What are your opinions of the 2nd Ali vs Liston fight?

Question

Lots of controversy with the count, the phantom punch, Ali not going to a neutral corner and Liston allegedly throwing the fight. All thoughts and opinions are greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

it was all in the script,and they were more Ali fights just as much a con he seemed to be in a lot of fights that were fixed. blame Liston i don't think so,it all went perfectly to plan. who was to blame for all the lose rope fights,and the torn gloves, and diving .(HM-MM) controversy surrounded Ali he was a political stunt and people no that now.if you know about Ali you would know this Ali was a fake and people are accepting this more now

Answer 2

that was a fix fight , maybe the Mob was involded , but i think Ali would

betten again liston,  

Answer 3

we will probably never know the truth, but one thing is certain, and that is, that ali caught liston with a clean punch, and liston went down from it.

it is said that liston was so badly out of shape for this fight, that he couldn't even skip rope, so the punch could easily have affected him more than it would have had he been in top shape.

many experts such as bert sugar, are convinced it was on the level, and i hope it was.

Answer 4

The term clusterfrick is bandied about often these days.  But this fight was the penultimate clusterfrick, and you can place the blame solely on referee Joe Walcott.  Ali scored a flash knockdown, it was real enough.  Liston, as all fighters are taught, stayed on the canvas until he heard "9" from the referee.  He never got a count and was ruled knocked out.

The ref should have grabbed Ali by the gloves and led him to the corner, then administered the count.  If Ali refused, then all he would be doing is buying Liston time to recover.  But there was nothing fishy, the shot landed with more authority than what it appears.  There's a reverse angle somewhere that shows a good punch, and you even see how it ripples through Liston.

Answer 5

It's one of the darkest moments in boxing history, and you can blame it entirely on the criminal Liston and his crooked camp.

You really can't blame the young Ali for the neutral corner thing...he was just so excited and incensed.  You can see him standing over the fallen Liston, urging the crooked SOB to get up and fight.

Everyone, including Liston and his corner, knew that Sonny stood absolutely zero chance to win that fight.  Ali was far too quick, fast and talented.  It would've been more ugly than their first meeting...a fight Ali dominated easily.

So the crooked Liston camp decided not only to throw the fight, but to do it in an unlikely first round, likely going for a larger take.  They simply had no regard for the game of boxing.

Well, needless to say, Sonny would go on fighting for several more years, but he was never given another shot at the title, so low had his reputation sunk.

Later, of course, Sonny was murdered in a mafia hit.  He got what was coming to him.