Venue: St. Dominic’s Arena, Lewiston, Maine. 25th May, 1965.
Muhammad Ali had been attending Black Muslim meetings for
three years by the time he defeated Sonny Liston; scared he
would be prevented from fighting for the Heavyweight Title
should his involvement become public knowledge. Malcolm X
and the Black Muslims had been visible in Ali’s camp
in the build up to the fight. On the day after the Liston
fight, with the Heavyweight title won, Ali told the press
that he was a follower of Islam.
Elijah Muhammad was leader of the Nation of Islam and gave
Cassius Clay his new name of Muhammad Ali. White America did
its best to reject the new name and Ali’s carnival act
suddenly appeared to be sinister to them. The media attacked
him and some of the older commentators refused to call him
by his new name.
Amid all of this controversy a rematch with Sonny Liston
was agreed and Liston was immediately installed as favorite
to win back his title. There were two views to the original
fight; it was fixed or a fluke. Either was Liston would shut
up the Louisville Lip this time for sure.
The bout was originally scheduled for 16th November 1964,
but was postponed at three days notice when Ali suffered a
hernia that required an operation. There was a delay of almost
six months during which time there was a fire at Ali’s
apartment, Malcolm X was assassinated and the Nation of Islam’s
offices in New York were bombed. So with threats of violence
and wild rumors that Muhammad Ali himself might be assassinated
the fight was moved to a small provincial town in Maine.
In effect, Liston and Ali were different men when they came
to face each other again, but while Ali had moved forwards.
Liston had slipped backwards. The writer Robert Lipsyte recalled
going to visit Liston on the eve of the fight. Sonny was slumped
in front of the television, watching the movie Zulu. Dick
Gregory who had gone with Lipsyte to see Liston said to him:
“his mind is blown. He’s gonna lose fast.”
Lewiston Maine was so far off the beaten track that many
of the boxing writers claimed not even to know where it was.
Its location and the hysteria surrounding the fight, meant
that on 25 May 1965, the smallest audience ever to see a modern
world heavyweight championship bout – just 2434 witnessed
the ring debut of Muhammad Ali. In another quirky twist, Ali
and Liston were joined in the ring by another man who had
held the world heavyweight belt. Jersey Joe Walcott, who was
to referee.
Jersey Joe presided over a fight that even today still contains
a mystery, a short fight that has become the most written
about and talked about of all time. It lasted one minute and
42 seconds only. Ali threw three punches of note, Liston none
at all. The first came almost before the bell had finished
ringing, a stiff right cross. The second was a clip to Liston’s
head, again with the right hand that appeared to stun him.
The third, which practically no one, including Liston himself,
even saw in real time was a flashing right hadn’t that
lifted Liston’s left leg and sent him to the canvas
for a long count.
The punch, which Ali was quick to call the anchor punch,
has been analyzed endlessly. Seen now with the benefit of
slow motion technology. It is exquisitely timed and certainly
concussive almost like the blow of a martial artist. Liston
shakes and slumps to the floor. Only sonny would ever truly
know what effect it had.
The punch had certainly duped the crowd. The columnist jimmy
cannon proclaimed from ringside that “it wouldn’t
have dented a grape…” the audience became convinced
the fight was fixed a view that became popular over the following
months. “Boxing wants no more of Liston,” intoned
the ring magazine. Ali himself said afterwards: “the
punch jarred him. It was a good punch but I didn’t think
I hit him so hard he couldn’t get up.”
Ali stood over Liston, screaming at him to stand up and fight.
Sonny couldn’t or wouldn’t. Jersey Joe Walcott
failed to get Ali to a neutral corner. Transfixed by Ali’s
manic behavior, Walcott didn’t realize Liston had been
on the floor for a full 17 seconds by the time he finally
got to his feet.
Walcott wiped down sonny’s gloves and ordered the fighters
to resume. Only when a journalist at ringside alerted him
to the fact Liston had been counted out by the timekeeper
did Walcott signal the fight was over. For the second time,
an ali-vs-liston bout concluded in chaos.
Two years later sonny Liston did speak about the fight, “Ali
knocked me down with a sharp punch. I was down but no hurt…Ali
is waiting to hit me, the ref. can’t control him. I
have to put one knee and one glove on the canvas to get up.
You know Ali is a nut. You can tell what a normal man is going
to do but you can’t tell what a nut is going to do and
Ali is a nut.”
Rumors about the fight being fixed will never be stilled.
FBI agents in Maine did question a number of informants but
their testimonies were inconclusive. Liston was said to have
told a trainer he worked with a man named Johnny Tocco, that
“it was the way the fight had to go” Liston’s
wife Geraldine maintained the fight was straight right up
until her death in 1997. Ali too does not believe the bout
was fixed.
Geraldine, who had been away visiting her mother, found sonny
Liston dead in his Las Vegas home on the evening of 5 January
1971. Police estimated Liston had died six days before. But
they couldn’t be sure. The most prevalent theory on
his end is that he was murdered, and perhaps by a former police
detective, but as with the anchor punch, no one knew for sure
except sonny.
