Charles “Sonny” Liston
HOW MANY OF ALI’S FIGHTS WEREN’T RIGHT?
San Francisco, CA– Being old enough to remember Muhammad Ali’s first fight with Henry Cooper, the fight where he got dropped and a hole appeared in the then Cassius Clay’s glove. This was either punctured by, or enlarged, depending on whom you talk to by the recently departed Hall of Fame trainer Angelo Dundee. When I brought up the two Sonny Liston fights, both which were thought to be fixed, Angelo was adamant, “My guy licked him fair and square both times.”
HALL OF FAME HISTORIAN HANK KAPLAN
Until Hank died in 2007, Mr. (Hank) Kaplan, which I liked to introduce him by, would always tell people, “I’m Hank,” that’s the kind of guy the “great one” Hank Kaplan was. And whenever their schedule permitted, Hank would have lunch weekly with Angelo anytime Dundee was at home in Miami, FL. Another historian Ronald Marshall, who has one of the biggest collection of boxing books in the world, would spend a lot of time late nights talking on the phone with Hank talking boxing. Both men were “night owls” and this was at a time when the phone rates got cheap, before deregulation, after 11 PM each night. On occasion, I would chat with Kaplan and always found him to to be a fountain of factual information.
HANK POINTS TO A PAIR OF ALI FIGHTS HE SAYS “WERE FIXED”
The “Late Great” Hank Kaplan
Hank was around Cassius Clay, Angelo and his brother/promoter Chris Dundee since Ali’s professional baptismal with Tunney Hunsaker in October 1960. Hank recognized the extraordinary skills that the “Louisville Lip” possessed. “He was special, had the fastest hands of any heavyweight in history, but their were some questionable fights.” When I pressed Kaplan further, he repeated something he had expressed to the aforementioned Ronald Marshall, “Both (Sonny) Liston fights were fixed.” This has been debated by fans, pundits and experts since the fights took place in 1964 and 1965.
“LISTON WAS A MONSTER, HE WAS TOLD TO THROW BOTH FIGHTS”
That was the way Kaplan put it. And while he admired Ali’s skills, Hank said the outcomes might have been different had Liston, reputedly controled by the Mafia, gave it his all. In case you don’t remember, or are too young to know, Sonny did not come out for the eighth round of their initial meeting held in Miami, claiming he threw his shoulder out. Hank told me that when Liston got back to the dressing room, he picked up a chair and threw it across the room with his supposedly injured arm. “Sonny, he did what he was told to do I believe,” said Kaplan.
CLAY CHANGED HIS NAME TO ALI & HAD HERNIA SURGERY
The pair were supposed to meet in a rematch some six to eight months or so after their initial February 1964 encounter. But Clay, who had changed his name to Muhammad X, before adopting the name Muhammad Ali, suffered a reuptured Hernia and the fight was put off until May 1965. With Ali starting to profess Islam, that and the suspected Liston ties to Organized Crime, Madison Square Garden, who was trying to cleanse it’s name after Jim Norris, who ran MSG boxing with ties to Frankie Carbo and Blinky Palermo, the mobsters who ran boxing for the decade of the 1950s until they all got popped, the Garden didn’t want the fight.
NOT QUITE TIMBUCKTOO, BUT LEWISTON WAS A CLOSE SECOND!
The fight ended up in all places, Lewiston, Maine, a city with no history of major sporting events because they couldn’t put it anywhere else. In case you didn’t know, former heavyweight champion Jersey-Joe Walcott was the referee. This probably should have been the last time boxing put a former celebrity boxer in that role, realizing afterwards that Walcott was about as incompetent a referee as Texas judge David Robertson, the man that gave Tavoris Cloud a 116-110 win over Gabriel Campillo a fortnight ago, something so prepostorous that Robertson should have been arrested right on the spot for fruadulently impersonating a boxing judge.
SONNY WASN’T TALKING MUCH, IF AT ALL!
Liston had told people he was, “Going to kill Clay” before the first fight, yet he was almost mute as the rematch neared. His interviews lacked spark, and in hindsight some speculate that Sonny knew he was going to lose the rematch, again by design and not merit. Around the two minute mark of round one, Ali landed a super fast right hand that caught Liston on the point of his chin, one that was made of granite before and after, with the exception of a fight late (he may have been way past 40 by this point in 1969) in his career with Leotis Martin when Sonny was caught with one hell of a punch and got knocked into next week!
ALI CALLED IT THE “ANCHOR PUNCH”
The punch that put Liston down clipped him on he chin, you can clearly see that. But Walcott’s bumbling confused matters as Ali, seemingly reacting to Sonny throwing the fight was standing over Liston, all the while screaming at him. Walcott fiannly got Ali to a neutral corner came back to a now standing Liston and signaled for the fight to continue. Wallcott woud stop the fight seconds later at the urging of Ring Magazine editor Nat Fleisher, and the crowd of some 2,400 paid, probably the smallest live gate in heavyweight championship history, at least in the modern era, erupted in boos! You watch the fight and you be the judge. To the day he died at the age of 88, Kaplan said both fights were fixed. Looking back, I find it both hard to agree or disagree with Hank. That being said here’s the video.
WATCH ALI-LISTON II AND YOU TELL ME!