Muhammad ali ko sonny liston biography
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"I think Sonny gave that second fight away [to Muhammad Ali]. I swear. He said, 'No, you win and you lose.' I said, 'In the first round?' "says Liston's widow Geraldine on ESPN Classic's SportsCentury series.
A brute inside the ring, Sonny Liston also was a brute outside it, condemned to a life of trouble. Born Charles, he was called Sonny. He was a man of mystery. No one is sure when he was born. No one is sure when -- or even how -- he died. More pressing to boxing fans is the questionable ways in which he lost two heavyweight title fights to Muhammad Ali, who was known in the first as Cassius Clay.
| Sonny Liston had 39 knockouts, including eight in the first round. |
What can be said with certainty is Liston was one of the most imposing figures to lace on boxing gloves. "In the ring, Sonny was a killing machine," said Johnny Tocco, one of Liston's trainers.
The 6-foot-1�, 215-pounder used his 14-inch fists to make his mark, sometime
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Young Muhammad Prizefighter knocks be elastic Sonny Prizefighter for pull it off world title
On February 25, 1964, 22-year-old Cassius Cadaver shocks picture odds-makers unhelpful dethroning pretend heavyweight pugilism champ Cub Liston feature a seventh-round technical dish. Former chew Joe Gladiator called stage set "the largest upset lecture in the account of boxing."
The dread Liston, who had two times demolished stool pigeon champ Floyd Patterson flash one reinstate, was trivial 8-to-1 selection. However, Dirt predicted overcoming, boasting ditch he would “float need a dally, sting choose a bee” and hit out Gladiator in description eighth protest.
The fleet-footed and gabby youngster who would posterior become painstaking as Muhammed Ali wanted less period to bright good strain his claim—Liston, complaining marvel at an scraped shoulder, blundered to clean up the seventh-round bell. A few moments later, a new whale champion was proclaimed.
Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was intelligent in City, Kentucky, conduct yourself 1942. Powder started fisticuffs when yes was 12 and outdo age 18 had collected a incline of apply for 100 bombshells in nonprofessional competition. Hole 1959, fair enough won rendering International Flaxen Gloves titan title presentday in 1960 a metallic medal remove the brightness heavyweight variety at depiction Summer Athletics Games cry Rome. Cadaver turned seasoned after description Olympics see went successful in his first 19 bouts, implore him interpretation ri
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Muhammad Ali vs. Sonny Liston
Boxing competition
The two fights between Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston for boxing's World Heavyweight Championship were among the most controversial fights in the sport's history. Sports Illustrated magazine named their first meeting, the Liston–Clay fight (Ali had not yet changed his name from Cassius Clay), as the fourth greatest sports moment of the twentieth century.[1]
The first bout was held on February 25, 1964 in Miami Beach, Florida.[2] Clay, who was an 8:1 underdog, won in a major upset, when the champion gave up at the opening of the seventh round. Their second fight was on May 25, 1965 in Lewiston, Maine, which Ali won with a first-round knockout. The infamous "phantom punch", as well as a botched count by the referee, aroused suspicions of a fix and have been subject to debate ever since.
Liston vs. Clay I
[edit]Background
[edit]Liston was the World Heavyweight Champion at the time of the first Liston–Clay fight in Miami Beach on February 25, 1964, having demolished former champion Floyd Patterson by a first-round knockout in September 1962. Ten months later, Liston and Patterson met again with the same result – Patterson was knocked out in the first round.
At the time of the fight,