Word: punch
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Nobody can deny that Cassius Marcellus Clay, 23, has an affinity for fantasy. Last week in Lewiston, Me., Cassius fought a fight that did not seem to be a fight, threw a punch that did not look like a punch, scored a knockout that the referee did not realize was a knockout, and set a record that turned out to be no record. In the process, Cassius clearly established himself as the heavyweight champion of the world and a consummate actor-in the theater of the absurd...
Payday. It was nothing of the kind. Referee Walcott stopped the fight at 2 min. 12 sec.-which would make it only the seventh fastest. That was the least of the problems. Most of the fans in the arena had not seen the knockout punch; neither had the 500,000 others watching on closed-circuit TV. "Fix! Fix! Fix!" they chanted. "Fake! Fake! Fake!" At ringside, Joe Louis conceded that Clay had landed a right, "but it wasn't no good." Snapped Canadian Heavyweight George Chuvalo: "It's a phony, a real phony." Even Cassius was confused...
When he saw the tape, Cassius had a new story. The punch that flattened Liston, he insisted, was his secret "anchor punch"-so named because it anchors opponents to the floor. The punch was taught to him by a darkface comedian named Stepin Fetchit, who learned it from Jack Johnson, first of the great Negro champions. Said Clay: "It's a chop, so fast you can't see it. It's karate. It's got a twist to it. Just one does...
...their first fight in Miami, Clay whacked a presumably injured Liston for six rounds and scarcely staggered those 215 pounds of lead. He called the winning blow last night his "phantom punch," and it was aptly named. You could scrutinize the video tapes of the fight from now till doomsday without finding a remote facsimile of "toonder 'n' lightning...
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...