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07-29-2008, 08:22 PM | #81 |
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Jim Corbett vs. Vitali Klitschko
CORBETT W15 Corbett boxed masterfully against Big Vitali Klitschko but Klit’s size and power made each round interesting. A beautiful right to the chin dropped Corbett in the 8th and Corbett made it to his feet slowly at the count of 8. Corbett returned the favor in the 9th, dropping Vatali Klitschko with a counterpunch he never saw. Klitschko regained his feet at 7 and the two fighters fought closely all the way to the end of the 15th round. Corbett came away with a unanimous decision: 144-139, 144-140, 144-139 |
07-29-2008, 08:44 PM | #82 |
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Lennox Lewis vs. Max Schmeling
SCHMELING TKO11 (upset) In what can only be described as a “shocker” – Max Schmeling beats up Lennox Lewis in a one-sided contest. Lewis did find his rhythm briefly when he floor Schmeling for a 7 count in the 5th. Afterwards, Schmeling fought Lewis in a “phone booth” wearing him down and taking him out in the 11th. Lewis’ face resembled a train wreck victim afterward. The crowd was shocked by the outcome and Max Schmeling's performance has many now rooting for the Dark Horse Champion. |
07-29-2008, 09:24 PM | #83 |
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Ezzard Charles vs. Jersey Joe Walcott
WALCOTT TKO5 (cut) Walcott meets his old nemesis in Ezzard Charles in the final bout of the Second Round of the tournament. As always, Charles and Walcott are closely matched. A Walcott punch opens a huge, gushing gash over Charles’ left eye in the 4th. The cut is reopened in the 5th and the Mills Lane calls a halt to the bout. Walcott was leading slightly on all three cards at the time of the stoppage. It was anti-climactic in many ways because both fighters are capable of some memorable performances in the ring against each other. This one was cut short. But I'd by lying if I said I was cheering when Jersey-Joe won! This bout concludes the 2nd round of the tournament! Last edited by Jersey-Jim; 07-30-2008 at 12:49 AM. |
07-30-2008, 12:55 PM | #84 |
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We're down to the 3rd round of the tournament
Here are the third round matchups. We're getting down to the best of the best champions. Only one man will walk away with the crown Rocky Marciano claimed in the 1970 computer tournanment. Will he duplicate the feat?
Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling Muhammad Ali vs. Jersey Joe Walcott Jack Johnson vs. James Corbett Rocky Marciano vs. James Jeffries Jack Dempsey vs. Evander Holyfield Gene Tunney vs. Joe Frazier George Foreman vs. Sonny Liston Larry Holmes vs. Mike Tyson |
07-30-2008, 01:10 PM | #85 |
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Notes From The 1970 Tournament
The final pairing of the 1970's tournament, Rocky Marciano fought Jack Dempsey in the finals. The result was a computer KO victory Marciano.
Later, after Ali complained about the accuracy of the computer, he and Marciano were offered $10,000 a piece to fight each other in a computer reinactment of the pairing. Marciano stopped Ali in the 13th round after getting cut up and outboxed the first six rounds of the fight. Afterward, Ali said he couldn't believe how hard Marciano hit (some 14 years after he left the ring). |
07-30-2008, 06:16 PM | #86 |
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Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling
LOUIS KO3 Smooth, efficient, an almost perfect fighting machine puts Schmeling down and out. Speed, accuracy, power – Louis has it all. |
07-30-2008, 06:18 PM | #87 |
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Muhammad Ali vs. Jersey Joe Walcott 1
MAJ. DRAW 15 Ali and Walcott fight to a majority draw in a bout that saw Walcott climb off the canvas in the 13th round, to fight “The Greatest” to a stale-mate after 15 rounds. Walcott took a book from Ken Norton’s fights with Ali and used an effective jab and tempered aggression after absorbing a combination to the head from Ali. The two fighters will fight again to determine who goes on to the next round after the Larry Holmes – Mike Tyson fight has been completed. |
07-30-2008, 11:41 PM | #88 |
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Jack Johnson vs. James Corbett
JOHNSON TKO8 (cut) Johnson and Corbett have never liked one another and this fight rekindles their animosity towards one another. Corbett does his best, but remains a step or so behind Johnson in an entertaining match-up of two of boxing’s earliest “scientific” fighters. A right cross drops Corbett for the count of 9 in the 6th. The bell saved Corbett from any further damage. Johnson opens a large gash over Corbett’s eye in the 7th with a sharp right hook off the jab. The end comes a round later in the 8th when Mills Lane stops the fight with Corbett’s left eye badly gored. |
07-30-2008, 11:42 PM | #89 |
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Rocky Marciano vs. James Jeffries
MARCIANO TKO12 Marciano defeating Jeffries in the 1970’s tournament by late round TKO. Now, 38 years later, Jeff looks to avenge the defeat and eliminate Marciano from the tournament! Forget science with these guys. Marciano and Jeffries go toe-to-toe in an all out attempt to mow one another down. Marciano throws the higher volume of punches and the effects begin to show as the fighters enter the 11th round. Jeffries punch output drops dramatically and he starts to cover along the ropes. Marciano continues the onslaught in the 12th and Jeffries is finally rescued as he sags along the ropes by Arthur Mercante Sr. with a second remaining in the round. |
07-31-2008, 05:30 PM | #90 |
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Jack Dempsey vs. Evander Holyfield
DEMPSEY TKO14 Dempsey slugs it out with Holyfield at the opening bell. Holyfield absorbs Dempsey’s bombs and both fighters trade heavy leather throughout the first ten rounds of the fight. The fast pace of this fight takes a toll on Holyfield that doesn’t become really noticeable until the 10th. Dempsey keeps the pressure on, dropping Holyfield briefly in the 12. By the 14th round, Holyfield sports several lacerations above and below the eyes and is on his way to the canvas when the fight is finally stopped. The Dempsey of old is back! |
07-31-2008, 05:38 PM | #91 |
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A lot of the more modern fighters seem to be a step behind the old-timers. Several fights would have had different outcomes had they been scheduled for 12 rounds as opposed to 15. Those extra rounds have a way of accenting a fighter's strengths as well as a fighter's weaknesses. The only fighters left in the tournament that fought past the 1980’s is Larry Holmes and Mike Tyson. Of the two, one will be eliminated as they are scheduled to meet one another in this – the 3rd round of the Tournament.
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08-01-2008, 03:35 PM | #92 |
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Gene Tunney vs. Joe Frazier
TUNNEY TKO11 Frazier practically smokes Tunney in the opening round – flooring him with a left hook for a 3 count and pounding him the remainder of the round. Frazier kept up the blistering pressure through the 5th round, pounding Tunney to the body and head. In the 6th, Tunney finally held his ground and fired blazing combinations at the onrushing Frazier. By the 7th, Tunney was backing Frazier up with pinpoint combinations to the head and body. Frazier’s eye begins to swell up like a balloon by the 8th and a see-saw battle ensues. Going into the 10th Fazier’s eye balloons up so badly there appears to be a giant mellon-like growth hanging off his face. The ringside doctor has no choice and stops the fight awarding a TKO victory to the “Fighting Marine.” Last edited by Jersey-Jim; 08-01-2008 at 03:37 PM. |
08-01-2008, 04:10 PM | #93 |
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Jim, very entertaining, and as far as the outcome of the Lewis-Schmeling fight is concerned, a lot of people still to this day underate just how good Schmeling really was.
Greg
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Keep on Punchin' There are three things that go on a fighter, first your reflexes go, then your chin goes, and then your friends go. Willie Pep |
08-02-2008, 01:22 AM | #94 |
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George Foreman vs. Sonny Liston
LISTON TKO7 (cut) George Foreman and Sonny Liston square off in the unofficial battle of – “The Most Feared Heavyweight Champions of All Time!” Liston and Foreman trade thunder from the opening bell. Both fighters exchange possibly the biggest power shots ever traded in a single fight, and both lump up around the eyes as a result. In the 3rd, the skin over Foreman’s eye gives way to a huge right hand from Liston and Foreman’s cut spurts blood from that moment on. By the 7th round, the cut’s clear down to the bone and the fight is stopped. The bout is even on all three cards at the time of the stoppage. A handful of punches separate the two in the punch stat category. It’s a disappointing end, in many ways, the one of the best slugger shoot-outs I’ve seen in some time. |
08-02-2008, 10:37 AM | #95 |
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Schmeling is remembered for his 2nd fight with Louis. You're right, though. I was one of them!
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08-02-2008, 10:39 AM | #96 |
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Larry Holmes vs. Mike Tyson
TYSON TKO 7 Larry Holmes uses one of the best Heavyweight jabs off all time to keep Tyson on the outside for the first two rounds. His big right hand jars Tyson on a few occasions. But Tyson’s bobby and weaving style finally break through Holmes’ jab in the four and he nails Larry on the inside with thunderous shots to the body and uppercuts brought up from the floor. This is the Tyson of the 80’s and a peak Larry Holmes can’t keep at a distance. He has to fight him, instead. Tyson’s high-octane attack opens a severe cut over Holmes right eye in the 4th and even Chuck Bodak’s magic can’t keep it close for a full three minutes. When the cut bursts open for the 4th time in the 7th round, Arthur Mercante Sr. stops the fight with Holmes very close to being TKO’d. |
08-02-2008, 10:44 AM | #97 |
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Muhammad Ali vs Jersey Joe Walcott 2
ALI KO5 This time, Ali takes the fight out of the judge’s hands. Ali works a fast, snapping jab and quick combinations from the opening bell. Walcott has limited success in the 3rd round but is getting stung by Ali’s fast combination punching and movement. In the 5th, a sharp jab straightens Walcott up and a right cross right to the point of the chin deposits him on his back. He looks up briefly just as the referee’s count reaches 10! |
08-02-2008, 10:55 AM | #98 |
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Welcome to the Quarter finals of the 2008 All-Time Heavyweight Champions Tournament!
For most observers, the 2008 tournament is a toss-up between Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali. Marciano, the winner of the 2008 tournament, find himself the underdog in 2008.
Going back in time, Jack Dempsey stopped Joe Louis in th 1970 tournament. This time around, Joe Louis will be facing Sonny Liston. Liston certainly has the power to duplicate Dempsey’s feat. Muhammad Ali will be facing Mike Tyson. Mike has everything that Frazier did to take Ali into deep waters with one exception. Tyson doesn’t seem to have the endurance or ability to take punishment that Frazier did. The guess here is; Tyson will have to get Ali early. The longer the fight goes, the less chance Tyson has of emerging victorious. Jack Johnson will be taking on Gene Tunney. The potential of an upset here is very real. Tunney is not a powerful fighter, but his ring general ship and connect percentage should keep him close on the scorecards. Great conditioning and a good chin will put him in position to pull this fight out in the championship rounds if everything goes right. Rocky Marciano will be facing Jack Dempsey, the fighter he defeated in the 1970’s final. He took a lot of damage in doing so… but this fight is hardly a shoe-in for the Rock. Dempsey has two fisted power and can take loads of punishment as well. This fight can turn in either direction based on a single, big punch! Last edited by Jersey-Jim; 08-02-2008 at 10:57 AM. |
08-02-2008, 11:41 AM | #99 |
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JOE LOUIS
BY F. Lotierzo Many Boxing historians, writers, and fans often refer to him as being the greatest Heavyweight Champ in Boxing history. Which is something that can easily be supported by his brilliant career and overall ability as a fighter. What amazes me is how underrated he is as a Boxer and Technician. When the name Joe Louis is mentioned, most limit and think of him as being strictly a puncher. Which is a grave misconception. Joe Louis was the quintessential Boxer-Puncher. However, because he had dynamite in both hands and scored some picturesque knockouts, most categorize him as being a catch and kill style puncher. Fundamentally, Louis was absolutely faultless. He carried his hands high with his elbows in and his chin down. He threw short and concise bombs, and never wasted a punch. When ever he let his hands go, it was for keeps. He also put together five and six punch combinations with speed, power, and accuracy better than any other Heavyweight in history. Joe Louis was a stalker who pressured his opponents, but it wasn't overwhelming pressure like Rocky Marciano and Joe Frazier applied. Unlike Marciano and Frazier who forced their opponents back and into mistakes, Louis led his opponents into making them. His style was predicated on putting pressure on his opponent, but doing so in a way that allowed them to think it was safe to go to him, which was actually strategic suicide. Most punchers try to track their opponents down, forcing them back while they are looking to land their power shots. Louis did it differently. His pressure was subtle. While stalking his foe he would get closer and closer, but he did it in a way that would mislead his opponents into thinking it was safe for them to go on the offensive, just so they could move to one side or the other in order to get away. When his opponent went on the offensive, they were played right into Louis' hands. This was a result of his trainer, Jack Blackburn, teaching him and embedding it into his head that he could hit an opponent harder and cleaner if they were moving towards him, than if they were moving away from him. Louis would deceptively move towards and opponent and then ever so slightly step back drawing them into him. When his opponent came to him, that's when he stepped in with his short quick shots to the head landing with full impact. Due to Louis setting the pace and dictating the ring geography, this is how he often set up many opponents to be in range for his explosive combinations. This was a technique that Blackburn forced Louis to learn, and by the time he was Champ, he had it down pat. Most of the time when an opponent came to Louis, it was really a defensive move so they could get away safely. This is when he would strike. As his opponent came to him and tried to lead, Louis would strike with the speed of a Cobra with short straight punches that landed solid and clean. Couple his explosive power with his great hand speed, especially in short burst, and you have some of Boxing's swiftest and most destructive knockout highlights. What set Louis apart from other big punchers was that he could box and fight from the outside, or he could go inside and tear up an opponents body bringing their hands down, thus providing an opening for his short chopping rights to the chin. What other big puncher can that be said about? What other big puncher was that versatile? Past greats like Jeffries, Liston, Foreman, and Lewis were effective outside and could fight inside, but they didn't have anywhere near the hand speed of Louis. They also were not in his league as far as putting combinations together. Louis' precision and accuracy was superior to any big puncher who has yet lived. Swarming punchers like Dempsey, Marciano, Frazier, and Tyson were only effective on the attack while trying to get inside. Keep any one of the of them at the end of a jab, and they are not so overwhelming. Unlike Louis, they had to constantly push the fight. Make any one of them back up, and they were a fish out of water. Opposed to Louis, who if a fighter tried to push him back, they were playing into his hands and setting themselves up to become a victim of his vicious two fisted assault. Dempsey and Marciano were terrific punchers, but they didn't have outstanding hand speed. Frazier could really punch, and his hands were deceivingly fast, especially inside. Tyson was a terrific two handed puncher and had exceptional hand speed. But they couldn't put punches together in combination as precise and hard as Louis. When it came to finishing an opponent, they weren't nearly as complete or refined as Louis. Dempsey tended to get wild with his punches when going for the kill. Marciano would sometimes be predictable throwing left-right, left-right, without doubling or changing up. Frazier had an outstanding right to the body, but relied on his left hook too much to finish. And Tyson looped his punches, although he could put a two handed assault together, he was vulnerable to being tied up and held. Louis often packaged five and six together brilliantly. And the fact that he didn't loop them, enabled him to get inside without being tied up. Another thing overlooked when breaking down Louis as a puncher, was the fact that he carried his punch throughout the fight. Louis was dangerous from round one to fifteen. He was lethal and capable of ending it at anytime. Jeffries, Marciano, and Frazier also carried their power throughout the fight, but Jeffries and Marciano couldn't execute like Louis, and Frazier was to dependant on his left-hook. And Liston, Foreman, Tyson, and Lewis, all tended to fade sometimes down the stretch and lost a little power as the fight progressed. Over the years it has often been said that Louis was vulnerable to quick footed fighters with lateral movement. Although there is some truth to this, it's not nearly to the degree in which it has been over-stated. This analogy is based mostly because of three fights during Louis' title tenure. His two fights with Jersey Joe Walcott and his first bout against Billy Conn. Jersey Joe gave a fading Louis a fit in both of their title fights. Walcott had good feet, and moved in and out and side to side doing what was termed the Walcott shuffle. However, his feet weren't what troubled Louis. It was more his head and shoulder feints along with his dips and twist that bothered him. Walcott was an awkward fighter, and troubled many fighters with those same tactics, not just Louis. In his first fight with Light Heavyweight Champ Billy Conn, Conn extended Louis to the 13th round. Conn was slightly ahead in the scoring on two cards and even on the other after 12 rounds. It was the lateral movement of Conn that befuddled Louis for a while. This was mainly because Louis wouldn't chase a runner or a mover. He would bide his time and draw them to him. Which is what happened to Conn. In the 13th round, Conn caught Louis and shook him with a beautiful combination as he was lunging in, this ultimately cost him the fight. When Conn saw Louis shook, he went in for the kill. This put Conn in a suicidal position because Louis could now nail him without reaching for him. By virtue of Conn going to Louis, this enabled Louis to hit him with one of the prettiest and most deadly accurate six punch combinations in Heavyweight history, knocking him out. Granted, Conn's movement bothered Louis. However, it was to Conn's advantage that he was only 170 pounds. This made it easier for him to get away and escape tight spots versus Louis. Louis was more vulnerable to fighters smaller in stature because they provided less of a target. It was fighters his size or bigger that he devastated. When matched against a fighter who was smaller in stature, who also had speed and mobility, than maybe Louis was a little susceptible to movement. That being said, it doesn't automatically mean that if Louis fought Muhammad Ali or Larry Holmes, they would've been able to run circles around him and stay away. Mover/Boxers the size of Ali and Holmes are too big to completely escape Louis the way Conn did. Conn didn't require the same space and room in order to get away from him or go under and around him like an Ali or Holmes would've. Even the fleet footed Gene Tunney was probably too big to move and hide from Louis. Tunney was 20 pounds heavier than Conn. Eventually, somewhere in the fight, Tunney, like Ali and Holmes, would have to fight Louis. Depending on how effective and long they could actually fight with him when he did catch or trap them would determine the outcome of the fight. This is not saying that Louis would've definitely defeated Ali and Holmes. I'm just saying that just because they moved and used the ring, it doesn't translate into an automatic win for them either. The point is, Louis would not have been at the stylistic disadvantage against them to the degree that it has been falsely portrayed over the years. Lastly, Louis is sometimes derided by some for not having a great chin. This is a complete false perception. Louis was down 10 times in his career, and only stopped twice. The first time he was stopped was early in his career by former Champ Max Schmeling. Schmeling was known for his straight right, which he hit Louis with over sixty times flush on the chin before he finally stopped him in the 12th round. The only other time Louis was stopped was by Rocky Marciano in his last fight at age 37. Louis was a very old 37 when he fought Marciano. On the other hand Marciano was just about at his peak and was one of the best two handed punchers in Heavyweight history. No way should Louis be admonished for being stopped by Marciano at that stage of his career. The other times Louis hit the canvas was a result of what is commonly referred to as a flash knockdown. He was up immediately after everyone of those knockdowns barely taking a count, and was never close to being stopped in any one of those fights. Joe Louis is the most faultless Heavyweight fighter in history. He had a tight defense and exhibited great Boxing basics. He held his hands up and kept his chin down, making him hard to hit. Louis also never wasted a punch, and when he did cut loose with them, they just about always found their intended target. He was a devastating puncher to the head and body, and he was a great finisher. Once he had an opponent in trouble, they rarely escaped and made it through the round. Louis was also brilliant at picking apart a fighters style and exposing it's weakness. And he was strategically brilliant when seeing the same opponent for the second time. In every single rematch he ever fought, he had less trouble and beat his opponent more soundly than he did the first time. Throughout Heavyweight history there have been some great Boxers, such as James J. Corbett, Jack Johnson, Gene Tunney, Ezzard Charles, Floyd Patterson, Muhammad Ali, and Larry Holmes. There have also been great Punchers like Jim Jeffries, Jess Willard, Jack Dempsey, Max Baer, Rocky Marciano, Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Earnie Shavers, Mike Tyson, and Lennox Lewis. However, no Heavyweight ever combined masterful Boxing and devastating punching power like Joe Louis. Throughout Heavyweight history, there may have been a few harder punchers and better boxers than Louis, but he combined them perfectly. That is something that cannot be said about any other Heavyweight Champ in history. He could adjust and adapt to any type of style he was confronted with. It was suicide to move towards him, and no way any fighter could beat him by running from him. He was dangerous inside and outside, he could win by slugging and trading, and had the ring savvy to out think and Box his opponent. Louis was the consummate Boxer-Puncher. Forget for a moment that he held the Heavyweight title longer than any other Champion in history, and also made a record 25 successful title defenses, a record for any weight division. Just rate him on his overall ability as a fighter. As a fighter, Joe Louis was and is the most complete Heavyweight Champion in fistic history. When ranking the all-time great Heavyweight Champs, a great case can be made supporting Louis as the greatest of them all. At the worst he's among the top three regardless of the criteria being used as the measuring stick. But purely as a fighter, he was without a doubt the best and most fundamentally sound and complete. Last edited by Jersey-Jim; 08-02-2008 at 08:16 PM. |
08-02-2008, 11:53 AM | #100 |
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Sonny Liston
By C. Farrell The images are mutually contradictory. One is of the single most menacing countenance boxing has ever produced, an impassive, unreadable gaze, as lifeless as that of a shark, ageless, emanating from a face that shows no hint of compassion. It is the face of the worst alley nightmare made real. The second is of the same man, lying flat on his back, a seeming madman standing over him, screaming wildly down at his prone form. Sonny Liston may be the least accurately perceived heavyweight champion in boxing history. For fans born before the mid-1950’s, he is often remembered as a virtually invincible monster. Those whose interest in boxing started after the ascendancy of Muhammad Ali will think of him—if they think of him at all—as the victim of two humiliating losses. And they will likely wonder why Sonny Liston was ever so highly regarded in the first place. Liston was made to be a fighter. His physical attributes bordered on the freakish. At barely six-foot, one-inch, he had an eighty-four inch reach—longer than that of all other champions with the exception of Primo Carnera. His neck was a massive eighteen inches. But the number that leaps off the page—the statistic that looks initially like a typo—is that which corresponds to his hands. When closed into a fist, they measured fifteen inches around, virtually twice the size of an average man’s. To contemplate the impact of a fist that large, delivered over a distance that great, from a man so determined to do damage, would give even the bravest opponent pause. In his first four fights, Sonny Liston fought two opponents with losing records, the first of whom had had twenty-five professional fights. Very late in his career, he fought three others. Other than on these five occasions, Liston fought only men with winning records. In his sixth fight, he ventured to Detroit to fight hometown prospect Johnny Summerlin (19-1-2). He won a decision. Less than two months later, he returned, beating Summerlin again. These wins are instructive. They show that, although mob-controlled, Sonny was never a protected fighter. His managerial chain of command—Frankie Carbo to Blinky Palermo through to the canny Willie Reddish—all knew that Sonny was the goods. Liston lost his eighth fight on a split decision when the wisecracking Marty Marshall made him laugh and, catching Sonny with his mouth open, broke his jaw. Liston avenged his defeat five months later, knocking Marshall down four times en route to a sixth round kayo win. Liston’s four-and-a-half-year, thirteen-fight trajectory through the ranks to the heavyweight title and his first defense of it began in February of 1959. He decimated the top ten ratings, knocking out virtually every other fellow contender*. His opponents during this period had a combined record of four hundred nineteen wins with only ninety-nine losses. (Bear in mind that thirteen of those losses came to Liston himself.) The one-sidedness of Liston’s wins served to eliminate his victims as possible opponents for heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson. Sonny had dispatched their only common opponent, Roy Harris, who’d gone twelve rounds with the champ, in less than a round. During this period, only the talented Eddie Machen lasted the distance with Sonny, losing a clear-cut unanimous decision over twelve rounds. This fight is also instructive. It shows that, although Liston generally needed fewer than five rounds to defeat a top heavyweight, he was comfortable going twelve rounds, showing neither signs of fatigue nor loss of power. But perhaps the fights which best exemplify Liston’s strengths are his two short contests with Cleveland Williams. Williams was a Herculean, thunderously hard-punching heavyweight. Going into the Liston fight, he’d amassed an overwhelming 43-2 record, with all but nine of his wins coming by knockout. Everything about Cleveland Williams was impressive—his power, his physique, even his nickname “Big Cat”. His ring strategy was simple: to move forward and knock people out. Although no great technician, he stalked his prey with very fluid movement and good hand speed. The Liston fights are misremembered as brutal affairs between two irresistible forces. The films, however, show something very different. Liston uses beautiful head movement and what may be the division’s greatest ever jab to avoid most of Williams’ punches and to keep him off balance. Williams does occasionally land with extraordinarily powerful shots, but Sonny shakes each one off. In their combined five rounds of boxing over the course of their two fights, Liston is only shaken briefly once, and never in danger of being dropped. The most astounding thing about his approach is that he is equally comfortable coming forward or retreating—which he does whenever he feels pressured. This runs entirely contrary to the perceived wisdom about Sonny Liston. Although he was a finisher of comparable stature to Dempsey, Louis, Marciano, and Frazier, he was the only member of this shark-like group who was a boxing conservative. Sonny Liston never took an unnecessary chance in the ring. Far from being a one speed, forward-moving exemplar of aggression, Liston constantly thought during fights, making adjustments, using lateral movement, and taking a step back when it suited his purpose. His hands were always held high, he threw a constant battering ram jab to keep his opponents honest, his chin was tucked in, he moved his head better than any other heavyweight champion, with the possible exceptions of Jack Johnson, Jersey Joe Walcott, and Larry Holmes, and he was always in position to fire back. Moreover, although Ali is thought to be the harbinger of ring psychology among heavyweights, Liston was a true innovator of unsettling self-presentation. He would stuff towels beneath his hooded terrycloth sweatshirt in order to enhance his already formidable musculature. Adding a poker-faced stare, he discomfited opponents in a manner seldom seen in boxing rings before. Perhaps only a prime Joe Louis was as capable of freezing a man in his tracks before the first punch was thrown. But, ultimately, one has to confront the issues of Sonny Liston’s two fights with Muhammad Ali. Since these reduced his title reign to one successful defense, his legacy suffers greatly, especially when compared to the number of title defenses attained by Louis, Ali, Holmes, or Lewis. I’m not sure if an already old Liston losing to a young Ali should seriously demote him in terms of overall standing. But that doesn’t matter. Neither fight was on the up-and-up. I had a best friend in the boxing business. He is no longer living, but he was someone whose credibility, to me, was totally beyond question. He was intimately involved with Sonny Liston’s career, and he participated and benefited from both Liston-Ali fights. In a nutshell, here is what he said occurred and why: After the second Patterson fight, there were no viable opponents for Liston. Aside from Ali, he had thoroughly destroyed every possible title aspirant. No one thought he could be beaten and, more importantly, no one was willing to pay to see him beat up anyone else. Sonny was getting old—probably already around forty—and he had no great love for fighting. It didn’t make economic sense to have him fight an endless series of low paying title defenses for another ten years. The guys who controlled his career decided that it was better to make two huge, quick scores. They fixed the fight in Miami. Ali never knew about it. Liston’s people bet huge amounts, getting almost eight to one odds, on Ali. Because the conclusion of the first fight was so ambiguous, Liston remained a betting favorite—at about seven to five—in the rematch. The wiseguys got to clean up twice with the same play. It’s clear that, in the second fight, Ali spotted what was going on the moment Liston went down from a non-punch. But Ali was a very quick study, and made his press release adjustments by the time he was out of the ring. Sonny Liston was an adult and a businessman. He beat people up in order to get paid. And, in the two biggest fights of his life, he lost in order to get paid. Sonny Liston did not agonize over what his place might be in the Boxing Pantheon. He didn’t care what you thought, he didn’t care what I thought, and he didn’t give a **** about what John F. Kennedy—who called Floyd Patterson to the White House before the his first fight with Sonny—thought. He was in the boxing business. He participated in two fixed fights of great historical importance. There were possibly a couple more later in his career—which he won—and one last fight he was supposed to lose and, for mysterious reasons, didn’t. Unlike most boxing people, I find no fault with Sonny Liston throwing away the heavyweight championship. It was doing him no good. Epilogue: How good was Sonny Liston? About ten years ago, just prior to his becoming boxing commissioner for the State of New York, Floyd Patterson and I were briefly business partners. One night, during a blizzard, we stayed up very late, drinking coffee around a roaring fireplace in the living room of his home in New Paltz, New York. Being interested in Liston, I asked Floyd who the hardest puncher he’d ever faced was. I thought I knew the answer. But Patterson surprised me. “Ingemar Johansson.” “But Floyd, you fought Liston twice. Ingemar Johansson?” Floyd smiled his characteristic self-deprecating smile. “Oh, but when I fought Ingemar, I thought I was going to win.” * - Only Ingemar Johansson and Henry Cooper, of those fighters rated in the top ten during Liston’s prime years, escaped beatings by him. Cooper’s manager was quoted as saying, “If we saw Sonny Liston coming, we’d quickly cross the street.” |
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