Word: liston
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Clear-eyed again, Clay sprang from his corner in the sixth round. Rat-a-tat-tat, a flurry of eight punches made Liston double up. "Get mad, baby," Clay's handlers chanted. "Go after him." Fighting flatfooted, Cassius ripped off a roundhouse right that just missed. Jab, jab, jab, jab, the cut under Liston's eye began to ooze blood again. Two left hooks snapped Sonny's head back. Cassius sank back onto his stool and leaned through the ropes. "I'm gonna upset the world," he told a TV announcer...
...warning buzzer for Round 7 rang, and Cassius mentally began ticking off the seconds to the bell. Across the ring, Liston spat out his mouthpiece. Clay blinked: Liston was not coming out. With a wild whoop, Cassius leaped to his feet, gloves high above his head. The fight was over-and Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was the new heavyweight champion of the world. Round the ring he danced, leering down at the sportswriters and bellowing gleefully: "Eat your words...
Puzzled fans milled aimlessly about, begging for information. Heavyweight champions, like Spartan warriors, are supposed to leave the field of battle carrying their shields, or riding on them. But Sonny Liston-indestructible Sonny Liston-had quit without even standing up to say goodbye. Liston's corner had an explanation: Sonny had suffered a painful muscle tear in his left arm, swinging and missing in the first round -"an honest injury," it was called after a hospital examination. That was enough to satisfy the Miami Beach boxing commission, which released Liston's $250,000 purse-only to have...
...Moslem set such a well-mannered religious example of sportsmanship." And at a "Savior's Day" rally in Chicago, while 4,000 delirious followers shouted "You tell it, dear apostle," Black Muslim Leader Elijah Muhammad claimed a share of the heavyweight title for himself. "White people wanted Liston to beat up and probably kill poor little Clay," said Muhammad. "But Allah and myself said no. This assured his victory...
...that, at 22, Cassius Marcellus Clay's mouth and magic have cornered the world championship and most of $1,000,000-$600,000 from last week's fight alone. There is no telling how much more money Clay can make if he decides to give Sonny Liston a return bout. There is the unsettled matter of his Army service, and there are rumors of a fox in his future. But whatever he does, it will probably turn out right. "I've got a lock on life," says Cassius. "A long time ago I decided where...