco describes him – ran down to the ring and started shouting that more than 10 seconds had expired, and the fight was over.

In the midst of all the confusion, Liston had gotten up and resumed fighting. Yielding to Fleischer's authority, although he had none, Walcott stopped the fight. The crowd started chanting, "Fix, fix, fix." Given the circumstances, their outrage seemed more understandable than anything else that had transpired.

Even in replay, the celebrated knock-out punch is hard to see. "I'm so fast, I even missed the punch on TV," Ali would admit. In time, he would come to call it his "anchor punch." Most everyone else refers to it as "the phantom punch." Jose Torres, broadcasting for a Spanish language station in New York, recorded his commentary, and again he was on the money, "a perfect shot to the jaw, right on the button and Liston is down."

When later asked by the California boxing commission why he did not get up, Liston replied, "Commissioner, Muhammad Ali is a crazy man." Liston then made an entirely rational case that a manic Ali, still in center ring, could smack him down as soon as he tried to stand up. Torres makes the equally rational case that Liston feared the Muslims a good deal more than he feared Ali.

Whatever the true explanation, it went to the grave with Sonny six years later.

[Alberta's Child]

Boxing has long had a sordid culture and background, and this fight was a precursor to the "fixed-outcome spectacle" mentality that would dominate sports like boxing in the Don King era and eventually reach its ultimate laughable peak with the World Wrestling Federation.

[conservative physics]

boxing is rigged.

[processing please hold]

1964

[IronJack]

The only thing Ali beat worse than his opponents was Modesty. Whatever redeeming value there was in two men beating the hell out of each other vanished when it became all about being "The Greatest."

[CondorFlight]

"ultimate laughable peak with the World Wrestling Federation."

Hold your tongue!

Professional Wrestling is one of the few honest sports--because nobody bets on the outcome of the matches.

(And while I'm no Elvis fan, I do appreciate that such a giant figure of the entertainment world, when drafted, simply went honestly and did his two years in the army, and didn't try and get out of it, as almost every other celebrity has done, Ali included.)

[karnage]

Hard to compare fighters from different eras, just as it is hard to compare athletes in any sport in different eras. There was some "computer" matchup between Ali and Rocky Marciano years ago... I think they had Ali winning. Dunno. All I do know is that Marciano is still the only heavywight champion in history to retire undefeated (and stay that way!).

[EveningStar]

I don't know if all boxing is rigged but I think both of Ali's fights with Liston were.

[CondorFlight]

I also recall reading somewhere that the betting odds in the underworld for the first Liston fight went astronomically high against Ali winning. At that point, a lot of underworld gamblers figured there was a fix in somewhere, because the odds shouldn't have gone that high. (and they warned off their best clients)

[A.A. Cunningham]

Mark Knopfler
Song for Sonny Liston

So many mouths
To feed on the farm
Sonny was the second
To the last one born
His mamma ran away
And his daddy beat him bad
And he grew up wild
Good love he never had

He had a left
Like henry's hammer
A right like betty bamalam
Rode with the muggers
In the dark and dread
And all them sluggers
Went down like lead

Well he hung with the hoods
He wouldn't stroke the fans
But he had dynamite
In both his hands
Boom bam
Like the slammer door
The bell and the can
And the bodies on the floor

Beware the bear's in town
Somebody's money says
The bear's going down
Yeah, the bear never smiles
Sonny's going down
For miles and miles
Sonny's going down
For miles and miles

The writers didn't like him
The fight game jocks
With his lowlife backers
And his hands like rocks
They didn't want to have
A bogey man
They didn't like him
And he didn't like them

Black cadillac
Alligator boots
Money in the pockets
Of his sharkskin suits
Some say the bear
Took a flop
They couldn't believe it
When they saw him drop

He had a left
Like henry's hammer
A right like betty bamalam
Rode with the muggers
In the dark and dread
And all them sluggers
Went down like lead

Joe Louis was his hero
He tried to be the same
But a criminal child
Wears a ball and chain
So the civil rights people
Didn't want him on the throne
And the hacks and the cops
Wouldn't leave him alone

Beware the bear's in town
Somebody's money says
The bear's going down
Yeah, the bear never smiles
Sonny's going down
For miles and miles
Sonny's going down
For miles and miles

At the foot of his bed
With his feet on the floor
There was dope in his veins
And a pistol on the drawer
There was no investigation
As such
He hated needles
But he knew too much

Criss-crossed
On his back
Scars from his daddy
Like slavery tracks
The second-last child
Was the second-last king
Never again was it the same
In the ring

He had a left
Like henry's hammer
A right like betty bamalam
Rode with the muggers
In the dark and dread
And all them sluggers
Went down like lead

They never could be sure
About the day he was born
A motherless child
Set to working on the farm
And they never could be sure
About the day he died
The bear was the king
They cast aside

Beware the bear's in town
Somebody's money says
The bear's going down
Yeah, the bear never smiles
Sonny's going down
For miles and miles
Sonny's going down
For miles and miles

‘some day they’re gonna write a
blues for fighters. It’ll just be for
slow guitar, soft trumpet and a bell.’

Sonny Liston 1962

[GSWarrior]

Tiger Tom Dixon had a gift from God
He could hit you quick, he could hit you hard
In a world where a man's hands are put to the test
Tiger Tom Dixon's hands were the best

Men came from Boston, from Ohio
Corners of counties that you'll never know
From barrooms and poolhalls with nothing to show
Except for the fists that they did throw at Tiger Tom Dixon

[opinionator]

[hummingbird]

Ferdie Pacheco

That is a fun name to say.

So is Peabo Bryson and Django Reinhardt! I just like the way they sound; I don't know why.

We now return you to the regularly scheduled thread.

[houeto]

I always liked Peakaboo Street.

[kajingawd]

Pugilism is not an "intelligent" sport.



for the most part no...but

The mechanisms of the body that are used at one given time in a boxing match surpases any other sport that i know of...except maybe mixed martial arts fighting...


Ali was the greatest...Liston didn't get up cos he was gonna be humiliated even more than he was with that so-called *phantom punch*...a punch that landed square on the button, pinched the nerve it had to, and put the former champion down.

[yankeedame]

When later asked by the California boxing commission why he did not get up, Liston replied, "Commissioner, Muhammad Ali is a crazy man."

This coming from Liston, who wasn't exactly a pillar of sanity himself?

[kajingawd]

Ali would have used up Marciano in about 6 rounds...

Marciano's face would have looked like hamburger after 4 rounds.

[Jo Nuvark]

I like "Theresa Renteria".
(The name of a guest in Carol Burnett's audience)

[ModelBreaker]

I've seen video of the so called sucker punch. It lifted Liston off his feet by way of his chin. It was an honest ko but it's hard to see the punch because they were so close when it happened.

[kajingawd]

Liston was 32 at the time...Untouchable...

till Ali kicked his ass...twice