Word: liston
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Ponderous Punches. The prop for the farce, of course, was an overrated bum named Sonny Liston. He must be close to 40; he was bulky at 2151 Ibs. (to Clay's 206), was 2 in. shorter, and about as nimble as a Gila monster. Somehow he had persuaded quite a few people-including the underworld characters hanging around his training camp -that he would button the lip of the twinkle-toed loudmouth who took his title away in Miami last year. Oddsmakers made him the 6-5 favorite, and in Miami the word was that one mobster...
...once--three, if his Christian names are any indication of his ancestry. Others up for grabs are Edward Brooke, Attorney General of the Commonwealth; Thurgood Marshall. United States Judge for the Court of Appeals, Second Circuit; Marian Anderson; Constance Baker Motley, president of the borough of Manhattan; Sonny Liston, recently retired; and Warren G. Harding...
Referee Jersey Joe Walcott waited several seconds before starting the countdown--perhaps Clay's punch was so undiscernible that he thought Liston had slipped on a banana peel, or maybe Old Jersey Joe is still a little punch-drunk from the Marciano fight. At any rate, Liston was required to stay down for an eight count. He got up before he was counted out--and naturally he would wait till the last second to conserve his strength...
Another enigma surrounding the swiftest knockout ever in a heavyweight title fight was Clay's failure to go to a neutral corner immediately. After the knockdown Clay hovered over Liston and hollered a few vilifications at him. As I've always understood the rule, a fighter must retire to a neutral corner before the countdown begins. If Clay had thought the knockdown were legitimate, he wouldn't have jeopardized his chances for a first-round victory by carrying on a little social chat with his prostrate victim before going to a corner...
Before the fight I had fervently hoped that no matter who won--even if my quarter on Liston in the fifth in the CRIMSON pool went down the drain--the fight would be freed of the taint of the Miami affair. What happened last was worse than anyone's most horrid dreams. Somehow, the whole thing seemed too blatantly fallacious to have been a fix unless Sonny, Casslus, and Blinky Palermo have been watching too many Grade D fight films on the late show...