60 YEARS AGO TODAY:
5/25/65 – Now fighting as Muhammad Ali, Ali knocks out Sonny Liston at 2:12 of the first round of their rematch to retain his newly won heavyweight championship title.
The bout came fifteen months (to the day) after their original meeting when Ali (then fighting as Cassius Clay), an 8-1 underdog, scored his upset knock-out of then-champion Liston in the seventh round.
The second fight has been surrounded in controversy ever since it happened. Liston went down on what was described at the time as Ali's "phantom punch" ... if you watch the clip, even Ali himself didn't realize the former champ was down ... he continued to swing into thin air until he realized there was nothing there left to hit!
Legendary Broadcaster Howard Cosell, who was there (as he always seemed to be) calling the fight later said, "I saw it ... it wouldn't have split a pea."
Rumors of a fix have prevailed ever since, often fueled by Liston himself who had fallen in with a group of Las Vegas gangsters. It seems to be generally believed, however, that if, in fact, a fix WERE in place, Ali never knew about it and was none the wiser when Liston went down so easily just 2:12 into the first round. (Ali would have been outraged, incensed and insulted to think that ANYBODY could believe he wouldn't have won the fight thru his own superior abilities! He was, after all, The Greatest!)
The fact that Ali would give Liston a rematch that soon after their original bout showed that Ali wasn't ducking ANYBODY in the ring. But it was ALSO highly motivated by a then record-breaking pay day ... Ali was paid $630,000 for the fight (that's about $6.3 million in 2025 money) If, in fact, there WERE a fix in place, it is said that Liston could make more money by LOSING the fight than he would have made winning it. (An excellent book depicting just how low Sonny Liston's career had sunk by 1965 is "The Murder Of Sonny Liston," which is another controversy unto itself!)
https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Sonny-Liston-Heroin-Heavyweights/
(For the record, their first fight was not without controversy ... it is believed that Liston's trainer put some type of ointment on Liston's glove that was transferred to Ali's eye, causing him minutes of blindness during the fifth round.)
The very idea that the ENTIRE fight can be shown here in one short YouTube clip says a lot about the Champion's domination at the time. (Notice how the commentator continues to refer to Ali as "Clay" ... this would be a fairly common practice for the first couple of years after Ali changed his name when adopting the Nation Of Islam as his religion the year before.)
Read our coverage of the FIRST Ali / Liston fight here:
http://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/2024/02/february-25th-1964.html
Also on 5/25, Dave Davies of The Kinks falls and injures himself onstage during a Kinks concert being held at The Capital Theatre in Cardiff, Wales. It forces the group to cancel the rest of their tour. (Some say he was knocked unconscious by drummer Mick Avory in an on stage scuffle. Regardless, all agree that Muhammad Ali had NOTHING to do with this incident, as he was busy knocking out Sonny Liston at the time in Lewiston, Maine.)
Also on 5/25, Blues Singer Sonny Boy Williamson dies in his sleep
