CASSIUS CLAY V SONNY LISTON
WHEN Cassius Clay, Ali’s previous guise, prepared to challenge Liston for the world heavyweight title in Miami in February 1964, he was considered little more than an audacious no-hoper.
Clay’s status as a rising star had suffered somewhat in his previous fight, when he had been knocked down and on the verge of defeat against the game but limited Henry Cooper in London.
Yet the 22-year-old was prepared to risk it all against the ogreish champion Liston, who by complete contrast was coming off the back of two consecutive first-round victories over Floyd Patterson.
Only three of the 46 ringside reporters for the fight tipped Clay to win. Most had considered Clay’s extraordinary antics in the build-up to the fight to be borne out of sheer terror rather than any display of confidence.
Liston, a former convict who learned to box while serving time for armed robbery, was used to beating his opponents by the time they stood face to face on the weighing scales.
Yet here was the brash Ali taunting Liston at every turn, deriding him as a ‘Big Ugly Bear’, donning camouflaged attire and driving a bus to gatecrash Liston’s training camp.
Clay’s antics on the day before the fight prompted one physician to claim that Clay was “literally, almost scared to death.”
But it became clear from the early moments of the fight that Clay’s boasts were far from misplaced. He used his superior speed to stay out of range of Liston’s punches and make the champion look slow and awkward. Through the early rounds, Liston pawed fruitlessly after Clay, who responded by clattering home punches from either hand which served to slowly drain the fight from a man who was used to having things all his own way.
At the end of the fourth round, Clay returned to his corner claiming to be blinded by a substance on Liston’s gloves – he was ready to pull out, but his vision slowly returned through round five, and by the sixth he was back to his best.
After his most dominant round yet, Clay noticed Liston spit out his gum shield and quit on his stool.
Clay jumped to his feet, jabbing his glove at the sports writers at ringside and demanding that they ‘eat their words’. He also first roared the sentiment which would follow him through the rest of his career and for the rest of his life: “I am the greatest!”
Fifteen months later, the pair met again, Liston folding in the first round from a so-called ‘phantom punch’ which inspired conspiracy theories about mafia involvement that continue to this day.
Liston fought on at a lower level, his last fight coming with a retirement win over Chuck Wepner in June 1970. Six months later, he died in mysterious circumstances in his home in Las Vegas.